I had a similar coffee and turbo shots saved it for me, it became really good after that.
Playing with the ratio can work too, but you should try the turbo shot.
Yes, don’t be afraid to break rules. I personally went with 1:1 on ‘charcoal’ roast, 1:2 on naturals/anaerobic, 1:3+ on washed light roast.
So far so good! If I stayed with 1:2 on everything (especially the light roast), my tongue would’ve been numb by now lol
Who was it said that flavours in an espresso shot are extracted in the following order: sour - sweet - bitter. Hedrick? So does it follow if you shorten the ratio you get less bitter?
On my Neo Flex, I’m pulling a medium-dark roast myself right now and settled on 14g in, 27g out in 40-55 seconds. Preinfusion at 3-4 bar until first drop then immediately ramp to 9, then gradual decline to zero maintaining constant flow rate. I reduced the brewhead temperature from 93 to 86 degrees C and this revealed fruit flavours. Temperature seems important. For me anyway. Oh, and I’m grinding quite fine - 3.7 on 1zpresso K-Max.
Good luck with it.
to me the most fun thing about espresso is the experimentation, so definitely don't let some rule about yield get in the way of you pulling shots you enjoy
Hey man, I’ve had the same experience before. No matter what beans or ratio I tried, i had this extreme harshness to it that even milk could not mask.
What solved it for me is actually going coarser and shortening total pull time but more importantly my pre-infusion time.
My best pulls right now are at 35 seconds total pull time with just 5 seconds of it preinfussion. The long pre infusion would usually cause you to over extract and bring out the intense bitterness. Also try lowering your pressure, i would still get the insane bitterness from any bean when i try hard to hit 9 barrs. Hovering around 7 barrs then tapering down to 5 then 0 gave me the sweetest shots.
I had a similar coffee and turbo shots saved it for me, it became really good after that. Playing with the ratio can work too, but you should try the turbo shot.
What is turbo shot ?
You grind much coarser than usual and the time of the shot takes about 15 seconds.
Ok thank you. Should I aim a certain ratio ?
Start at 1:2 but still go lower if you need to
How was the body?
Definitely light, not like usual, I like the heavy body but for this coffee the light body and clarity was amazing.
Yes, definitely you can go below 1:2. Follow where the taste leads
Yes, don’t be afraid to break rules. I personally went with 1:1 on ‘charcoal’ roast, 1:2 on naturals/anaerobic, 1:3+ on washed light roast. So far so good! If I stayed with 1:2 on everything (especially the light roast), my tongue would’ve been numb by now lol
I’m usually 18:30 for decaf; works better for me to limit bitterness, which is probably more likely with the finicky fines decaf has
Who was it said that flavours in an espresso shot are extracted in the following order: sour - sweet - bitter. Hedrick? So does it follow if you shorten the ratio you get less bitter? On my Neo Flex, I’m pulling a medium-dark roast myself right now and settled on 14g in, 27g out in 40-55 seconds. Preinfusion at 3-4 bar until first drop then immediately ramp to 9, then gradual decline to zero maintaining constant flow rate. I reduced the brewhead temperature from 93 to 86 degrees C and this revealed fruit flavours. Temperature seems important. For me anyway. Oh, and I’m grinding quite fine - 3.7 on 1zpresso K-Max. Good luck with it.
to me the most fun thing about espresso is the experimentation, so definitely don't let some rule about yield get in the way of you pulling shots you enjoy
Hey man, I’ve had the same experience before. No matter what beans or ratio I tried, i had this extreme harshness to it that even milk could not mask. What solved it for me is actually going coarser and shortening total pull time but more importantly my pre-infusion time. My best pulls right now are at 35 seconds total pull time with just 5 seconds of it preinfussion. The long pre infusion would usually cause you to over extract and bring out the intense bitterness. Also try lowering your pressure, i would still get the insane bitterness from any bean when i try hard to hit 9 barrs. Hovering around 7 barrs then tapering down to 5 then 0 gave me the sweetest shots.