I believe one other mentioned this, but WATER. Your equipment will only take you so far, and in my opinion not enough people pay close enough attention to their water.

mikeness wrote:Well the beans they are using are usually from the same roast date as the bags I'll purchase. I did have a chance to discuss a little with the barista and they are pulling with 18g in, 30 out. What kills me is how little redistribution he does to get those results. Dose 18g dose directly into the portafilter, settle the grounds with two taps on the counter, tamp and lock in.

If you can mound directly to the middle of the PF all you really NEED to do is a straight down tamp. No slap down, no redistribution, no fingers, wdt, no nutation necessary even - granted you need a GOOD grind to do this, but my K10 does fine. If my mound on the PF is mounded off center I start the tamp toward the heavy side and slide it into the center as I tamp down in one straight motion, give it a light twist and you're done. I sometimes slap it down, sometimes nutate, sometimes level, but the straight down tamp often works great. (Redistribution is overrated... sometimes...)

I agree that you should be able to at least match the best cafes...and that's it's all on you to do so. You have the opportunity to dial in the shot to taste...dose weight, extraction time, output weight, shot temp and pressure all adjusted according to your palate. The professional barista can't, and doesn't even try, to adjust all of those parameters to your palate - it would be impossible and, thus, a futile exercise.

I also agree with Buckley...and...indeed, have discussed this very topic with him offline. If your shots are not up to snuff when you drink them, you should return to basics, stick to a single bean source (a blend or single origin that you know you enjoy) and get down with it until you know it's quirks. Know it well, how does it perform at different extraction ratios? At different pressures? At different temperatures? How does the shot change when you change baskets and adjust the grind so that you get the same output in the same time? Are there things you can do to tweak something extra out of it? What dose in weight do you like best...pulled at 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2? Which of your many baskets do you like it best from?

You really do have to play with it until you feel you know it. It takes time...a lot of it, and a lot of substrate too, so buy a few pounds when you get the time to play around with it, and get ready to taste a bunch of shots...and do it again and again until you really know that bean/blend.

mikeness wrote:They were pulling Detours Punch Buggy, and ill settle on that as my staple for the coming weeks as I improve my technique. Anyone with experience with its particularities?

Was this at "Melk"? I was there in July and had the best Punch Buggy of my life and that includes almost daily here in Hamilton and at the Detour cafe and roastery themselves.

My point: Don't feel so bad about not matching what you had at Melk and consider yourself lucky to have such a great comparator for your shots at home.

Yep - at Melk. Its just such a lovely velvety mouth feel and this sweet dark chocolate flavour that is present in each sip. Thumb up to that cafe though for being able to turn out such consistently amazing shots!

Per the recommendations here, I resurrected my naked portafilter. Prefer to split my shots for cappuccinos so for the longest time I've been using a spouted PF. Sure enough, turns out I've been getting lazy....

I'm back to having a cone without the rogue sprays and similar extraction parameters to the cafe. Only thing I can't be sure of right now is temperature and water quality. I suppose I'll get Eric's thermometer for E61s for consistency re: temp, but many of you have mentioned water quality as a key component, so let's start there.

I don't have a plumb-in capability right now nor am I able to install any sort of water softener on the tap at home. I have been using Brita water plus recharging the water softener in the Magister reservoir itself. Any suggestions on how to maybe up my water softening game? i.e. ZeroWater or others?

Select a good mineral water? I use it as the qty used at my spresso consumption is so low a 5ltr can lasts for several days, yours may not but it is quite convenient and makes a nice difference

I agree...either a good spring water or something like ZeroWater or a Mavea filter (Mavea makes pitcher filters you keep in your fridge besides the installable ones you'd use to plumb-in), and then add back minerals/tap water to achieve the desired balance.

Old thread, but have finally reached my goal... It was the water, the darn water. After trying different bottled water, I was inspired by another thread here to start with distilled water and add the minerals from there. Single most impactful change I've made to my coffee.

For the lack of a better term, the "mud" or "cloud" that the filtered tap water produced was always getting in the way of the clarity and, oddly enough, the body of my shots. They're now clear as day and with significantly more body.

I'll add this to the list of things I thought everyone was exaggerating about and move on with my chemistry experiment... Whatta a hobby this has turned out to be!