Wonderful. Will rewatch for hours. Thank you.

Wow … ! It is very clear and easy to understand ! In connection with previous posts it helps me to understand why not to change the mass of coffee so it shows me a different way of thinking about adjusting the grinder. It makes my knowledge more ordered if I may say like that ! Thank You Mat !! You are making great job. How I can show You my gratitude you ?

Really enjoyed the video, thanks for posting it!.
Question: on some coffees, probably darker roasted ones, don’t you reach an overextraction point where they develop an alkaline-bitter quality? The material you’ve presented seems to imply that extracting more and more leads to sweeter and more complex espresso, with no limit.
Overextraction may be more difficult to achieve with a light roasted Kenya, but it’s a lot easier with a darker roast.

Hey Matt, really enjoyed this. Great visual representation that makes a ton of sense for relating to a variety of skill levels. Clean graphics and clear audio. Good work.

Incredibly well explained. For the sake of theory would you tell someone that 20grams with a 50g yield is still worded as a double espresso or are we throwing out the book on things being called double and single. (Or triple)

Thank you, this is amazing!
I watched and paused to think a couple of times before moving forward to make sure I understood and it all makes perfect sense!
I guess the most common path is that it will be under extracted the first time you try, but I wonder if there would be a type of coffee / roast that would be over extracted when you start with 20g / 40g and than you would have to travel in the other direction. It would be cool to see that in a video, if you think it is worth the effort.

very clear and to the point. loved it and will watch again.
cheers Matt.

Thanks Jason!

Love it, ties it all together. But of course we call it a day, because we’ve now had 7 shots of espresso and are fairly wired! So, question: how does one go about practically dialing in an espresso this way, without ingesting all the caffeine for the rest of the day? And, if things like humidity and hours into service impact the quality of the shots, does one have to start over or can you just play around with grind to get your dose/timing back and assume it’s all good? I’m assuming this is what refractometers are for, to keep… Read more »

It might put you to sleep!

Just thanks is enough!

Thanks mate!! 🙂

This system is mainly used for learning those steps, and eventually you’ll be able to combine steps to get where you want. Soon you’ll make one shot, know what to do and fix it with the next.

Darker roasts will probably do this. But to be overextracted at a multiple of 2, it’d have to be very very cooked.

Great! Thanks, Matt, looking forward to making this easier.

If it’s coming out of the espresso machine, I’m calling it espresso.
If it’s really long (+3x), I’ll put lungo after espresso.

Thanks for banishing the misconception that a good shot has to be around 25 seconds.

Thanks dude. This is true, although I’m hoping (!) that not too many people are using over roasted coffee. And if they are, I’m hoping the cue of dryness/overextraction is a “backwards” of sorts that they’ll move away from.

The all previous articles are unified as if the script is completed! Thanks Matt! So flat tamper is the key when we brew light roast coffee!

Thanks Matt. An impressively easy-to-follow and clear video!

Definitely would love to see more in this style (pertaining to what you’ve asked at the end of the video).

I’ve seen a lot of espresso videos and read many articles, but this is one of the most comprehensive and clear guides I’ve ever seen on dialing in a coffee. Great video and very much appreciated.

Awesome! Will definitely watch this again. Have you done a post talking about the characteristics of growing regions (ie. flavour notes of a Kenyan coffee vs. Ethiopian)?

Can you post a video of tapping as a distribution method? It keeps coming up and I haven’t been able to master it. Love the info and thanks for your hard work in the industry

Excellent video, I imagine this style will make learning these concepts much easier for many.

Thanks Chris!! Very kind.

Thanks Sam! I think there’ll be more in the future.

I wouldn’t say I banished it. In my previous posts on time it was definitely within my window of good espresso.

Just a bloody Ledge Matt ! Thanks mate, Very clear and concise….. a 5 star Hustle!!!

Just a question Matt! How about if we fix the dose and time and start with a guessed yield based on the roast degree of the bean! In your example, you started with 27s brew time which might be a bit short for extracting enough especially for a lighter roasted coffee. On the other hand, if we fix the dose and start with a 30s brew time which is quite a suitable time frame for wider range of roast degrees, we may be able to hit the target flavours more quickly! For example, we guesstimate that the bean we have… Read more »

Thanks for another great hustle Matt! Have you used this system with a stepped grinder like the Anfim Super Caimano? I find that each grind size is such a radical change that there’s no choice but to change dose. For example, if I’m working with a dose of 20g, and getting shots that are in the ball park I want but could use a little more extraction, I go one notch finer and the shots start dropping at 20 seconds and just being beyond problematically slow. I used to use the system you recommend, but have had to adapt to… Read more »

Can you post a video of tapping as a distribution method? It keeps coming up and I haven’t been able to master it. Love the info and thanks for your hard work in the industry.

Great video Matt! But where does water temp and machine operating pressure fit in? What were the assumptions for those two variables for this imaginary, delicious, Kenyan esrepsso?

Thanks, that’s a good summary bringing it all together.

My favourite bit; “let’s assume we had a convex tamper…convex tampers are silly…”

thanks Matt!! really clear explanation!

Before anyone (here) has a chance to dismiss your use of the term “diminishing returns”, may I interject that it is quite possible to diminish beyond zero, and thus your use is still correct.

Hey Matt, really love this video, so informative and v helpful. An idea for your extraction curve, you could you draw a line between the two ends of the extraction curve on both axis and label this line as the time of the shot, then, to increase extraction and strength, bend the curve further? it would then show that time hasn’t changed by moving the curve, but extraction and strength of the shot have. The challenge is to then bend the curve as much as possible, or increase strength and extraction, using the methods you suggested in the video (flat… Read more »

Really excellent video. Clear, concise, with graphics that are clean and easy to understand. I would be particularly interested in seeing both a walk through of your style of nutation, and how that effects grind size and extraction, ie. coarser grind+nutation=longer shot time, but with increased sweetness, extraction levels, and strength, if that is correct.

temp is another variable for extraction , same as grind and brew ratio ….lock it in though . Why?
Its harder to change quickly on most machines , and has the slowest effect on extraction yield ( IMHO )

so sometimes a extraction will look even , from even across a basket , pour nice and central then 20 seconds in , looks like the puck blows out and you get a hurricane twister effect across the basket … Micro channeling or not . * using ek43 here

I meant that many baristas still firmly believe anything longer than 30 seconds are automatically bad.

Haha thanks David!

Thanks Nicholas. Will do!

An excellent and cogent summary that provides great theoretical insight along with great practical application. Gold. Stephen Hawking could do no better!

Loved the video Matt! It really helped to solidify the previous material on espresso recipes and extraction. I’ve found it super helpful and easy to follow. Would definitely love to see some more videos done in the same methodical way!

I don’t care much for temperature. As long as the espresso isn’t always dry (hot) or sour (cold) no matter the recipe, you’re fine.

Hi Ron – at the moment I’m trying to stop people nutating in favour of reducing pump pressure or flow rate.

Is your roast pretty light?

If I understand you correctly, that’s what I did in the video..?

Just adding another thanks to the chorus Matt. Just starting out, and hard to find many coaches out here in the Philippines, so posts like these are invaluable. Thanks!