CoffeeOwl wrote:To my eye they're not the same, my guess is the one on the right is polished.

Then you'd be wrong.

I guess the question now is:
- "do you really want to know the answer to the question or is this simply a rhetorical device created to prove superiority?"

Multiple pros have answered the question. The answer (to summarize) seems to be:
'it's a really cool technique that we don't use it because it's less efficient in a busy setting, because it's partially designed to address equipment issues that are not a problem for us, and because we need speedy consistency above all else.'

In other words - WDT was developed for the specific goals and constraints of a home barista and just as some techniques and/or skills used by pros are not applicable to home use - this technique simply doesn't apply for pros.


As for the knocking thing... you're seeing a steady increase in the number of pros who don't knock. Understand that you're asking folks who have in most cases firmly affixed that knock in muscle memory to change. It's gonna take time.

Polishing... unlike knocking polishing can't be said to potentially degrade the taste of the coffee. So it's going to be hard to get folks to stop doing it. The argument is that it's inefficient and in theory could lead to RSI issues.