Espresso has undesirable taste at finish

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Patagent
Posts: 78
Joined: 10 years ago

#1: Post by Patagent »

I've been noticing more and more that my espresso shots tends to have an undesirable taste at the bottom of the cup even when the extraction looks great (e.g., nice stripes, dark flecks, lots of crema). Sometimes the shot tastes a little salty but more often there is an intense citrusy/herbal sourness/tartness. The taste is present in different beans (e.g., I observed it this past week in a fresh batches of intelligentsia black cat and chromatic gamut espresso) although I think it's less noticeable in SO's. I usually use 14-15g of beans in an Elektra double basket and pull for about 45 seconds. Anything obvious I can try to fix this?

Mrboots2u
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#2: Post by Mrboots2u »

Are you working to a brew ratio ( weighing in and out ? ) , are you stirring the shot before tasting it ?

Patagent (original poster)
Posts: 78
Joined: 10 years ago

#3: Post by Patagent (original poster) »

When I stir, the herbal flavors are still strong enough to make the whole shot unpleasant. I usually do not weigh my shots although I'm using a shot glass with volumetric markings (a typical shot is about 25-30 ml) so I have a rough idea of my shot weight. What's puzzling to me is that such strong unpleasant flavors are present in different blends.

41fivestar
Posts: 31
Joined: 8 years ago

#4: Post by 41fivestar »

It sounds like a temperature stability issue. Here's a thread from not long that plenty of people helped trouble shoot a similar issue. Hope it helps.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=39967&view=unread#unread

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canuckcoffeeguy
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#5: Post by canuckcoffeeguy »

In addition to looking at temp... try a faster flow rate. In other words, drop your shot time from 45 seconds to more like 30 seconds, but producing the same beverage weight. See if that helps.

So use the same dose but coarsen your grind to achieve the faster flow.

Patagent (original poster)
Posts: 78
Joined: 10 years ago

#6: Post by Patagent (original poster) »

UPDATE:

I went in and cleaned the dispersion screen (removed some coffee gunk) and the herbal taste is gone :oops: . Lesson learned.

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yakster
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#7: Post by yakster »

Thanks for the update, that's helpful.
-Chris

LMWDP # 272

Marcelnl
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Joined: 10 years ago

#8: Post by Marcelnl »

Patagent wrote:UPDATE:

I went in and cleaned the dispersion screen (removed some coffee gunk) and the herbal taste is gone :oops: . Lesson learned.
Double fermented coffee :D fermenting is a big thing these days! But a good reminder to remove the piston of my feamina to clean the sceen in the coming days (no other way to remove it easily)
LMWDP #483