so the stock basket is what I’d class as traditional espresso, the ristreto and 1:2 ratio stuff, easy to use give great 9bar slow shots the 25-30s stuff,
Then you move to something like the ims comps,, these tend to be better built, have more uniform holes and straighter walls
This is where puck prep needs to be better as you can now grind finer and extract more, but there can also be more to go wrong. They do offer more scope for longer shots or messing with infusion.
I have the eb comp which have more holes than the above, slightly better for turbo shots , if you go to short you can get bright acidty
Then you jump to the Pullman 876 basket with 876 holes, more precise more holes to the edge, prep and bottom paper really needed to stop squirters, these shots will look terrible, they run fast 20g do 60-70g out in 18s gives good bright acidity, sweet fruity cups, thinner body if you go traditional shots on this there just not as nice, too long gives massive over extraction
I generally grind to hit 6-4bars with this basket, with a natural degradation of the puck I can hit 25% extraction easily.
I also have the wafo checkmate basket, this is totally different to the other baskets, very well made, heavy. It offers fast flow while blocking some holes, what this does is offer the advantage of fast flow extraction without making the coffee super bright, it tones it done with an overall balance
It’s all fun to play with and well away from traditional recipes
I use a screen mesh more so to keep the machine clean, it does help with flow, and I’ve added a paper filter to stop squirters. The stock Bianca screen is ims edge bias, and I don’t feel the need to change is, as they react differently under pressure as to just pulling the lever up to see the fall pattern
