DavecUK
Thanks for sharing this excellent article on decaffeination processes, Dave. I’ve ordered a couple of different types/roasts of C02 process bean from a local roaster. I have a lead on another local roaster with C02 process beans. At some point, I will provide further information on the beans, the roast, how they dialed in and how the taste differs from the various swiss water process beans I’ve tried. This information will be purely anecdotal and subjective, so it may or may not be useful. So fingers crossed 🤞 on these C02 process beans.
In the interim, I have finally been able to dial in and generate constantly good taste from some swiss water process beans that are a blend of Hawaiian Kona decaf and an espresso blend of unstated origin, both medium-dark (full city) roasts. An increase in pressure to 10.5 BAR and 96c temps seem to enable the extraction that I loose through my preferred shorter brew (1 to 1:45) ristretto ratios for this bean. I’m also dosing slightly less (16.5g in an 18.0g IMS basket), at the suggestion of one of this board’s members.
I’m now getting good body/mouthfeel while also extracting some of the flavors that I used to get on my prior Bartaza Sette/Breville DuoPro setup (which I had then been able to extract due to the various mods I had made to the Breville, including variable pressure using a variac dimmer). I am now finally able to consistently get these flavors on my current Eureka Mignon/Lelit Elizabeth setup, along with some aftertaste length. I had previously thought that I’d never be able to consistently get both somewhat fuller body and complexity and length all at the same time. I do however notice this taste profile more in cappuccino than in the underlying espresso shot, but even these espresso shots are as good as I’ve ever done on the Lelit.
I will test the TDS and EY of these various beans this weekend; stay tuned.