[the last shot mentioned in this post]

Intro

I’ve lived with my EK for a little over six months at this point, and I’m finally happy with the espresso it produces. I’ve sold my HG One. So let’s get into the details.

Using the EK means re-learning a lot of your habits and, to some extent, recalibrating your palate a bit. This doesn’t mean you need to “drink the kool aid.” What you get are bright, sweet, creamy, balanced, and probably slightly longer shots. What you don’t get are ultra-thick, chocolatey ristrettos. Keep your conical if you want those; I’ll just get mine at cafes.

Pulls & Specifics

First, I’ll describe a few shots I pulled this morning. They’re some of the best espressos I’ve pulled (and some of the best I’ve had in quite a while, to be totally honest with you).

[detail of an EK pull, the second shot mentioned]

The first was in a VST 18, 18.5 g dose, 1.2 setting on the EK (where 1.0 is minimum), ~200 F at the grouphead (remember that different machines PIDs are calibrated differently, so don’t just use 200 F), ~6.5-7 bars at the grouphead with no preinfusion. I didn’t nutate for this one. I got 56.7 grams in 22 seconds. (Quick shots taste nice with the EK. Also keep in mind there’s no preinfusion, so shots will tend to be a little faster.) I was using a couple bare city roasts of the Gedeo washed Yirgacheffe from Coffeeshrub this morning. These roasts were exactly my brew profile, no adjustments.

The shot pulls nicely, no splatter from a naked portafilter. It’s candied lemon, roasted oolong tea, and hops. Super sweet, bright, and pleasant. The mouthfeel’s non-trivial but not thick.

Then I pulled a couple nutated shots, with the same parameters otherwise. From the first, I got 39.7g in 27 seconds; the second, 44.5 in 26. These shots were super creamy, with really impressive mouthfeel given the grinder, lemon tea, and jasmine. I finally felt like I was drinking espresso, not just strong coffee. And, again, these were the best shots I’ve had in recent memory. I’d had quite a bit of coffee already and was tempted to finish them regardless.

[the first nutated shot]

Suggestions & The End

So let’s get into some of the things I’ve done to get a drink that actually seems like espresso.

1) Updose in VST baskets - not a lot, just .5-1 gram

2) Meticulous distribution - I generally use a dissecting needle

3) Nutate - only for shorter shots, remember that it’s a hack, not an improvement

4) Reduce grouphead pressure - I dropped my CC1 from 9 to 7 bars. I might drop it to 6.

5) Switch from a VST 15 to a VST 18. The 18 actually pulls tighter shots given equivalent updosing. I have a 20 coming soon, which I’ll also try. I think a VST 22 with a split portafilter might be viable in a higher-volume commercial seting, pulling two one-and-a-half shots at a time.

6) Use a fitted tamper. 58.3 is not good enough. 58.5 works. I use a Pergtamp so I can nutate shorter espressos.

[detail shot of the last pull above; you can see that it converges rapidly to a single stream]

What you get from the EK is insane clarity, great sweetness, and unmuddled and balanced acidity. You don’t get ultra-tight ristrettos, or mouthfeel that’s any better than good, but you can pull 2:1 (or even a little tighter) with the right precautions. You can pull well-developed brew roasts as espresso. (Caveat: most commercial brew roasts are darker and less developed internally than they could be.) You can pull a 90 point coffee, brew roasted, as an SOE and taste the quality of the green coffee, not the roast or the barista’s technique. The EK produces espresso as coffee, not as some separate entity. And that’s something that appeals to me.