The fascinating thing is the math. Here’s a brief explanation: Many espresso machines have hundreds of grind size options, where things like Uniform or Baratza Encore have a more modest 40. The classic espresso recipe is one-to-two, so if you grind 18 grams of beans, you should be able to get 36. grams fired for about 25 to 30 seconds. Lacking that fine adjustment, this isn’t always possible with Uniforms. But by adjusting the amount of beans you start with and keeping the same ratio, such as 15 grams of beans and stopping at 30 grams, I can make it work for the right amount of time. It was a bit of a pain but it was fun to find out.
From there, I went to the Seattle lab of WIRED friends Sam Schroeder, co-owner of Olympia coffee roasting company, and Reyna Callejo, Olympia’s director of training and innovation. I had hoped that this was a machine that could do it all, and it was amazing how quickly those hopes were dashed.
Espresso testing is almost over as soon as it begins. I kept quiet about my findings, wanting to see what they came up with and they had the same problem as me. their use organic big truck blend, grind size five too fine and size seven coarser pouring too quickly.
“Two steps make a difference in 25 seconds,” Reyna noted, perhaps sensing the breakdown. “That’s a lot!”
Step six was the only option from there, and the hit Reyna pulled out was too quick, meaning it was under-extracted, at which point the Espresso testing was complete.
Sam explains: “We give people a pound of beans and say ‘adjust your grind’. “You can’t do that with this machine.”
“But wait,” I hummed. “You can change the weight of the beans and adjust the shot size.”
“Your mornings are full of math problems,” Sam protested, and the more I thought about it, the more I agreed. We want to choose the size of the coffee we brew at home, not our grinder.
Things got better from there. Even if things go flat for espresso, they note that it’s a grinder with a normal hold, meaning that if you grind 18 grams of beans, you’ll get close to 18 grams of grounds. Sometimes, especially with flat blade grinders where gravity doesn’t help, soil gets lost inside the machine or in the soil container which means you are losing money every time you sharpen. There is even a blender called Niche Zero designed to leave (or retain) no bases in the machine.
However, for many of the steps we had to take to make espresso, the overflow, what Reyna called “the second hardest coffee” was completed. Wilfa recommends grinding the coffee from steps 14 to 28. Sam grinds at step 24 for use with the Kalita Wave dripper and the coffee comes out perfect, measuring a 20.36% extraction rate (they like the ratio). from 18 to 22%) and with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 1.40 percent. For true French press lovers like yours, the ground powder is very coarse and when I make some at home, it has a rich flavor and is not too muddy. Easy as pie.
