I am missing something here. I keep on reading there is no correlation between taste (ie what tastes good to me) and EY. More specifically, high EY does not necessary equal good tasting espresso. I read that it is an efficiency measurement only.
Is it to verify my taste experience as to whether I am over or under extracting a given coffee? Well, if I knew the perfect EY to target for a given coffee and my taste, then yes. I would then work to decrease or increase EY, relative to that value. But last time I looked, this perfect value was not printed on the coffee bag.
So what is the purpose then of doing these measurements? Is it to be able to repeat a good tasting shot, by targeting the same EY? Well, I have a machine that allows me to repeat virtually every parameter of a shot that I like.
Is it to better understand the impacts of my brew recipe and profile on a shot? Well, I have a machine that shows me a graph of literally everything that happens during the shot, including puck resistance.
So can someone please tell me exactly how I can use this tool to improve taste? If this is a tool that I can use to produce a significant improvement in the taste of my espresso, I will gladly adopt it.
I suppose that if I tracked the EY of every shot I poured relative to my taste rating, I would know what EY for a given bean tastes best. Except that is it not better to simply know what combination of bean, brew recipe and brew profile tastes best, rather then chasing an EY% ? In other words if I find that if I do X, and it consistently tastes good, who cares what some tecky meter says.
A certain influencer did a large series of EY tests on the impact of the blind shaker on EY. It apparently produced consistently higher EY. Except that using the BS (a very telling acronym) for me produces significant variances in the extent of grounds compaction, depending upon just how you move your wrist and shake. It totally messed up my ability to repeat a good tasting shot, so into the basement box of other useless tools it went. But this influencer said that it produces higher EY, so 1,000s of people rushed out and bought one. Are those folks enjoying better tasting coffee? I wonder. But I have my doubts.
Right now, there are 20 other things that I can spend the confined amount of time that I have to spend on things coffee …. before setting up a lab on my kitchen counter. Like roasting good tasting coffee (have had no time to spend on that and want to).
