Coffee Data Science

Shokunin Espresso Ritual

Sharing my current coffee routine circa 2024

4 min readOct 29, 2024

My coffee routine has changed over the years as I have advanced my understanding through data and experimentation.

Coffee Roasting

I roast most of the coffee I drink as well, so let’s start there:

After roasting coffee, I add 4% moisture (read water) to the roast and rest it for a day. Then I use a vacuum pump to remove a little bit of gas, and I store the coffee in vacuum sealed jars for one week before use.

Coffee Preparation

For a shot, I weight the dose, and I don’t need to spray (for RDT) because I already added moisture. I have been using a Zerno grinder for the past year.

Then I use a Wafo Spirit basket with a collar, and I distribute the coffee using a WDT tool.

I tamp with a modified Decent Tamper. I removed the spring from the tamper, and then I use it for auto leveling. First I tamp lightly with the collar on, then I tamp again. The second time, I hold the tamper so it tamps the minimum and is even. I don’t think high tamp pressures help much.

Then I spray the top of the puck with about 1g of water (7 to 8 pumps of the spray bottle).

Coffee Extraction

Then I lock in the portafilter into my Decent Espresso machine.

Then I wait 5 minutes for thermal pre-infusion.

I pull a shot using a cold start (70C) that ramps up to 90C, and I use a ramp bloom profile with a slow flow. The shot takes about two minutes, and it does not hit high pressures due to most of the CO2 having been released.

This profile requires me to tap move on to the bloom stage between the 2nd and 3rd step. The right time to move on is when the filter is covered so I know the system is pressurized.

I use a room temperature metal ball to do extract cooling, which improves taste. I drink from a Kruve cup which allows a better taste experience as well.

Drinking the Shot

Before I drink the shot, I measure the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS).

I input this data into my data sheet.

Finally, I use an ultrasonic mixer for 20 seconds to reduce acidity and bitterness. I enjoy the shot while I grade it based on sharpness, richness, syrup, sweet, sour, bitter, and aftertaste.

Afterwards, I clean everything and knock out the puck.

This routine had changed quite a bit in previous years, and this year, the routine has stabilized as I found multiple optimizations.

Sadly, I don’t often pull staccato shots anymore because the gains in taste have a smaller differential than they did before. The shots are still interesting to pull now and again, and they would be more interesting if sifting coffee wasn’t time consuming.

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