Hi!

At the moment I am trying to figure out why I can't extract the sweetness from my coffee.

I use a modified Saeco Aroma with a 53 mm basket. I have to dose slightly under 12 g so I don't hit the shower screen when locking in the PF. I figured out the grind to get my extractions into the 20-30 sec range and the crema looks ok. But there is absolutely no sweetness present in the cup.

I find that the extracted puck has different layers smelling different after pulling the shot. Going from the top to the basket's bottom, the uppermost layer has almost no smell at all, i.e. is rather completely extracted -- and the layer at the basket's bottom has a sweet, rich smell like a cup of hot 75% cocoa chocolate.

So I've tried updosing as far as the showerscreen allows, downdosing to 8 g, with variations in grind, varying the temperature from drastically cold to much too hot in 2 K steps -- but I can't get this sweetness that is clearly there from the puck into the cup.

Any ideas are much appreciated!

Sim!

I gave up long ago on expecting a sweet espresso. Now I add steamed milk.

Usual treatments:
Use beans known for sweetness, typically picked when fruit is ripe.
Roast beans less so less of the sugar is burnt away.
Make sure no channeling with WDT, etc.
Only use the middle section of the shot (let first few seconds and last few seconds before blonding go to drain).

simsim wrote: I find that the extracted puck has different layers smelling different after pulling the shot. Going from the top to the basket's bottom, the uppermost layer has almost no smell at all, i.e. is rather completely extracted -- and the layer at the basket's bottom has a sweet, rich smell like a cup of hot 75% cocoa chocolate.

As I wrote earlier: The sweetness is present in the coffee -- it "just" has to find its way into my cup somehow...!?

Ok. I found Jim Schulman's "Some Aspects of Espresso Extraction" from 2007.

If I understand correctly, the single thing to influence the amount of extraction is the height of the coffee column in the basket so in my case I could try to use even less coffee, compensating with a finer grind?

Grinding finer and down dosing is usually the answer to many espresso extraction woes.