Dose size and extraction?

JHCCoffee

Saw a blog post by Matt Perger that suggested that smaller doses produced greater extractions. I presume that this is because if one doses lower, you have to grind finer to produce the same flow (ie output within the same time). And finer grinds extract more, all other factors being equal.

Still, I have stayed with the same dose (17 grams in an 18g IMS basket), to eliminate one variable. I then focus on the other variables (brew ratio - i.e. output; temp; pressure; water; coffee; etc.). The more variables one can eliminate (control) the better. Pouring tasty espresso shots is challenging enough, without introducing additional variables.

Still, does Matt Perger have a valid point? Should I be dosing lower, in my 18g IMS basket (I would think that anything less than 16g in an 18g basket is not a good idea).

So should I be using a smaller basket and dosing lower(such as 13g in a 14g basket, if this exists?)

What about using the maximum dose (18g in an 18g basket), or more?

Or following the third wave trend (dare I say American) of using high dose baskets and fully dosing within them?

All of this sounds like another rabbit hole to me. I think that I should stay with my standard 17g (in 18g IMS basket), unless I am convinced otherwise.

Thoughts?

I understand that by comparison Italian cafes typically pour 7 gram singles or 14g doubles. The14g doubles are used to produce two 7 gram singles, through a spouted portafilter. This is in stark contrast to many American cafes that overdose large baskets. I very much enjoyed drinking cappuccinos in Rome a few years ago. It’s considered a breakfast drink only. And most of the AM office workers lined up for coffee ordered and sipped a single espresso shot, generally without sugar.

PPS

Have not frequented many American cafes, as I reside in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. IMHO, Our best coffee is actually roasted in Vancouver, British Columbia.

JHCCoffee

Just read this: Ideal Dose

Do I need to try out a smaller basket?

JHCCoffee

And read this, to add to the confusion: Basket Size Confusion

CoyoteOldMan

The one thing that I think is worth taking from the two Clive Coffee articles is this:

choose your dose based on the basket size you have and how much coffee you want to pull

everything else is commentary (with apologies to Hillel the Elder).

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I would add another consideration - which is still commentary, and which the articles hint at, but don’t really explore/explain. Espresso was born in Italy as a method for preparing a coffee quickly, so that people could ask for a coffee, get it freshly (expressly) prepared, drink it at the counter and go on their way in a couple of minutes. Even a cappuccino is consumed like that in Italy, because it’s not 20 oz/over half a litre of liquid. Since it’s smaller, it doesn’t need enormous quantities of (expensive) coffee to make it taste of something.

Northern Europeans (and North Americans), by contrast, have a tradition of (coffee) drinks made with large amounts of liquid, consumed leisurely while doing something else. This obviously means that different doses of coffee are needed, so that is a first source of confusion: if diluted with 250 ml/8 oz of milk, an Italian espresso made with 7-9 grams of coffee is too weak to taste good (or to taste of much in any case). So, you use two… which is a double. But it’s used for a single drink. So it’s a single. Yet we call it a double. 😵

Then let’s add the much greater variety of coffee beans and roasting levels that are being used nowadays for espresso, and the much increased availability of espresso machines for home as well as commercial use, so people tinker and find their own preferred recipes: “dose proliferation” is the unavoidable result.

Back to your question: more extraction doesn’t necessarily mean a better tasting drink. And ultimately, if we wanted the highest possible extraction, we’d munch on very fine coffee grounds… which don’t taste very nice. Yes, from a physical-chemical point of view Perger is correct: prepared properly, a finer ground dose will extract more; it is good to experiment in this way, but not all experiments are successful, and there is a large personal component in deciding what ‘success’ is.

tompoland

Brilliantly written @CoyoteOldMan

CoyoteOldMan

tompoland 🙏