slybarman wrote:

The coffee from Ryan was at a facility 30 minutes from my house and the ding dongs at USPS took it to another state for no apparent reason. USPS is not on its A-game these days.

They need to 'test' it for drug contraband obviously, you'll be lucky to get the box back !

"If it smells like coffee, it must be drugs."

No coffee. No drugs. Worst weekend ever.

I received my bags in excellent condition on Monday and just got around to pulling the first shot this morning. My roast dates were 1/9/21 on the Espresso Bar and 3/1/21 on the Gran Bar. Gran Bar is in the freezer so it was Espresso bar this morning. 14.5g in and 25g out, got excellent woody and dark chocolate notes, tomorrow I will try to stop it a bit shorter and maybe get some more sweetness out of it... we'll see how that goes.

I am working with a Breville Cafe Roma and a Quamar M80e usually slow shots don't work well for me so this one ran in 12s from first drip. No channeling just seems fast but I pull all my shots that way. I'd love to know the recipe you all use with you Italian blends, and wether or not 12s is at all common.
Thanks
Kevin

Klang wrote:...and whether or not 12s is at all common.

Italy has brewing standards for espresso, and a typical pull is 25-30 seconds.

Klang wrote:I received my bags in excellent condition on Monday and just got around to pulling the first shot this morning. My roast dates were 1/9/21 on the Espresso Bar and 3/1/21 on the Gran Bar. Gran Bar is in the freezer so it was Espresso bar this morning. 14.5g in and 25g out, got excellent woody and dark chocolate notes, tomorrow I will try to stop it a bit shorter and maybe get some more sweetness out of it... we'll see how that goes.

I am working with a Breville Cafe Roma and a Quamar M80e usually slow shots don't work well for me so this one ran in 12s from first drip. No channeling just seems fast but I pull all my shots that way. I'd love to know the recipe you all use with you Italian blends, and wether or not 12s is at all common.
Thanks
Kevin

I haven't opened up my bags of Saka yet, however I do have quite a bit of experience pulling dark roasted Italian blends including a couple bags of Saka from the first order.

I use a few guidelines to start, but these are by no means steadfast rules:

1. Preinfusion time is usually kept minimal, 5 seconds tops. I never wait until first drops for dark roasts. Dark roasts are easier to extract so no need preinfuse much if at all. As of late I'll allow just enough time from my group head to fill, about 3 seconds.

2. Shot ratio is usually 1:2, however I'm really starting to like ristrettos more, especially in the 1:1.2 range with these dark roasts. It's like drinking sweet chocolately motor oil in the best way

3. Shot time after preinfusion (not included in these times) usually runs another 25-28 seconds. On ristrettos I can push it to 35 seconds. Haven't tried longer

Play with these first and let us know how it turns out. I didn't even get into adjusting preinfusion pressure or temperature, both of which may be less important than the above, but I'm not 100% sure.

Yeet. Got my goods today. Smell is intoxicating. Roast date for both was 01/03/21, though for Europeans this would mean March 1st I believe?

Thanks Ryan for another successful shipment.

Just pulled another shot, this time 17.5g in and 23g out in 32s.
I will say that this did improve the body over my faster shots, but only slightly. I'll keep tweaking it for the next couple shots,
but so far it has been absolutely incredible.
Thanks for the pointers.

Tafuri Positano on the left
Saka Gran Bar on the right

15g in, about 30 out at 201F at 28 sec. for both

Positano
Nuts, baker's chocolate but thin body

Gran Bar
Dark Chocolate and roasty flavors, very thick with nice crema

thanks, IamOiman!!!

Saka partners with AICAF as a site for the academy's roasting courses:

Saka Caffè and Aicaf partner for the training of roasters in Campania
Today the entire Aicaf training program takes place in the Naples office: from the basic coffee course, to latte art, to the espresso and brewing sommelier. But the most important news of this 2021 was the activation of the first roasting course for baristas at the Neapolitan company, a great opportunity for those who want to complete the training course

https://www.comunicaffe.it/saka-caffe-a ... -campania/

AICAF is the Italian coffee academy: "Accademia Italiana Maestri del Caffè"

https://www.aicaf.com/it/aicaf.php?lang=eng