another_jim wrote:It's pretty simple, but goes against the prevailing espresso mythology. If you put 14 grams in a standard Italian double basket, or 7 in a standard Italian single, you wiull get a well extracted shot with a pump machine. Because this is the US and bigger is better here, we use around 18 grams in double baskets and don't use singles at all. This requires a coarser grind and gets us underextracted shots. As long as we were roasting bigger and better too (aka darker), this sort of worked. But now, with the fashion of lighter roasts, the underextracted shots really bite. You would think that we'd just start dosing at 14 grams again, but noooooo, that would be an unamerican and wussy. Instead, we have VST and Strada baskets with "more precise" (aka larger) holes. Hallelujah! now we have a basket that can take 18 grams with as fine a grind as 14 grams in a regular basket, and we can pull properly extracted shots that are bigger and better.

Along comes the Strega, a machine with lots of punch. So much punch, in fact, that if you take an ordinary basket, fill it ith 18 grams, you need to grind as fine as 14 grams in a regular machine. Use a VST basket on a Strega, and you are down to a Turkish grinds. This has the advantage that it's impossible to get a shot that bites; but it has the disadvantage of often producing excessively soft shots.

So my two cents, avoid VST baskets unless you are using really light and fast roasts. Overload the regular baskets with around 18 grams. This will get you shots in the proper extraction range, and you can fine tune it from there.

Ellejaycafe wrote:Ahhhhhh yes I didn't realize, nor did I factor in, his need for shipping outside the USA. That makes it a different ball game all together. I have never tried the IMS baskets but have always been interested... These days I find myself using the VST 18g exclusively or the EPNW 14 for finicky coffees. I really need to try some IMS baskets, the guys at EPNW suggests them highly and a lot of people here do as well. If I were the OP that's probably what I would get. Based on the plethora of posts I have seen from lever owners suggesting them they seem to work well in that respect.

So really the OP can spend months trying different baskets. I will leave it to Strega owners to comment on what they like best.

RyanJE wrote:Jim, what baskets are good then for a 14g shot? Not sure what a standard Italian basket is.

But I'm interested in lower dose shots tha the "American way"....

iCarumba wrote:I'm a little confused.

When I switch from silvia double basket to 18gr VST basket. I thought i had to set the grinder finer. I was wrong. VST basket needs coarser grinder... at least compared to silvia double basket.

I have new 58.5 tamper and it is so pity if i cant use it anymore when my strega comes. Can anyone recommend a basket that fits 58.5 tamper and works well on strega.
Post by IMAWriter » 06 Feb 2016, 22:56