think tank forum

a few of us have espresso machines, so let's talk about espresso preparation here.

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am i the only one who thinks that blue bottle coffee's specs are crazy? they suggest a

20 gram shot in 36 seconds from roman espresso
20 gram shot in 32 seconds from hayes valley espresso

i'm struggling to hit those specs. i have my rancilio rocky grinder set at 2 or 3, and timing my shots at 32 seconds, the yield is all over the place. i'll pull a 27 gram shot then a 50 gram shot. hitting 20 g @ 30 s means that my rocket cellini is going to make some angry noises, like it's bearing down on hell

how's your shot pulling?

i'll have to give it a go but east coast isn't really blue bottle or hayes espresso country =P I'll start recording draw times vs yield. I've been using hershey's chocolate powder pre-foaming of milk... i want something else I think.

the blue bottle prep specs are just an example. (although, if you really are in brooklyn, you can visit them fairly easily!)

i'm trying to understand the difference between the american and italian schools, but i can't find a good article on it. it would be really nice to see where different cafes are placed on the spectrum.

here is an article on american vs italian espresso from salon. apparently stumptown, caffe vita, and espresso vivace are very american--i suspect that blue bottle is, too.

oh, if you are in boerum hill, you have a local blue bottle cafe now!

here is a serious eats article on italian vs american third wave espresso.