I am dialing in a new roast and feel your pain.

The exact answer to your question is found in one of the few sticky posts of this forum.
Espresso 101: How to Adjust Dose and Grind Setting by Taste

This is what the other Jim said:
How to adjust dose and grind to fix the balance for most coffees

If the coffee tastes too bland, the caramels and sugars are masking the flavors. Increase the dose, and coarsen the grind to keep the flow the same. This will reduce the proportion of sugars, while keeping the acid bitter balance the same.

I am not certain he's correct about the first sentence, but I am in 100% agreement about the second sentence: more espresso grinds need a coarser grind to keep the flow rate constant. I'm inclined to think it's simply a case of less grinds = less taste?

This minor point is not to distract from the fact I still use this sticky as my go to resource. It's a checklist of sorts that completely works. The funny thing about searching is the answer seems to be totally obvious, after you find the answer.

I have the Breville (USA) version of the Barista Pro and drink lattes exclusively. 2 thoughts come to mind.

1. I wouldn't be opposed to updosing. I have found the baskets that come with the machine are larger than expected. If I don't use at least 11g for a single or 18g for a double, my results are inconsistent. However, since your shot times seem to be in a good range it may be channeling like a previous poster commented.

2. You mentioned a local coffee shop. When I was still learning the machine/process I found it useful to order an espresso shot without milk and then purchase their fresh beans with their recipe to compare. Kinda like salami shots, I don't do it for every shop but I found it useful to at least try once or twice to understand.

Enjoy the ride!

Mack21 wrote:Hi All

Pretty new to home coffee so please bear with me if I'm asking a completely stupid question! I've had a root around on the site but can't find much discussion on this point.

We exclusively drink milky coffee at home (best description of what we're going for is a flat white). I'm reasonably confident that the espresso shot is decent enough (fresh beans roasted no more than 4 weeks ago, consistently dosing 18g for approx 36g in 26-29 secs). Using a Sage Barista Pro. Using about 8oz of milk in our flat whites

The problem we're having is that the milk is overpowering the coffee in the cup. It all tastes a bit watery / like coffee-flavoured milk. No matter what we try we can't get that "coffee taste" that the shop around the corner manages to produce! Have tried a few different beans but having the same problem with all

We've tried all sorts of variations with steaming the milk (more / less foam etc) but still can't nail it. I don't think we could updose much because of the smaller PF on the Sage.

Any tips would be hugely appreciated! Is this a limitation with the grinder / steam wand in the Sage or (as I'm hoping) I'm messing something up?

Thanks very much in advance!

Lots of places use really dark roast that tends to penetrate the milk better but the tastes are of dark roast if you're into that. Starbucks is horrible for this, super dark roast in all their coffee drinks which for some is the norm.

I would go to the cafe where you like the coffee and ask to buy the beans. If the beans are black and shiny it's a dark roast past a stage in roasting called "second crack". If the beans are matte color it probably is before second crack and more of a medium roast

If even with that roast you can't nail the coffee/milk balance you can ask the cafe how much milk they use and the size of their shots and mirror that as best as possible. But you also might want to just trying dosing down the milk. I steam 8 oz too but I don't use the full amount (the excess goes in a bottle for my daughter's nap time). If I happen to texture it on the light side and use more milk the coffee is certainly milky and I enjoy it less. Given the option I would rather too little than too much. Flat whites are tricky because they are textured in a way that doesn't stretch the milk too excessively so you tend to get more milk in the same volume which if not dose right leads to over powering milky tastes.

One more thing you want to make sure you getting the temp down. It should be about 65-70 c and going to hot/cold changes the taste of milk so it could be throwing off your flat whites.