I did get more Black Cat espresso. And I have found out how to pull more sweetness out of my shots, I'm now a lot closer to what i was tasting in the Venice shop.

Intelly's standard recipe is 18 in, 45 out. My default temp has generally been around 199.

But I've found that by far the biggest impact to sweetness was taking the temp higher, to 204 in this case. I almost never go this high but for whatever reason, this coffee, and even the Klatch-Belle (another medium-dark roast) really needed it to get that sweetness out. On my equipment.

I'm also pulling shorter shots, the best recipe i have is 18 in, 36 out @204, EPNY basket in about 30 seconds. The Klatch-belle worked well with a shorter shot: 18->30, roughtly. It sounds really standard but I never really ventured to this temperature much before because most roaster tell you to set temp to 199-200 or so, and i just accepted that.

I did play around with my flat grinder (ditting 804) and what i mostly get from it is more flavor separation, although not necessarily sweetness.
I also have been using 70/30 water and to be honest, not sure if it had a big impact vs. my normal RO + remineralized water.

Thanks for the various advice, i'd be really interested for any more feedback.

atao wrote:most roaster tell you to set temp to 199-200 or so

Something about "a hole in the ground"

Those making the recommendation almost certainly don't have a single thing in common with the user

I've been assessing things as straight espresso