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La Pavoni Europiccola Naked Extraction

I’m constantly striving to make better espresso. I scourer the internet reading up on techniques, machines, coffee varieties, grinders, and all sorts of other gear. It’s shots like this that make me feel a little less like a “n00b” and a little more like a novice on the verge of a becoming true espresso geek. A few months ago my first step into truly obtaining espresso geek bliss was to chop my La Pavoni’s portafilter in order to diagnose my possible weaknesses in pulling shots. The beginning was a little rocky. Now I feel like I might just know what I’ve been talking about since getting into espresso and all the choices I’ve made.

Ok, enough ego inflating. I really wanted to talk about the photo a bit. This isn’t my very best shot being pulled, but I felt it was good enough to show real progress since I first started with a manual lever machine. The coffee being used is the Sweet Maria’s Puro Scuro Blend. I admit I have refused to dial this in exactly since my grinder and Pavoni have been in perfect harmony on the same setting (I know, when each bean should be dialed in separately) for the last month. I didn’t want to upset things just yet. I am hoping to improve even more in the months to come. I think this is a very promising shot. The pull did dance a little, but no channel was apparent in the puck. I fully believe this is due to the blend really wanting to be finer. PolyVector helped take the actual photo, since I am not sure how to pull the shot manually and snap a shot at the same time. Many thanks to him for taking some time from coding Dead Shift to stand under me near a hot boiler.

Well, ok, this really was just a vanity post. I hope you guys enjoyed the photo as much as I did. It put a big smile on my face for the day.