I was looking for more short, but still wide, cups for using with my CT-1. I'd been using the IPA Bianca Milano cups, but they're still a tad tall and hard to see a shot developing with the 18g basket. But they're the shortest cups on the market.

Or so I thought. I'm given a suggestion to try out some of Korin's sakeware. Lots of short options that are still as wide as my IPA cups, and mostly pretty decently priced. So I ordered a few cups to check out.

Here they are, with my IPA cup and a NotNeutral cup for comparison:





Gives lots of visibility of the basket:


And can see the shot develop (bad pic, taken one handed because lever machine):


Here's the resulting shot, a little over 22g. This cup is a pleasure to drink from! The cups range from about 1oz capacity to 3oz, so it's not like I'm limited if I don't want a super tight shot. I haven't tried the others yet.

Oh, and a couple more possibly helpful pictures.

IPA cup with 18g basket:


IPA cup with 15g basket:


And one of the sake cups with 15g basket:

I dig those sake cups! I've been experimenting with this one recently.

Those are cool! Great idea.

I've been wondering how something like the Norlan whiskey glasses would work for espresso. Definitely not as wide as these but with a shape allegedly designed to channel the aroma.

I imagine Mitch might have a similar experience with the sake cups, but I feel the aroma and taste out of the wide bowl glass cups is superior to my other espresso cups.

Great thread. I love going to a nice sushi restaurant where they bring out a tray of different sake cups for you to choose from for the night. Some are tall, some short, some rough, some smooth, some wood, some glass, some stone. I have a similar selection of espresso cups and sometimes I just know that today's shot will taste best in THAT ONE! I'll definitely be looking at some sake cups to add to the collection on top of my machine

Hi Ryan, what is the name of the double wall glass sake cup? It looks sharp!

RyanP wrote:I dig those sake cups! I've been experimenting with this one recently.

I have a couple of really nice saki cups and a couple of traditional Chinese tea cups which are also the same size all of which I use for tea but for me the main drawback is my portafilter spouts are too wide apart so I would either have to remove them, go bottomless or use a single spout.

Another drawback for me is preheating them which for espresso demitasses I do with a blank shot (hot water.) They are small, thin, and have no handle which means I would have to be careful. When I use them for tea I preheat saki cups with water poured from a long slender kettle spout. I can do it but I love having a handle on my demitasse as well as thick walls.

Finally mine only hold 1 oz maybe 1 1/2 oz so if I use a blend with lots of crema it can overflow limiting me to short ristrettos. If I used mine they would fill to the brim making them prone to spillovers when mixing in sugar (I use maple syrup) or just a plain accidental bump.

Positives are they look very classy and traditional. take up less space. If I primarily use bottomless or single spout portofilters to make small ristrettos with no sugar it probably wouldn't be an issue.

If using the 2 or 3 0z saki cups all of the above may not be an issue either but I do like my traditional demitasses as much as I like my traditional Chinese tea cups and Japanese saki cups but you have me over a barrel with that double insulated glass (saki/tea ?) cup which does not need a handle and I absolutely love.

The walls are too thin, n'case you want to savor it longer. I always think of Illy basic cups as the reference. Bodum Pavinas also do the trick with visual.

Still, visually your cups are stunners, great presentation. And the machine of course!

And OP, I know I am way behind the HB crowd, but can you educate me on the angled white cylindrical object on the right of the first pic? Thank You

bobpaule wrote:
And OP, I know I am way behind the HB crowd, but can you educate me on the angled white cylindrical object on the right of the first pic? Thank You

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