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hi there I just got back from Berlin and
while I was there I went to the world of
coffee event that was on now I wasn't
there for all that long so I didn't get
to see everything that I wanted to but
pretty high up if not at the top of my
list was to go to the decent espresso
booth to go and see Scott Rio and he was
pulling shots of his super-high
extraction style espresso and I wanted
to taste that so I did so I'll show you
that and then I come back afterwards to
talk you through why I think it was just
so interesting and so worthy of some
discussion so we have the filter in the
bottom
it's wet I just did this but all here so
I've been flapping up the grounds with
this little pseudo wdt device get a
little clumping out of there we're using
18 grams of coffee for something like 18
grams spinning it around a little filter
on top to decrease the channeling John's
been tamping the filter so I've been
playing with that today special mode
we're doing the blooming espressos shot
so we'll get a bit of pre-infusion
followed by a 30-second bloom where the
water stays on top of the puck it's sort
of like suspended animation it allows
the puck to get warmer at the bottom and
it allows the moisture and the heat to
basically spread out equally throughout
the cup so all that's being a bit full
you get a much more equal extraction
across the pocket which is nice and then
after that there's a flow profile that
helps just kind of finish off the shot
with a typical percolation so we're
ending producing now
get a few drops portafilter now is just
gonna stop for a while I will say that
since switching the filters it's much
harder to get the screen to fill in
almost permanent which is yeah which is
really a distinct almost never happens
now even with like a pair of their
experience it fixes itself but it's
weird
and now I smell her something start up
again with a little bit of a stir
the pressure would eat and then we just
kind of slide off since we are
extracting too high we ditched the
pressure peak we're no longer trying to
hit a nine bar pressure because that
sign of a Brian is giving us too much
which is weird
so like five four and a half five bucks
worth no not even like two - yeah which
is why the famous really disappeared
today which is good because
so there's quite a lot to unpack there
and I'll try and break it down a little
bit so what we have is we have a cake
very finely ground coffee finer than
you'd expect for espresso and underneath
is a rinsed paper filter and on top is a
paper filter and that's all tamped and
compacted together now the two filters
do - we think very different things the
piece of paper on the bottom speeds up
the flow now we think it does this
because it prevents tiny particles of
coffee getting in and kind of clogging
the holes at the bottom of the filter
basket so this prevents the flow slowing
during the shot so it keeps the flow
high which means you can grind a finer
and the paper on the top is really there
to help with the dispersion of water
across the cake alright the water is
going to hit the paper and that's going
to buffer the coffee a little bit from
the full force of the pressure but
equally help it spread evenly throughout
the cake so you'll see some more
extraction that way and then you've got
that really unusual profile of Scots
using on the decent where you have quite
a gentle long pre-infusion and then a
pause a bloom phase that goes on for
quite a long time and then a very gentle
percolation phase maybe up to two bars
where you push through most of your
brewing liquid what you really want to
know though is how that it tastes it all
was it like now the resulting espresso
is incredibly high in terms of
extraction work at 27 28 % extraction
though I think at the time Scot thought
it was a little bit higher due to a
little calculation error but that's
where we were and if you'd asked me what
I thought that was gonna taste like in
the past I would have said disgusting I
would expect it to be bitter and harsh
and horrible and muddy and lacking
sweetness and deeply astringent all of
those unpleasant things and it wasn't
now it wasn't the best espresso of my
life not gonna lie to you it wasn't the
best thing I ever tasted now the texture
was kind of interesting it was quite
light which is unexpected but then it is
paper filtered which means that you're
pulling out a me and soluble material
any potential fat that might be in the
espresso any oils those are gone so you
have quite this light was delicate to
texture which is quite shocking in some
ways tons of acidity it was sweet there
was this sort of astringent see that I
didn't love and I wanted to get rid of
and I don't think Scott was super happy
that day with the shots that he was
pulling in terms of the you know some of
his pre-infusion approach I think wasn't
really what he wanted
but but it was so interesting it was so
surprisingly good because my
expectations were somewhere else right
like you don't think that's gonna taste
good but this was good it wasn't great
I'm not gonna say it's the best I'm
going to say everyone should be serving
this in their cafes but it's interesting
and it's interesting for two reasons to
me firstly it's new it's interesting
it's a new Avenue it's a new place to go
and explore and to play that's always
gonna fire up a little bit of your brain
if you're interested in coffee it's
always going to be kind of exciting and
that's undeniably true this is new
territory a new way of brewing new
paradigms I guess but one of the better
word we're pushing a boundary and that's
exciting
and secondly you could argue that maybe
one of the outcomes of this is that
because I can extract much higher I
could use less ground coffee in a drink
let's say a flat white but push the
extraction up so that my end drink was
the same strength and ideally tasted
really good as if I'd used more ground
coffee now there's a number of reasons
that's interesting straight cost savings
for cafes who all want to make a little
bit more money there's the scary scary
future where coffee is less available
due to climate change and we just have
to treat it like a more precious thing
and ultimately it suggests that in any
20 to 22 percent extraction that might
be on a typical coffee bar
we're throwing some good stuff away at
the end of that shot there's wasted
potential here there's wasted work all
through the value chain that could be
captured and enjoyed by the consumer
that's worth exploring to me and so I
know it's hard to talk about the taste
of espresso it's hard for me to really
communicate to you what I tasted and it
was hard for me not really knowing the
coffee's that I was served and I tasted
a few different things some lighter
stuff some a little bit more development
you know I didn't love everything I
liked something more than others but it
was undeniably interesting and something
I'm interested in exploring some more
and so I'd like to hear from you are you
interested in this sort of stuff do you
want me to dig into this jewel filter
paper method in the espresso basket
maybe make a video about it is that
interesting to you did you go to the
world of coffee did you taste one of
those shots that booth was rammed the
whole time it was
so lots of people did were you one of
them what did you think leave a comment
down below I'd be really interested to
get your take and your feedback as
always thank you so much for watching I
hope you have a great day
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