After the latest espresso anatomy...
episode featuring the Slayer shot there was quite a few comments asking for the next entry to be a deep dive into blooming espresso. So, ask and you shall receive. Of course, the concept of blooming coffee isn't brand new, but when it comes to doing it with espresso, that is a bit more fringe, and in most cases complicated.
So I spent the last month or so digging into the topic. Through that research the oldest and most informative reference or resource I could find about blooming espresso was an article on Scott Rao's blog. This post provided a full pressure and flow profile chart from his Decent, and a step-by-step explanation of how to achieve the shot all the way down to the times. Armed with that basic roadmap I was able to find a way to "finesse", as Scott put it, my GS3 MP into producing some blooming shots.
Through this entire process I was able to put them to the test and see if their claimed higher extractions, as well as better flavor (at least against traditional shots) holds any weight. So if you're an espresso lover and want to learn more about another unique recipe hit play on the video above and let's brew this!