45 seconds of Sheer Bliss
Espresso extracted in 45 seconds may be considered over-extracted in most circles, but for me, it’s sheer bliss. I’ve been, at the advice of Steve after watching Hoffmann’s techniques in WBC 2007, grinding finer, and tamping lighter. For the past 5 days, this has given me slow slow pours of nectar averaging 45 seconds to a minute. And we are talking ristretto. Not thin, overextracted Charbucks crapresso. My tamp is around 15 to 20 lbs. Thick gooey pours. Funnel only forms after 18 seconds or so, 9.5 bars. At the first hint of a paler brown, which starts around the 45th second mark, I turn off the brew lever. The espresso is so thick it feels like I’m sipping sauce. I’ll be lucky if it hits 2 oz. My 2nd drink is like the first. Espresso sauce.
Hi Colin,
don’t know why I didn’t try this before. One notch down and a lighter tamp, made my day. Gosh, my home espresso never tasted so good.
Darryl, good to hear you are getting better pours with this technique.
As an update, the 45 to 60 second pour so far are beans from Zambia and SM Classic Italian Espresso blend. Vivace Dolce pours are at a 25 second extraction rate.
[...] whole thing through, not realising the faux pas. Btw, the ristretto was heavenly, even better than Part 1. The roast was just right, and I can taste the character of the [...]