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I've been doing it all wrong - so what have I been making?

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  • I've been doing it all wrong - so what have I been making?

    For years I've *thought* I've been making double shot ristrettos on my LeLit Anita combi - 18g, 30 sec pour from turning on the pump, 30ml coffee (then steamed milk). That's a 1:1.66 ratio which is in ristretto range according to La Marzocco (1:1 - 1:2) but just outside according to Google (1:1 - 1:1.5). Was generally happy with the taste.
    Today I started doing a little research and found what seems to be the consensus that a double shot should be 60ml in around 30 seconds... so a 30ml ristretto should actually be more like a 15 sec pour. So have I been horribly over-extracting the coffee all this time? Is my assessment correct?

    I dialled back to coarser grind settings, put a little more in the basket (19g) and experimented till I got 60ml in 30 seconds, timing the pour not from when the pump started but from when extraction began. Result had less crema but tasted okay and clearly had more caffeine than I'm used to for the first of the day.

    On a couple of other forums I found complete disagreement on when timing should start. 30 sec from turning on the pump seems to be the guide stemming from commercial rotary pump machines which will start extraction in 3 seconds or so, whereas home vibration pumps take around 7 sec, which is why I changed to timing from first coffee appearing. What's the feeling here for a vibration pump?

  • #2
    For a ristretto, I would think that the range would be 1:1-1:1.5, since at 1:2 you're in the espresso range. Another thing to consider when using ratio is to use a scale as the volume would change depending on the age of the beans, the type of beans and the roast depth of the beans.
    You can either grind finer to slow down the extraction or stop the shot early to achieve the desired ratio, it all depends on the taste, usually I change the grind as I want to keep the other variables constant.
    When you extracted 60ml in 30s you would have more caffeine just due to having more coffee, I would guess that the extraction % would be within a few % compared to your old shot so since you doubled the amount of coffee intake you would also have increased the amount of total caffeine intake.
    Timing is a tricky one since different pumps would differ in how quickly they can output water at the puck, however the common extraction time 25-30s should account for that.

    At the end of the day the question you should ask is how does the coffee taste? Do I like it? If not what can I change to fit my taste preference. Start of with a ratio, be it 1:1, 1:1.5 (ristretto), 1:2 within 25-30s then adjust from there.

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