3 short weeks and hundreds of coffees later, I’m starting to converge on a method which seems to give very consistent results (*): slow ramp up to preinfusion (usually 10 seconds), close the flow, wait until the first drops of coffee (usually an additional 30 seconds), then full flow, bringing it from 10 bars down to 6 over the rest of the shot (usually 20 additional seconds) until the desired ratio is reached. I haven’t invented this, of course, I think it’s called a slow ramp up blooming shot. I will try to play a bit with temps (using 92 degrees across the board for now) and quantity to try to get a tad more clarity.
(*) I change beans all the time, going from strongish roasts for the milk drinks to light roasts for the mid-morning espressos then to decaff for the rest of the day, and I can’t calibrate my grinds and quantity of coffee at every shot. By consistent, I mean I just calibrate my grind about right on the first shot I make (using the method in Dave’s video), go finer a notch, and I stay there for the rest of the day, and with this method it works.
