The Path of Least Resistance

People at work think I can be a bit weird at times. Today seemed to confirm their suspicions when I got overly excited about me getting Tony our SRM powermeter engineer to modify my coffee machine's portafilter. I'm now a proud owner of a naked (aka bottomless) one.

So what's the point? Well, there's loads of things to consider when attempting to make a good espresso.....grind, machine, temperature, tamp and extraction etc etc.....All will impact on the path and rate at which the water passes through the coffee bed. Because of this, any barista worth their salt will know to watch the espresso stream pass through the filter basket, and they will consider flow path, coffee colour and extraction time.

This process will help identify if any adjustment is required but you can only consider each variable with a naked portafilter. They are rarely manufactured that way so modification is required. When using a la Pavoni lever machine, there's only a tiny difference between producing great espresso and a crap one. Therefore, marginal gains really do count.

The rest of the day hasn't really engaged me. I spent most of it trying to source photos for a handbook. This is really difficult when each image must be technically correct look nice too. I must have looked through several thousand. For a bit of light relief, I read a number of academic papers.

Although I rode in to work this morning, I trained hard yesterday and though it would be better to get the train home in the evening, via North Tea of course. On the way into town it was pissing with rain and I got a puncture! Drat! Coffee was good as always though....a Columbian washed!