I've been using a Baratza bin with my Tanzania for years. Distribution out of the chute is utterly atrocious. My routine is to RDT, grind into the bin and give it a good shake and hard rap on the bottom, transfer to the portafilter with an OE funnel, then WDT and tap level. This produces beautiful pours that taste great. Shaking in the bin does increase clumping quite a bit, which is more obvious when you try to tap it level, so WDT is very helpful. Even the way you pour it out of the bin can affect the formation of clumps; I get significantly more if I pour from high up vs. a low pour and rapping the bin on the counter a couple times.

csepulv wrote:Based on SAB's (Steve's) comment, I've been using the Vario bin for the last 10 days or so. I prefer it to the Blind Shaker. It is deep enough the I can shake/toss the grinds easily and it is a far easier workflow without any mess (the Blind Shaker can get messy). (I also use an OE funnel to pour grinds into the portafilter.)

For SO's, the pours are prettier and taste seems better (sour peaks are lessened, brighter/fruitier instead). The pours are sometimes prettier on a blend, but I don't notice any taste difference.

Glad it seems to be working for you, Chris.

My workflow (like you, it seems) currently doesn't include any tapping, either of the bin on the counter or the portafilter after filled. Shaking side to side in the deep bin seems to dissipate the static without encouraging clumping.

It seemed to me when I tried tapping, ala Perger, that my extraction was less reliable. I hypothesize that you're getting a greater shift downward of the smaller particles than the larger ones, so distribution is affected. I always needed to grind coarser, which is fine if it's consistent, but I felt the consistency suffered a bit. Since I slightly overdose my VST 18 g basket (18.5-19 g), leveling before tamping is generally not a problem.

Fwiw, I never rdt or wdt, and pull with a naked portafilter almost exclusively.

doublehelix wrote:Been using the blind shaker quite a bit. I've found that dark, oily roasts, in my hands, need WDT treatment to get nice extractions, judged using a naked PF. Dark Sumatra roasts (Collective) can be especially problematic.

My other new toy--the Lunar scale--is being used to evaluate the consistency of flow during an extraction. This has been fun. I use the Acaia ap to evaluate variations in flow as a "quantitative" measure of how uniformly packed my pucks are. Multiple espresso geysers that emerge and disappear, show up as measurable variations in flow rate.

So I'm not the only one who bought a Lunar and a Blind Shaker at the same time? Good to know. I got a dirty look for a bunch of new espresso toys showing up at once...

Yeow-- indeed, I also felt guilty.....gave myself these toys as a reward for getting through some very boring tasks. Off topic here, but I think the Lunar is brilliant, but the ap is still a bit adolescent--hoping Acaia advances the utility a lot for enabling versatile exporting of files. Been using the Lunar/ap to see how the Blind Shaker affects extractions. Amazing what coffee nerds do for fun.