Dialing in is changing one variable at a time until the espresso extracts the
way you want. The variable is usually grind. The method is patience.
The protocol
Pull the first shot with the existing grind. Check the time and the flow. If it
runs too fast, grind finer. If it runs too slow, grind coarser. Change by a
small amount. Pull again.
What I actually do
Pull a shot, taste it, think about what changed, adjust, pull again. The tasting
is the only part that matters. The time is a lie you tell yourself—what matters
is the taste and the flow, and flow is observable in the group head.
The shots between dialing in
Every shot between adjustments is data. An espresso machine that runs 28
millilitres in 28 seconds is running at the tempo that brings out sweetness.
One that runs in 22 seconds is running too fast. One that runs in 35 seconds is
running too slow.
The grind that gets you 28 seconds with this water, this roast, this machine,
this pressure—that is the grind.
What changes the grind
- Fresh beans, every day for two weeks
- New beans, which need a new grind
- The humidity in the room
- How much you tamped yesterday’s machine
The grind is not a number, it is a moment. The moment you change anything that
touches the flow, the dial moves.
The protocol I actually follow
- Grind
- Dose into the portafilter, pile it loosely
- Tamp: 30 pounds, two more pounds of twist
- Lock and pull
- Watch the flow and taste the result
- Adjust by half a notch
The tamp is the thing I change by accident more often than on purpose, which is
why the shots are inconsistent, which is why I keep a scale and weigh my
doses—not because consistency is the point, but because I cannot taste
consistency if I do not know what changed.
The one rule that holds
Changing one variable is harder than it sounds. You change grind and you change
tamp pressure and you change temperature because the one you changed first did
not work.
The shot that teaches you is the one where you changed exactly one thing, it
failed, and you changed it back. That is data. Everything else is noise.