Hello ! Unpacked NZ , calibrated and started to grinding coffee. First I set it at 20, the extraction was extremely slow, so I had to grind coarser , at 25. The extraction was better , but still very slow. Then i set grinder coarser at 29 and the extraction was ok , in terms of flow. Is that normal to grind at 29? It was near filter drip setting (30) .. Need your help.

How much coffee?

What is the roast like?

Single? Double? Basket?

Any idea of the brew pressure?

I put 16gr of coffee beans inside and took out 27gr (maybe tomorrow I ll took out more , around 32gr). The coffee beans are these https://www.sambacafe.gr/product/espres ... ive-blend/ . I used an IMS (Lelit stock basket) 18-21gr . Brew pressure was at 9 bar.

Sounds about right.

Perhaps double check the Zero. The black ring with the dot moves independently of the chrome hopper and it is possible to move them separately. I marked the clean and dirty zero for reference. The marks were made after I'd owned it for nearly 4 years, so not sure how it translates to new out of the box.

Thank you very much for the image!! Actually what I did is turn the silver ring clockwise as much as I could get , till I couldn't turn it anymore. The black ring (white dot) was like few mm away from the calibrate(triangle) and then turned it clockwise too till it's on the calibrate mark. Then turned only the silver ring counterclockwise back to 20 and then I set the grinder coarser after 2 extractions.

The only other thing that came to my mind is the force tamper. Is there any possibility to tamper harder than it should and thats why the extraction would come out slower? so I had to grind coarser? But I didn't adjust it at all.

If you are concerned I would recalibrate the Niche per the instruction book (as it sounds like you already have) and see if it makes a difference. Maybe it's just that particular bean/roast? You can try different coffee beans and see if your grind settings are more in the "espresso" range on the grinder dial. I would also be very careful only to move the silver ring when making grind adjustments and not move the black ring at all. All else fails send an email to Niche and ask... they have been great at responding when I've reached out with questions.

I wouldn't think, unless you're tamping like the Incredible Hulk, it's going to affect the flow THAT significantly... with that said you can always try to tamp a bit lighter and see if it helps.

I've been using the Force Tamper. I'll try maybe to readjust it to lighter force

Early on I found chrome and the black rings could get out of sync, so I try to grip both to ensure they remain in sync.

Even distribution is most important after consistent dose and grind.

Tamp force is the least important thing in making espresso. The difference between handstand and a light tamp is small. What is important is constant and L E V E L.

If you're not satisfied with the suggestions already made you might recalibrate the Niche using these instructions. They're from the person who designed the Niche. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4lMoJqp-Rw

So today , I was making my 3rd coffee with Niche , and I had to decrease the setting number to 25. So I think it may need some time for burrs to grind lower. I'm doing wdt and tamping with force.

Yeah I watched the video , very helpful!