# Espresso brew ratio



## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

I love espresso. I love the fact I can produce it in the comfort of my own home, and , sit (smugly) enjoying it knowing that *most cafes are knocking out bitter , turgid , for want of a better set of words, uncared-for shite. Its sad that most customers of said cafes will never experience delicious espresso, it often plays second fiddle in their mind to the milk-based camoflague they instead order. ...Glad I got that off my chest.

*Starbucks/Nero/Costa...even some ''specialty'' shops

Anyway back to the original idea for the post, dose versus yield.

Ive been enjoying the recent Honduras IMM as espresso in a wide range of ratios :

The FSR 18g>25g-1.4 ratio (deep thick chocolate, low acidity, longggg aftertaste of dark choc)

Standard range 28 seconds 18g>29g-1.6 ratio (milk chocolate, praline, sweet, a tad sharp & muddled)

and today a 'semi-lungo' in 23 seconds 18g>34g-1.9 ratio (Milk choc, biscuits, butterscotch, thin mouth feel, long finish but clean, refreshing)

With this particular coffee I'm enjoying the 1.4 (long extraction time) and 1.9 (short extracion time) ratios the most , for totally different reasons. You can tell it is the same coffee, they share the same 'mid-range' but one amplifies the 'bass' and the other the 'treble'.

What is your favoured ratio? Do you play around with a coffee? Any anecdotes etc?

Cheers


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

Interesting stuff Gary. I wouldn't necessarily advocate people trying these insane 50 second ristrettos on machines that don't have pre-infuse and good thermal stability as temperature fluctuation during the extraction would be huge!

Giving rise to evil bovril flavours!

As far as extraction ratios, I rarely venture from the golden 1.65 that Dale told us was the target at the Has Bean day.

Occasionally a shot will run slightly over and it'll be more like 1.8. I generally find these very thin and not terribly exciting even if they are sweet.

The body is very important for me. I don't like extracting less because its not enough espresso lol.

Based on your success with 1.4 I will definitely give this ago but probably not till next time I'm with the Cherub again. On the Tin Man the tiny 12g dose needs at least 1.65 to get any decent volume of espresso!

I don't think most coffees will be as forgiving as the Honduras. I like your format for detailing shots though...18g>25g 1.4ratio in 28s etc etc. We should call this the Gary's-standardised-extraction-parameters...or GSEP.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Youre right, SB Goldstone didnt work across the range of ratios, so roast level also plays its part here

I tried the FSR on a Gaggia Classic once apon a time...Marmite springs to mind


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