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Hi guys,
From reading a few threads around here, it looks like a lot of people are doing the whole 25 minute knock, tamp, knock, tamp, tamp N, tamp S, tamp E, tamp W, knock, repeat, knock, tamp, tamp, lean on tamper and polish with all your might routine. OK, so thats probably a bit of an exaggeration ;D
I did a bunch of testing with the naked portafilter after we got the Synesso at the beginning of the year and we were all getting a bit of spurting. I tried a whole bunch of different techniques and the one that was by far the best was making sure that the coffee was evenly distributed at the top, then tamping once, and once only. Anything else seems to fracture the puck. I must have made 50 picture-perfect naked double shots this way so far, all without a single channel.
Polishing under pressure was a gamble that seemed to fracture the seal relatively often, but polishing using just the weight of the tamper was OK, as was just inverting the PF to dislodge loose grounds. Tampers that were a bit loose didnt seem to be problematic, and loose grounds on top of the puck doesnt seem to be that much of an issue insofar as taste and channelling is concerned. BUT, Id still try and get the best fitting tamper possible just to cut down on the possibility of grounds making their way over onto the gaskets and getting mashed in ... although I dont know if it really makes that much difference; presumably loose grounds just get forced into the puck by incoming water.
Kinda wish that Id taken some photos, but whatever ...
Anyhoo, has anyone done any similar experiments on other machines? Is this a principle of general application?
Cheers,
Luca
From reading a few threads around here, it looks like a lot of people are doing the whole 25 minute knock, tamp, knock, tamp, tamp N, tamp S, tamp E, tamp W, knock, repeat, knock, tamp, tamp, lean on tamper and polish with all your might routine. OK, so thats probably a bit of an exaggeration ;D
I did a bunch of testing with the naked portafilter after we got the Synesso at the beginning of the year and we were all getting a bit of spurting. I tried a whole bunch of different techniques and the one that was by far the best was making sure that the coffee was evenly distributed at the top, then tamping once, and once only. Anything else seems to fracture the puck. I must have made 50 picture-perfect naked double shots this way so far, all without a single channel.
Polishing under pressure was a gamble that seemed to fracture the seal relatively often, but polishing using just the weight of the tamper was OK, as was just inverting the PF to dislodge loose grounds. Tampers that were a bit loose didnt seem to be problematic, and loose grounds on top of the puck doesnt seem to be that much of an issue insofar as taste and channelling is concerned. BUT, Id still try and get the best fitting tamper possible just to cut down on the possibility of grounds making their way over onto the gaskets and getting mashed in ... although I dont know if it really makes that much difference; presumably loose grounds just get forced into the puck by incoming water.
Kinda wish that Id taken some photos, but whatever ...
Anyhoo, has anyone done any similar experiments on other machines? Is this a principle of general application?
Cheers,
Luca
- not lolly water- and that is going into your "shot".....
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