Now that I've got your attention.... :grin:
Brady and I decided that this weekend has been kinda slow on BX, so I thought I would generate some controversy. Please consider the following:
We performed an experiment at Counter Culture's Training Center during the Southeast Regional Barista Jam based on an observation made by Brent Hall. He mentioned that the 30 or so pounds of pressure exerted by the barista while tamping the dose in the portafilter was essentially negated due to the extreme pressure placed on the puck during extraction. In other words, your espresso machine has bigger muscles than you. Other than channeling, why bother then? So we tried it, dosing into the portafilter, leveling, and then, skipping the tamp, locking into place and pulling the shot. It worked.
Now, is it consistent? I doubt it, but that would depend on the barista, same as the tamping procedure.
The question that arises in my mind is this: have we given the proper importance to the leveling process, as this is where we deal with clumps and allocating the coffee evenly in the portafilter?
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