Comments on: 7 tips for dialling in an espresso blend

By: 30th March 2011 « The Bean Vagrant

30th March 2011 « The Bean Vagrant — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:07:25 +0000

[...] Chris Tacy on God Shot (he has a few updated versions of this methodology), Black Cat users on HB, James H on Jimseven, James H (…yet again!), Jim Schulman again on HB, and Intelli’s Kyle Glanville. Have [...]

By: …What is occurring. « The Bean Vagrant

…What is occurring. « The Bean Vagrant — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:50:15 +0000

[...] Chris Tacy on God Shot (he has a few updated versions of this methodology), Black Cat users on HB, James H on Jimseven, James H (…yet again!), and Jim Schulman again on [...]

By: Linky Linky « hermitudinous dot com

Linky Linky « hermitudinous dot com — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:33:15 +0000

[...] Dialing in… a lost art? James wants to help us be better artists. [...]

By: Stephen Curtis

Stephen Curtis — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:51:30 +0000

Anthony -

Are looking for a specific page number? I have Kurt’s copy held hostage, so I will have to be the one to help you =]

What I saw was on page 30: “Espresso-Making Techniques in Italy Versus America”

Let me know if that is what you’re looking for!

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:07:46 +0000

Could someone please point me to the section in Rao’s book where he discusses underdosing?

By: Eddie " Coffee " E.

Eddie " Coffee " E. — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:56:03 +0000

Thanks for this and many of the posts on this blog. It’s good to hear from other coffee lovers & find fellow coffee advocates blogging about it.

By: C.M.

C.M. — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:49:52 +0000

Great post, you’ve provide some very useful tips for improving the flavor of coffee in an office environment.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:53:53 +0000

James,

Thanks for your coffee wisdom. Could you speak a bit more on “Purging” the grinder? Steps? Technique? Etc.?

Cheers,
Nathan

By: Tom Jagiello

Tom Jagiello — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:12:28 +0000

Hi guys,

good post James and good point about the taste, in the end that’s the main goal (then again if it all goes terribly wrong look-wise, you can’t really hope for a nice taste, can you? something I’ve experianced for the last few months).

Few things about grind-on-demand grinders:

- change in grind setting will take a while to ‘kick-in’ so pull a few shots before you actually make further changes or as James pointed above purge for a few seconds before pulling a shot at a new setting

- on timer-fitted grinders it’s usually easier to change the dose than change the grind setting, especially when fine-tweaking

Regards,
dsc.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:02:17 +0000

Glad you mention Rao, who seems to be the only person talking about using finer grind, lower dose to adjust the profile of the shot. With the trend toward triples and massive doses I think the elegance and sensitivity to this “less is more” approach is lost. Also, a quick note on pucks–the aroma inside a freshly spent puck is telling about the quality of the coffee and the roast. Would be interesting to study and quantify coffee post-shot by way of the puck sniff test. If you have several different roasters blends in front of you, break them in half and sniff the inside. Not sure the value of this but it is interesting to note the pleasing aromas in some vs others.