I’ve given the Blind Shaker style distribution tool a fair go, for quite a number of shots. It does seem to increase the density of the grounds in the puck and (based upon taste only - I haven’t done any refractometer tests) increase espresso strength.
But unless you release the grounds perfectly into the basket, you get clumps and visually uneven distribution; it’s rare to not have surface clumps with the Blind Shaker. Carefully twirling and lifting the stick helps, but I still see surface clumps. I break these up with a quick surface rake, but I just don’t like having them there.
And I do generally see evidence of less than perfect distribution. When I first started using the blind shaker, I saw significant evidence of pour distribution. As my technique improved it got better. But still sometimes less than perfect.
Moreover the flow (and time) varies with just how and how long you shake. I can visually see this in my shot graphs, on the Decent. So it adds a variable that I don’t need or want.
So I am going back to WDT for a while. This will likely produce a somewhat less dense puck (I noticed that my shots ran faster with WDT and slower with the Blind Shaker) which means that I will have to grind finer. But atleast my shots will return to being consistently more even.
I had eliminated distribution (and channelling) as a variable, along with tamping as a variable, along time ago. The buzz generated from a certain influencer’s hyperbolic video made me give the Blind Shaker a whirl, but I am going back to my tried and true. Kudos to him for doing the tests; it’s good to try and test new things. It’s just not for me.
