Great video. I have never worked in a café, but I do geek out about my home espresso. I've found that for me, I tend to vary my ratios based on the roast level of the coffee to great effect. For instance, I currently have several beans across the roast spectrum that I'm gravitating between; the two most different ones are a medium dark blend from Coava (which frankly is not the typical bean I enjoy, but was gifted to me) and a light single origin from Ethiopia from a local roaster. The former bean I've tried to pull at my typical 1:2 or 1:2.5 ratio, and the shot came out overextracted with an unpleasant lingering bitterness, no acidity at all. I dialed back the size of the shot to basically be a 1:1.25 and all of a sudden I tasted sweetness, chocolate, and some acidity in the form of a cherry flavor. The latter bean, I tried at my typical 1:2 ratio, and the shot came out unpleasantly sour. I ended up grinding a tad finer and dialed the recipe up to 1:3 and I ended up with a really well-balanced, sweet shot that tasted of lemons and rosehips. Moral of the story, I think I personally have found ristrettos to be good for when I'm left with really dark, easy-to-extract beans. For the lighter roasts, ristrettos come out much too sour for my palette and I will compensate by scaling up the shot. If I were running a coffeeshop, I think I would offer light roasts at the 1:2-1:3 ranges and dark roasts at the 1:1-1:1.5 ranges. I personally find that dark roast ristrettos can be very decadent and can work as nice dessert drinks.
Nice video! I like pulling ristrettos with the 7g baskets from La Marzocco. I was able to find a nice dosing funnel and tamper online to make it a little easier. It’s nice to play around with that style every now and again.
I pull ristrettos for cortados and play around with ratios between 1:1 and 1:1.5 depending on the beans I'm using. Gives me a bit extra wiggle room in my gibraltar for milk.
Old coffeehead here, loved the video. I found that ristretto shots (in addition to being delicious and having a great mouthfeel) are infinitely better in milk than 1:2 ratios, as they tend to get washed out in the milk. I've had so many bad capps with a light roasted single-origin pulled long (which is probably delicious on it's own).
Damn, this is like a trip back in time. I pulled ristretto shots pretty much exclusively from the late 2000s up until a few years ago. I'm now dosing 18g and doing 1:1.5 or 1:2. Going to try the ol' 1:1 again for the hell of it. Thanks for the inspiration.
I might be wrong but I think the real prometeus (probably butchered it) felt like ristrettos made out of a normal (~ 1 to 2 ratio in 25 to 35 sec) recipe stopped at say, 15 seconds usually tastes better than a recipe that would hinder normal flow to attain a 1 to 1 ratio in a full lenght shot. Wondering what's your take on that. I personnally am a fan of ristrettos and any short, silky, sweet shot and often struggle achieving consistent results on my gaggia classic pro.. some days I pull the most amazing shot and the next day they are terrible. I haven't learnt to surf the temperature fluctuations yet and definitely might temp differently each time.
Excellent video. You seemed, however, to have not paid too much attention to time. You mentioned 25 seconds for your 1:1 but no mention on the 1:1.5. A 1:1 ratio in 18 seconds is going to taste different to a 1:1 at 27 seconds. What do you recommend as a suitable time as a starting point for dialling in?
You're right, I didn't go into time too much. Somewhere around 22-27 seconds was typical for the time/place I was describing. In this case, for this coffee, I really enjoyed that amount of contact time. I think back then we would have considered an 18 second shot 'too fast' although you can totally get a nice tasting shot that way.
Amazing video quality :3 Have you tried preinfusing for a longer duration? With the rocket you can control the flow rate right? Just fill the basket with enough water and hold for a minute before pulling the 20g of coffee. You'll get a better balance I think!
i'm a bit more of a youngster in specialty and have never once been asked for a ristretto. i can't say i'm not relieved when i reflect on this given that our bar uses an astoria storm - great for dialling in for doubleshot espressos and quality control throughout the day but definitely surrenders a lot of the control you'd need to pull a more adventurous shot. that being said, i'm still curious if i could be done one in our bar one day...
I have this espresso machine (Duchess CM1570s), it's not anything fancy it's my first espresso machine. It gets me curious about the pressure bar. To get the amount of grams out and the corresponding time (15g in 27g out at 27-30 seconds, my pressure goes up to all the way to 15-17. If I adjust the grind size to be bigger, it drop the bar but the grams out is too fast and very sour. What other methods should I try?
I might try upping the dose with that coarser grind size. Even going up to 16g could make a large difference. But at the end of the day, I wouldn't worry about pressure too much if shots are tasting good.
when dialing in a ristretto, is the goal to dial in your grind size to output a 1:1 ratio in about 25 seconds? Meaning you'd need to use a finer grind size than a more modern 1:2 ratio?
That’s what I prefer to do. Depending on how much fines your grinder produces, a faster time might work better to keep the flow moving (and the extraction more even).
Dunno. I pulled them fine in 2022. But honestly I've been struggling a bit since it turned January 1st 2023. Maybe it's the odd number of the year...help?
Hi David, thank you for sharing this ristretto journey. I am trying to capture your recipe here to learn from it. So, you use a 20GR dose, which is quite a high dose. have you done so on purpose or just because this is what you used to pull back in the days? Namely, I wonder as this dose in combination with a 1/1 yield sounds like underextraction is around the corner, especially with 25 seconds as a short time in the spectrum. I note you use medium roast beans, or at least no dark. The outcome you have is a nice sweetness and acidity in the cup. More yield, resulted in a less balanced cup. Theory doesn't add up here, making me curious. Thank you for this nice video sir.
I think what makes it possible is a more even flow from combination of a slightly coarser, more consistent grind setting and higher dose. I was honestly a little surprised with these results, but they were consistent throughout the week as I was tasting these recipes. I would also bet that it’s very dependent on the coffee, this particular one being very easy to work with.
I’d stick to 1:1 and then play around more with the glass/mug. Even 1/2oz more or less milk will change the flavor balance in a big way. 5oz is a sweet spot for me but many some would consider that a cappuccino.
@@danijelbaric4092 Exactly. Does he not tamp every time he pulls a shot? But again, great video on ristretto. It gave me inspiration to pull a ristretto this morning!
Fantastic video! Beautiful and well demonstrated
Thank you!
Great video. I have never worked in a café, but I do geek out about my home espresso.
I've found that for me, I tend to vary my ratios based on the roast level of the coffee to great effect. For instance, I currently have several beans across the roast spectrum that I'm gravitating between; the two most different ones are a medium dark blend from Coava (which frankly is not the typical bean I enjoy, but was gifted to me) and a light single origin from Ethiopia from a local roaster.
The former bean I've tried to pull at my typical 1:2 or 1:2.5 ratio, and the shot came out overextracted with an unpleasant lingering bitterness, no acidity at all. I dialed back the size of the shot to basically be a 1:1.25 and all of a sudden I tasted sweetness, chocolate, and some acidity in the form of a cherry flavor. The latter bean, I tried at my typical 1:2 ratio, and the shot came out unpleasantly sour. I ended up grinding a tad finer and dialed the recipe up to 1:3 and I ended up with a really well-balanced, sweet shot that tasted of lemons and rosehips.
Moral of the story, I think I personally have found ristrettos to be good for when I'm left with really dark, easy-to-extract beans. For the lighter roasts, ristrettos come out much too sour for my palette and I will compensate by scaling up the shot. If I were running a coffeeshop, I think I would offer light roasts at the 1:2-1:3 ranges and dark roasts at the 1:1-1:1.5 ranges. I personally find that dark roast ristrettos can be very decadent and can work as nice dessert drinks.
Nice video! I like pulling ristrettos with the 7g baskets from La Marzocco. I was able to find a nice dosing funnel and tamper online to make it a little easier. It’s nice to play around with that style every now and again.
Lovely presentation, David! You’ve zoomed miles beyond me
I pull ristrettos for cortados and play around with ratios between 1:1 and 1:1.5 depending on the beans I'm using. Gives me a bit extra wiggle room in my gibraltar for milk.
I arrived a cool cat and now leaving a total geek ! thank you :) hahaha. Love your channel
Excellent work
Great quality video!
Thank you!
The good old days… love ❤️ it!
Old coffeehead here, loved the video. I found that ristretto shots (in addition to being delicious and having a great mouthfeel) are infinitely better in milk than 1:2 ratios, as they tend to get washed out in the milk. I've had so many bad capps with a light roasted single-origin pulled long (which is probably delicious on it's own).
In another Video Ive seen that 1:1:1 should work fine. 18g In 18g Out in 18seconds :)
Damn, this is like a trip back in time. I pulled ristretto shots pretty much exclusively from the late 2000s up until a few years ago. I'm now dosing 18g and doing 1:1.5 or 1:2. Going to try the ol' 1:1 again for the hell of it. Thanks for the inspiration.
I might be wrong but I think the real prometeus (probably butchered it) felt like ristrettos made out of a normal (~ 1 to 2 ratio in 25 to 35 sec) recipe stopped at say, 15 seconds usually tastes better than a recipe that would hinder normal flow to attain a 1 to 1 ratio in a full lenght shot. Wondering what's your take on that.
I personnally am a fan of ristrettos and any short, silky, sweet shot and often struggle achieving consistent results on my gaggia classic pro.. some days I pull the most amazing shot and the next day they are terrible. I haven't learnt to surf the temperature fluctuations yet and definitely might temp differently each time.
Excellent video. You seemed, however, to have not paid too much attention to time. You mentioned 25 seconds for your 1:1 but no mention on the 1:1.5. A 1:1 ratio in 18 seconds is going to taste different to a 1:1 at 27 seconds. What do you recommend as a suitable time as a starting point for dialling in?
You're right, I didn't go into time too much. Somewhere around 22-27 seconds was typical for the time/place I was describing. In this case, for this coffee, I really enjoyed that amount of contact time. I think back then we would have considered an 18 second shot 'too fast' although you can totally get a nice tasting shot that way.
Amazing video quality :3 Have you tried preinfusing for a longer duration? With the rocket you can control the flow rate right? Just fill the basket with enough water and hold for a minute before pulling the 20g of coffee. You'll get a better balance I think!
Thank you! I used to do that style of preinfusion pretty regularly but haven't in a little while.
i'm a bit more of a youngster in specialty and have never once been asked for a ristretto. i can't say i'm not relieved when i reflect on this given that our bar uses an astoria storm - great for dialling in for doubleshot espressos and quality control throughout the day but definitely surrenders a lot of the control you'd need to pull a more adventurous shot. that being said, i'm still curious if i could be done one in our bar one day...
I have this espresso machine (Duchess CM1570s), it's not anything fancy it's my first espresso machine. It gets me curious about the pressure bar. To get the amount of grams out and the corresponding time (15g in 27g out at 27-30 seconds, my pressure goes up to all the way to 15-17. If I adjust the grind size to be bigger, it drop the bar but the grams out is too fast and very sour.
What other methods should I try?
I might try upping the dose with that coarser grind size. Even going up to 16g could make a large difference. But at the end of the day, I wouldn't worry about pressure too much if shots are tasting good.
when dialing in a ristretto, is the goal to dial in your grind size to output a 1:1 ratio in about 25 seconds? Meaning you'd need to use a finer grind size than a more modern 1:2 ratio?
That’s what I prefer to do. Depending on how much fines your grinder produces, a faster time might work better to keep the flow moving (and the extraction more even).
@@DavidLikesCoffee I have the exact grinder, OG baratza vario with stainless steel burrs, so I think that would work well for me as well. thanks!
Dunno. I pulled them fine in 2022. But honestly I've been struggling a bit since it turned January 1st 2023. Maybe it's the odd number of the year...help?
Hi David, thank you for sharing this ristretto journey. I am trying to capture your recipe here to learn from it. So, you use a 20GR dose, which is quite a high dose. have you done so on purpose or just because this is what you used to pull back in the days? Namely, I wonder as this dose in combination with a 1/1 yield sounds like underextraction is around the corner, especially with 25 seconds as a short time in the spectrum. I note you use medium roast beans, or at least no dark. The outcome you have is a nice sweetness and acidity in the cup. More yield, resulted in a less balanced cup. Theory doesn't add up here, making me curious.
Thank you for this nice video sir.
I think what makes it possible is a more even flow from combination of a slightly coarser, more consistent grind setting and higher dose. I was honestly a little surprised with these results, but they were consistent throughout the week as I was tasting these recipes. I would also bet that it’s very dependent on the coffee, this particular one being very easy to work with.
Any recommendations of a ristretto recipe for cortados?
I’d stick to 1:1 and then play around more with the glass/mug. Even 1/2oz more or less milk will change the flavor balance in a big way. 5oz is a sweet spot for me but many some would consider that a cappuccino.
Great video. Why not tamp? has that always been your workflow? Well demonstrated video, keep up the good work.
Lol, also cringed at the no tamp -- otherwise, it was a great video
@@Showl.l It's not necessarily bad, just slightly reduces extraction.
@@danijelbaric4092 Exactly. Does he not tamp every time he pulls a shot? But again, great video on ristretto. It gave me inspiration to pull a ristretto this morning!
I've been trying this method out for several months and shots have been consistently good. Haven't felt the need to bring the tamp back out.
Using that Lancaster County good good 👌
One of the best!
Do you recall how long the 1:1.5 shot took to pull?
I think it was about 23-24 seconds. I also adjusted the grind slightly coarser on the Vario which I’m now realizing I cut out of the edit.
30# like pressure achieved.
looked better with the puck screen I thought