Starting recommendations from roaster vs. espresso machine manufacturer

wilburpan

This might be more of a philosophical question, as I’ll wind up adjusting things to get me the best espresso I can make. But anyway — I picked up a new bag of beans from my local roaster that I hadn’t tried before. They provide guidance on how to make various types of coffee with their beans, including espresso, and they say to use 19 g of this coffee bean. They do vary their recommendations based on the specific bean that you buy from them, so 19 g isn’t a blanket recommendation for all of their beans.

In the instructions that come with my 9Barista, they suggest to start with 18 g of coffee.

If you’ve run across this situation, do you put more weight towards what the roaster recommends or what the machine manufacturer recommends? Either way, I’ll be adjusting the dose and grind to get best results.

CoyoteOldMan

wilburpan do you put more weight towards what the roaster recommends or what the machine manufacturer recommends?

What the basket manufacturer recommends… 😁

DavecUK

wilburpan If you’ve run across this situation, do you put more weight towards what the roaster recommends or what the machine manufacturer recommends? Either way, I’ll be adjusting the dose and grind to get best results.

It’s a bit tricky as they both are incorrect.

The roaster is making an assumption about machine, pressure temperature basket size shot duration
The manufacturer is making an assumption based on bean used, density, grind fineness etc.. etc..

The real arbiter is you…do what’s best for your machine.

e.g. 18g of one coffee bean can fill an 18g VST basket completely, another perhaps only 60% full. For the second denser coffee perhaps 18g in a 16g VST would be better as it’s a much denser coffee.

Doram

wilburpan If you’ve run across this situation, do you put more weight towards what the roaster recommends or what the machine manufacturer recommends? Either way, I’ll be adjusting the dose and grind to get best results.

I would definitely ignore the roaster’s recommendation. It’s like buying flour and relying on the flour merchant to tell you what size of loaf to make. Better to rely on what size pan you have and what size bread you want.

Cuprajake

All depends what the basket can take

If your grinding super fine you may fit 19g in but if the bean doesn’t need a super fine grind then 18 may be better

I’d start at 18g and use their recommendation for ratio

tompoland

The roaster may also change their recommendation based on the roast depth. For my main 18g basket and a medium roast I’ll use 18g of beans but for a light roast I’ll use 20g.

wilburpan

tompoland My local roaster varies the suggested dose of coffee depending on the specific bean as well.

wilburpan

Thought I’d provide an update. It looks like my local roaster wins this one.

I started making espressos with the new beans at 18 g, since that’s what the 9Barista folks recommend, and the consensus here seemed to be to go with what the machine folks say. Just for completeness, the basket that I use with the 9Barista is the IMS B652TH27.5M. To complicate things more, I found out that IMS says that this basket has an “average capacity” of 15-17 g. Go figure.

At 18 g and playing around with the grind, I was able to get an espresso that tasted close to what I like, but didn’t seem to have the body that I wanted.

To try to get closer to what I wanted, I started going up on the dose and going coarser on the grind to compensate. I’m still dialing things in, but at this point I’m closer to 19 g, which is my local roaster’s recommendation, than 18 g. I won’t be surprised if I wind up at 19 g.

This has certainly been an interesting experience. It also increases my already considerable faith in my local coffee roaster/shop.