# Coffeeshops that use very light beans for espresso



## mathof (Mar 24, 2012)

There seems to be a trend for pulling espressos at home with very lightly roasted beans which are intended for filter coffee. I'be had mixed results trying this for myself. As it requires finer grinds and longer brew ratios than other espresso, most coffeeshops would find it a struggle to insert pulling ultra-light beans into their normal workflow. Does anyone know any that do, particularly in London?


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Why do you think coffee shops would struggle to pull these type of shots ? Extra seconds on the shot clock , ratio not suitable for milk?

I don't really know what to judge ultra light against to be honest , perhaps some comments from below might help.

@jeebsy

@foundrycoffeeroasters.com@Scotford


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## mathof (Mar 24, 2012)

I would think that the shops would have to be setup with an extra, dialed-in grinder. Otherwise it would take time to purge the grinder they were using for their usual espressos and reset it for the light beans they had chosen for the day. Or they could keep a second grinder filled, dialled-in and ready to use. Machines with multiple groups that allow individual temperature settings would be useful, too, as I believe hotter brew water is needed. The main point is that I'd like to taste some ultra-light shots for myself. As to which beans they are: people who write about them seem to know. Scandinavia is often cited as a good source. And, of course, there are agtron numbers that can be taken into account.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Plenty places have two grinders.

Temp , I mean it's one variable , you can get a decent extraction using dose and , grind and yield without having to raise the temp for each new bean.

These are things which is nerds contemplate but aren't important to customers or marketing . I've never been in a shop where a customer or barista has talked about how light something is roasted .

Cafes I know will in general cup, and or try beans and see if they like the taste .sure there will be some things on the outer limits of roast that will stop people looking at them .


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## ashcroc (Oct 28, 2016)

I know of one coffee shop (in Plymouth, oposite the guildhall) which sets up one of their groups for their guest bean. No idea how light the roast was but when I was last there just over a year ago they had a very nice yirg guesting.


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## Fez (Dec 31, 2018)

One of my favourite coffee shops, pretty far away its in Cape town, has their house blend which is a medium roast and a seperate grinder with quite a light single origin. Not sure if the groups are set up differently but they absolutely nail it every time. In January they had a yirg and now on my last trip in June it was a guji.

I brought a bag of the guji home with me and although I have been getting some good results, it's miles away from what they made for me


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## foundrycoffeeroasters.com (Jun 19, 2014)

It's an interesting point but not one that we think about too much on a day to day basis. I think it's another one of those things where we end up getting a lot of stuff confused. eg. is the coffee sour or too bright for our tastes and is that because it's not been roasted enough or under-extracted? When coffee is roasted darker, it's much more forgiving and so you're less likely to notice changes in the extraction than you are with less roasted coffee. In fact, we've fixed equipment for people in the past that are using really dark coffee and they end up running 15 second shots just to try to mitigate against some of the bitterness in the coffee. Also, like a lot of things, it all gets a lot easier when you are doing it all the time. It takes us under 5 minutes to change beans in our shops and maybe 3 shots to 'dial in'. We might make one or two adjustments to the grinder throughout the day but we're talking about just nudging one way or the other.

As people probably know, we don't believe in roasting differently for different brew methods, not that doing so is invalid, just unnecessary. The easiest way to make coffee more soluble (which makes espresso easier) is to roast it 'more' - which usually means darker. However, we wold tend to make the coffee more soluble (if that is what's needed) by using more heat earlier in the roast - which enables us to get something soluble enough without being too dark.


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

Easy.


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## Scotford (Apr 24, 2014)

jeebsy said:


> Easy.


This.


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## Hasi (Dec 27, 2017)

Scotford said:


> This.


and a Mazzer ZM plus bean cellars


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## Scotford (Apr 24, 2014)

Hasi said:


> and a Mazzer ZM plus bean cellars


Ugh nah ta


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## d_lash (Aug 30, 2014)

@ashcroc

Cafe Roma? The little outdoor place? It hadn't previously been on the radar. It's worth a visit, is it?


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## ashcroc (Oct 28, 2016)

d_lash said:


> @ashcroc
> Cafe Roma? The little outdoor place? It hadn't previously been on the radar. It's worth a visit, is it?


Yep Cafe Roma (just had to check on google maps!).
The coffee & food was good when I've been down that way (beware of the gulls, they work in gangs!). Obviously you'll be wanting Cap'n Jaspers if you're after a half yard hotdog.


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