ESPRESSO thoughts/theories

- VOLUME -

When brewing a moka pot we always fill the puck to the rim, why do we not do that for ESPRESSO?  Is the volume not more important to building pressure?  We often just go finer and finer and assume the same grams, but is that really necessary?

Different beans have different weight per volume to it, lighter roasts are much heavier per particle, where darker roasts are quite a bit lighter.  When we have 20g of the same coffee grinds, we have a huge variable in the puck depth.  The issue with this is the distance from the top of the puck to the shower screen is vastly different.  Having more space to float changes how the shot is pulled.

For beans that take up less volume we end up having to tamp harder to prevent the beans from floating as much, this creates a small issue with the amount oils passing out.  Since my pure over video in early 2023, we learned that coffee beans filter itself during the brew, more so in pourovers imo then espresso but it's true for espresso too. Meaning the tighter we pack it, the more it'll filter itself.

The same can be said with having more beans inside the filter though, you'll end up filtering yourself back out but with more grinds you can build pressure with a slightly coarser grind which allows more space for it to float and thus more oils to pass through.

- RATIO -

From watching pourovers I learned that once coffee is done extracting or nearly done the liquid colour changes.  I follow something similar for espresso, I watch the liquids change colours.  Obviously if you're changing your dose for every coffee, it's easier to pull manual shots and stop when the coffee has changed colours.

- BLEH -

Well that's it for now, I'll keep updating you guys and we'll see how far along we get with improving our coffees and extractions!  Happy brewing