Dear Jordie,
I have tried Rustico (good) and I have not been impressed by anything roasted by Redbird, despite the constant rave reviews for it one finds all over the coffee sites - I do not dislike it, either, but I am going out of my mind over Hayes Valley by Blue Bottle. Expensive, but worth it. It has multiple flavors that just won't quit. The high notes are very complex, I detect citric, malic and lactic acid notes, all three, but the bottom of this roast can be so syrupy and caramely and sweet that the high notes are toned down considerably. There are also midrange flavors: vegetal, savory, dusty, cinnamon. It is so complex that there is no one way to brew it. I have had a great shot with my L1 boiler set to .085 bar and now I am enjoying it at 1.1 bar. I am using 16 grams ground fine enough to get 25 to 30 grams in the cup at one minute infusion. It is also good in the Maximatic HX infused hot with minimal (2 sec) flush, but I use 14 grams.
Buckley

ds wrote:To get stronger beverage that can stand out in 500ml of milk or more..

Reluctant to spoil this thread with more irrelevance to the OP's question, but... that cant be the only reason, 3rd wave cafes in australia as well as america sell espressos extracted from lightly roasted/high dose coffee that is specifically roasted for that purpose.

It does and it does not. Its about extraction. If you extract the same, percentage wise, from both doses the flavor profile will be similar. Its just whether you go toward caramel scale versus acid scale. But you should try it yourself and report here...

Mmmm, it does on my machine, (have tried it every time i dial in a new bean). Of course it requires very large differences in grind to make the same bean, roasted to the same level, pull a decent shot at both 15g and 22g - i can certainly taste a difference, are you saying you cant?

Nothing is "designed" to be heavily overdosed. Its common misconception that I have believed in as well. You can make very tasty espresso with 14-16 grams of coffee on any espresso machine. There is no exclusion for very light roasts. In fact, many light roasts will taste MUCH better at this dose since you will be able to extract coffee better.

Why do you believe its a misconception? Of course roasters create roasts that are designed to be used with very high doses, they roast very light, often in collaboration with a cafe that has requested the specific style of coffee with a distinctive taste profile in mind. The roaster themselves will often recommend the dose size on the packaging. I suspect its the opposite, they will taste WORSE at this dose, you are certainly not going to get the flavour profile the roaster was roasting for.

Anyway, lets leave this thread to its intended purpose, I will have a play next time I am roasting and do a small trial blend i roast really light and see what happens with it.