Paper filter at the bottom of your portafilter?

FadedFrontiers it doesn’t matter if you’re not raking the espresso zen garden for long enough to make a difference to shot quality

That’s the only thing I would disagree with. 10 seconds are ample for distributing the grounds very uniformly in the basket. And compared to simply tamping what comes out of the grinder, it makes a heck of a difference to shot quality - a reliably good extraction vs. a 5 seconds gusher.

My ASD self would question some other of the assertions you make, but… as I said, horses for courses.

CoyoteOldMan you’ve found something that works for you and that’s what matters.

Is 10 secs better than none at all? I’m sure it is.

Is a slower more thorough stir going to produce better more repeatable results? Yep, but stirring for twice as long as you originally said every time wouldn’t sound quite as low effort versus dropping a paper filter in the basket. 🤷

FadedFrontiers stirring for twice as long as you originally said every time wouldn’t sound quite as low effort versus dropping a paper filter in the basket.

Maybe - but then there are a couple of other considerations:

1. I quite like ‘body’ (fines) in my coffee. I drink a fair amount of Turkish, and I don’t like filter brews (too weak and ‘clean’ for my taste). I suspect putting a paper on the bottom would produce those effects, even if actual extraction may improve (though again, since I like medium/dark+ roasts, I doubt it would or that it would increase “pleasantly”).

2. Picking up the paper from the bottom of the puck, rinsing and drying it is not effort free, and it takes more than 10 seconds - nor is the cutting of more papers (which are more expensive and less durable than needles). I often pull 4-6 double shots in a row because I have guests or I cook something (mainly desserts) that requires large amounts of good coffee. I can do that with WDT quite quickly; with paper - even assuming I’d like the result more - it would mean cost and/or significant increased time.

What I’m trying to get at is that the assertion that ‘a paper filter on the bottom produces better results with less effort and cost than WDT’ is, if not outright incorrect, at the very least highly circumstantial.

CoyoteOldMan I definitely agree with you that it’s highly circumstantial, and my previous posts did try to get across how it’s very much effort and taste/bean dependent. I also see a lot of studies with lighter roasts in espresso so would be interested to read more looking at darker roasts.

But my comparison to WDT wasn’t helpful, it was more to draw parallels about broader skepticism over new developments in espresso but I slipped into bad generalisations about cost and effort! I also should have been clearer that by results I meant extraction yield but that doesn’t necessarily equal a better coffee.

For the record I do think WDT is great 😂

Interesting thread. Im going to give the 55 mm Whatman 5 filters a go and see how i get on!

I have been using one filter paper disc at the bottom and one at the top and then a stainless steel mesh disc on top of the filter at the top. I have not been finding any negative tangible difference in taste. On the other hand the shot usually runs faster than if I don’t use filter paper so I assume that it’s helping the flow through the puck.

My main reason for doing it is because some studies apparently showed that it cuts down significantly on the fats that are transferred into the espresso. I have started using two filter paper discs at the bottom for this health benefit to enhance the filtering out of fats even more and I am not really finding any tangible diminution in the taste.

Here is a study that seems to suggest that two fats found in espresso can cause a significant rise in blood cholesterol.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070614162223.htm

When I was on 58mm baskets I preferred the clean taste from my SSP and ims e&b super fine basket.

Adding paper is a bit of a faff for me and just adds another variable to the equation.

I’ve tried it in the past with a cut v60 paper, but didn’t like the results.

I still use them on some shots, in the Pullman basket

Generally light to medium

Cuprajake ok. So not really useful for medium to dark ?

It will clean the cup up a little as it will trap solids from the cup

So loss of texture

Depends what you want from the bean and it’s notes 😁

I use a paper filter not only for below the puck but above the puck as well for almost all the shots I make. I don’t really taste any difference but I do notice it makes the shot faster so I assume its helping with the extraction rate. I am doing it more to keep the group screen cleaner and to trap more fats from entering the cup for health reasons.

chlorox I use a puck screen for the top to keep the shower screen clean.

I still use them, made some from chemex filters which can be rinsed and reused. Not sure I’d bother with them if they were single use though, seems rather wasteful compared to the pretty marginal differences in cup I’ve noticed.

drdre89 I use the aeropress filter paper. take a bit more work as it’s 63.5mm but it works, cheap as hell (I bought 350 pieces for like, 3.5 GBP ? made in USA, good quality. compared to 400 pieces/10 GBP/made in china 58mm, yeah, aeropress every day.

I don’t intend to improve extraction or taste, but it reduces channeling and make the pf bottom much cleaner, so, why not