The crotchless portafilter

October 13th, 2004

I’ve spent all day mucking about with one of these, watching endless extractions go down the drain. (I can’t drink all the coffee can I?)

Tapping seems to be out, and dosing seems far more important than tamping. If only there was some way to be more scientific about it…..

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  • patrick sloane

    I went to a well-know and well-established coffee joint in Sydney recently and ordered an espresso.

    The coffee I got however had a disappointing crema, which had obviously ‘dropped’ significantly in the demitasse, so I took it back to the counter to see what was up.

    There I was informed and I observed for myself that the guys behind the machine were using naked portafilters to extract their espressos, which looked great, and explained why the crema was bubbly and collapsed.

    To my uneducated palate half the joy in drinking espresso is in sipping ‘through’ the crema to enjoy the ‘creamy’ mouth-feel, and when this experience is absent, then I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t feel as though I’m drinking espresso, even though one could argue that the taste is ‘the same!’

    Indeed, the coffee had an exquisite ‘oily’ mouth-feel, and great citrus acidity, and the same coffee drank as a piccolo was divine, which begs the question why extract with a naked portafilter for the espresso in the first place.

    To me, the naked pf is best used as a learning tool, and when not in use for some diagnostic work, it should stay on the shelf.

    Cheers,

    Pat