Brewing parameters for Klatch single origin espressos on a new machine

[bbeaton]

Hey all, I'd love your thoughts or experiences with a few Klatch coffees I ordered. I just picked up a 310g bag of the Panama Elida Catuai Natural and 310g of Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Anaerobic Natural.

I just got a Linea Mini, and this will be my first time exploring single origins with it. In the past, I moved up from a Salvatore heat exchanger machine, so there was a lot of temp surfing. In the past, I stayed pretty close to a 18g in: 30g out in 30sec. I've been playing more with Klatch's recipe for blends: 20g in: 36g out in 24-27sec @ 201F and really like the flavors, so I thought that could be a good starting point. I love that the Mini lets me dial in temps! My question is, where do I start!??! My current hypothesis from the forums is that pulling blends and pulling SOs require slightly different approaches.

I've spent a lot of time reading through forum posts, and it sounds like I should increase the temp to about 204F, and aim for more of a 1:2/1:2.25 recipe. But I'd love to hear some first hand recommendations of what recipes I should try to highlight the so characteristics. I've reached out to Klatch and they didn't have any espresso recipe recommendations for their SO beans. Also, I've read a lot about the term "juicebomb shot" and would love to try it, but also don't know where to start.

Again, thank you for any thoughts. I'm excited to learn!

[Milligan]

I usually start with a standard pull guided a bit by A) what I'm looking for out of the coffee and B) what the coffee is. SOs come in a wide variety so they aren't really a class of their own but more of a large pool of very different coffees that need different approaches. So one "recipe" for SOs in general isn't really possible. When a roaster blends for espresso then they are usually targeting that 1:2 in 30s with temp between 194F-202F. They are also usually blended to have a wide dial in range, so good shots are possible within a wide range of parameters. Hard to mess it up, so to say.

Since those are medium/light roasts then you are in the general area with your parameter. You'll likely want a longer ratio as you say, 1:2 to 1:3. Since those origins and roast tend to want to be sour (harder to extract) than bitter then a longer ratio should be closer to your balance point. Something to keep in mind is that these will not give crema like a traditional shot. They are typically enjoyed straight or in low milk ratios. Temp over 200F will help for sure.

Best thing to do is pull shots and adjust from there. Too sour? Go with a longer ratio. I doubt you can even make those bitter so you'll have a lot of leeway there.

Good luck!

PS you may also want to dabble in the turbo shot with light roasts.

[bbeaton (original poster)]

Thank you for the pointers, that gives me a great starting point to begin playing around!