The future of espresso...
has never really been questioned like it has been this last week, although I have to ask. Is anyone taking this whole study by Christopher Hendon and the University of Oregon seriously? I've seen it making the rounds online, and even had some readers and viewers reach out and ask me my thoughts. So because of that I've read through this complicated and somewhat interesting paper a couple different times. A lot of it goes over my head (see video for visual depiction). A good portion of this study is littered with mathematical equations, charts, and graphs. Yet, the one thing I do understand is the words about how they want to fundamentally change how espresso is brewed. They even come out and say we've been doing it all wrong for decades.
The basics of this theory is that espresso should be dosed lighter (14-15 grams), ground coarser, and pulled faster (7-15 seconds). A coarser grind means you have a more consistent extraction (albeit faster) but more repeatable and actually, at least in my testing, a pleasant tasting shot. But then it goes down the rabbit hole of blending shots to taste, saves cafes money, makes cafe ticket times faster, and the ever fashionable route of sustainability.
How do they do that you ask? Well hit play on that video above, soak up some of my thoughts, a test shot or two, and maybe a meme just to keep it all together. So check it out and decide for yourself if this is the Future of Espresso or if this is just a flash in the specialty coffee pan.
September 10, 2021
[…] turbo shot is a product of a study I covered back in early 2020 about the future of espresso, and when I say study I mean real science, like some serious peer reviewed stuff. In the study the […]
February 22, 2022
Sadly nearly everything to date that has claimed to be coffee science is scientism at its worst. The first problem is that its almost impossible to have a scientific approach as you cant possibly get statistically significant data sets of double blind tasting to test any of the hypotheses about extraction, grind etc. All you get is subjective opinions about taste/flavour from the pretend scientists to justify their long winded papers purporting to be ‘science’.