I’m pretty sure I prefer a spouted portafilter to a naked… Anyone else?
I did a bit of a two week trial, a week on the spouted and a week on the naked. There’s 100% a difference in flavour and crema, I thought I was imagining it at first but it’s definitely there.
The crema tastes thicker too, less tiger-striping and more of what I’d call ‘traditional’ crema but the shot from the naked is thinner, with more pronounced intensity.
Of course, for diagnosing puck prep inconsistencies the naked is clearly the way to go, but in terms of in the cup, I prefer spouted.
However, what I don’t understand is why it tastes different? I used the same dose, same grind, same basket and exactly the same extraction.
Another bonus is they’re cleaner, even with a clean rat-tail from a naked, the shot has further to fall and the first drop causes splashes over the machine. I could use the thing that came with the Bianca to raise the cup but that’s one more thing to have lying around.