I've read Espresso 101 and several other posts relating to adjusting by taste and pursuing the elusive flavors others report that many, including myself, just can't manage to extract.

My question is, has someone posted an article already or can someone share some insight into tricks you've discovered to extract particular flavors or tips for certain types of beans or origins? For example, if I want to get chocolate notes I presume that I should grind finer, increase the temperature or dose higher whereas if I want more floral or fruit notes I should grind coarser, with a lower temperature or faster flow?
However, when I do this I get bitter rather than chocolate or I get sour rather than fruit... I must be missing something.

Particularly relating to Jim's algorithm I find trouble deciding whether I should grind finer to release more sugars and sweeten the shot or coarsen the grind to reduce the bitters/overextraction. Perhaps my problem is deciphering between what I'm tasting. Although I do make both changes and still have not achieved my goal. I have ground finer with several different blends and somehow get a similar flavor that I can only describe as a nauseating medicinal flavor.. not sure what that is. Conversely I have coarsened the grind and increased the dose and gotten bland shots.

I am striving for a shot which is sweet with a creamy mouth feel that has the layers of flavors that people talk about, or at least a few notes that pop. I am using a Quickmill Silvano and a Baratza Vario-W combined with gram scale to 0.1g accuracy; I run the grinder every morning to try to clear any retained grounds before I single dose from the freezer (taped over one way valve coffee bags double wrapped in freezer bags with air removed and placed into tupperware) and use a yogurt cup and WDT for distribution and have obtained even extractions as witnessed on my bottomless PF. I typically brew in the 85-100% ratio. I have been hesitant to explore more normale or lungo shots because I really want that creamy mouthfeel and find that longer extractions are too watery--is this a misconception? Perhaps my concentrated ristrettos are the problem?

I am using fresh roasted coffee from quality roasters rested at least 4-7 days. I plain water back flush daily, clean my grinder with instant rice every time I change bags, and descaled with chemical 3wks ago. I use bottled water only.
My shots look beautiful but the flavor is just not what I am looking for.

I am rather picky and find many shops underperform for my expectations but I have experienced good shots so I do know that what I'm striving for exists... more or less (the good shots I've had tended to be more of the chocolaty buttery shots, still haven't found the perfectly balanced fruit note blend yet).

BTW, If anyone lives in the greater phoenix area (I live in Peoria, just moved here) who would be willing to help I'd love to learn from you and have you taste my shots to see what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks,
Jeremy

mauijer wrote:(the good shots I've had tended to be more of the chocolaty buttery shots, still haven't found the perfectly balanced fruit note blend yet).

A "Chocolaty buttery" blend from a premium roaster tends to be forgiving on most dimensions of espresso prep. Think of comfort food. Pleasing, satisfying, and frankly, when I'm at a cafe, it's what I'm hoping for.

Then there's the fruit. IMO, these flavors (and more so, the flowers) are a challenge to the palate as much as they are about the coffee/prep---or at least, the two working together. Try sticking with single origin coffees that the vendor specifically mentions as suitable for espresso.

Roasting your own coffees gives lots of flexibility you can't get just by manipulating the mechanics of temp, grind, etc. For example, I'll take an SO with raves for fruits a bit darker in the roast--muting some of the sour to let the fruit emerge (or killing the fruit altogether if I miss the mark.) I've just ordered an espresso blend from Paradise Coffee in both 12 oz of roasted for comparison with some pounds of green. The Paradise-roasted cup is "classic" choc/caramel with some fruit hints, but maybe not so interesting to me. I'm roasting it just a touch lighter and pulling out some fruit that was hiding behind the more roasty shot.

another_jim wrote:When a shot is properly balanced, the bitters and sours tend to cancel each other out, allowing the other flavors to come forward. This is the balance you want to achieve.

You describe fine grinds as becoming bitter due to overextraction. This is not the case; you only overextract in this way when you cook the coffee. This can happen in a heat exchanger machine if the shot goes on too long, since the water flows too slowly and overheats. You may want to make sure your finely ground shots are dosed low enough to complete in a relatively quick time.

Understanding the characteristic flavors of origins is not something that will ever happen to you using an espresso machine. You need to home roast and cup. Specifically, you need to cup multiple coffees from the same origin, so you understand what makes them different among themselves (i.e. you don't know what dogs really look like if you all you can do is distinguish them from cows; you know what dogs really look like when you can distinguish them one from another).

.

Thanks Jim,
It's an honor to have such a renown expert comment on my post. I am using a single boiler + thermoblock machine but I think I have been having the "cooking' problem you mention if this is possible. I suppose this was a result of my attempts to make ristrettos so I was getting extractions into the 30 and 40sec at times. This worked well with Hairbender but now that I am using Chris Coffee's Black pearl I was getting poor results. I loosened up the grind this morning and dropped the dose by 0.5g for a faster flow and noticed an improvement in flavor, walked away with a pleasant aftertaste but then got a bitter flavor about 6 minutes later...weird. Still wasn't as creamy as I was aiming for--I will try reducing the dose further tomorrow (stupid work, can't wait for my Portaspresso to get here so I can dial in at work )

Martin wrote:A "Chocolaty buttery" blend from a premium roaster tends to be forgiving on most dimensions of espresso prep. Think of comfort food. Pleasing, satisfying, and frankly, when I'm at a cafe, it's what I'm hoping for.

Then there's the fruit. IMO, these flavors (and more so, the flowers) are a challenge to the palate as much as they are about the coffee/prep---or at least, the two working together. Try sticking with single origin coffees that the vendor specifically mentions as suitable for espresso.

Roasting your own coffees gives lots of flexibility you can't get just by manipulating the mechanics of temp, grind, etc. For example, I'll take an SO with raves for fruits a bit darker in the roast--muting some of the sour to let the fruit emerge (or killing the fruit altogether if I miss the mark.) I've just ordered an espresso blend from Paradise Coffee in both 12 oz of roasted for comparison with some pounds of green. The Paradise-roasted cup is "classic" choc/caramel with some fruit hints, but maybe not so interesting to me. I'm roasting it just a touch lighter and pulling out some fruit that was hiding behind the more roasty shot.

Thanks Martin,
I appreciate the insight. Sadly after having the delicious chocolatey shot I purchased a bag and couldn't reproduce the results at home, which in a way prompted this post. I would like to start home roasting and have been reading about this; however, I wanted to improve my ability to dial in well roasted beans and get consistent results before I add another variable to my morning challenge. I was going to start with a whirley pop but I heard this can be more frustrating than gratifying.