I love these beans to death. I find that with Lusty Glaze the sweetness is directly related to the beverage weight, and long shots aren't the best use of these beans. They are a medium roast, and they benefit from a medium brew temperature. 93C is recommended by Paul, and for those of us with unstable 'humped' temperature profiles I think they work wonderfully on the Gaggia Classic after two 2oz flushes, a pause until the light comes back on, then a brew temperature that goes from around 91C up to 93/94C then down to around 87C. Keep it short. I use around 18g for a 27g shot, which is around 1.5oz, and watch the oily, chocolatey goodness folding ovef itself in the cup. If it becomes yellow or runny, you've let it run too much.

There's no such thing as an easy bean in my view, but I wouldn't call Lusty Glaze one of the difficult ones. I've been using it as my only espresso blend for many many months, and loved it, but as I've found by my own recent failings with it, anyone can get it wrong, and if you do then it's all about the barista, the grinder or the machine.

Let us know how you get on.

 

some progress i've made recently may work well for you.

I think your extracting too much coffee for the ammount of beans you are using.

Try extracting 1.5 x the amount of liquid as beans used. so 9g of beans = 13.5 grams of espresso.

I've recently moved from 15g of beans with a 2 oz extraction to 15g of beans with a 22.5g extraction.

£5 on some mini gold scales have been my best purchase to date.

 

14 or 15g double, pulled slow and thick.

Odd. I really found this coffee flexible.

 

Following your advice I've gone down to 22g (liquid) and I immediately noticed an improvement (still from 9g beans).

In fact it was rather nice. I think I am moving in the right direction. Thanks.

For Expobarista: I assume you are referring to 15g in the basket, not extracted coffee liquid.

If so, how much liquid do you extract?

 

Standard double. No idea how much that weighs, to be honest I don't go in for scales under the cup.

Hope you get there with it. It is a coffee I'll re-order as I found it almost impossible to pull a bad shot with it. Mind you, I do have a machine that is very likely more stable than a Baby.

 

I'm gonna try the weigh method with mine as I'm having trouble with it too

 

9g in - 29g out does sound rather long. I'm using an 18g dose in a VST basket and aim for between 30g and 36g out in about 30 secs, for me that seems where it tastes the best, intense, sweet and chocolaty. I do find it quite forgiving, if you don't get it spot on it will still has a nice taste. But sounds like you need to slow the shot down a bit and don't extract so much.

 

some progress i've made recently may work well for you.

I think your extracting too much coffee for the ammount of beans you are using.

Try extracting 1.5 x the amount of liquid as beans used. so 9g of beans = 13.5 grams of espresso.

I've recently moved from 15g of beans with a 2 oz extraction to 15g of beans with a 22.5g extraction.

£5 on some mini gold scales have been my best purchase to date.

im pretty near that now, will get down a little more tomorrow and try that out

 

I got an email off hands on saying that they have half price shipping on 1kg bags of their signature range until Friday this week and this obviously includes Lusty. Ordered 1 this afternoon and it was £17 in total. Maybe worthwhile to know if anyone is running low.

cheers

 

I've settled at 9g Beans for 21g extracted in 26s.

The nasty bitterness is gone and it is quite consistent as long as I resist the temptation of extracting more liquid.

Thanks for your help.

The amount of crema is bordering the ridiculous (1cm). Good for latte but a bit over the top for espresso which is my drink of choice.

By the way, I have a feeling that this coffee has a higher amount of caffeine than average.

I've no way of measuring this so I am judging by the "kick" I am getting.

I'd be interested in knowing what you think.

 

Depends what you compare it with

Dark roasts have less caffeine than medium roasts

 

Perhaps I have just been drinking too much of it while trying to get it right

 

Depends what you compare it with

Dark roasts have less caffeine than medium roasts

Depends how you measure it. By volume, yes. By weight, no. The water content of the bean is reduced at a much faster rate than the minimal caffeine loss.

When you consider that many people dose espresso by weight, then the opposite of what you say comes into play.

 

If Lusty contains any Sumatran coffees then yep, it will hit you!

 

Depends how you measure it. By volume, yes. By weight, no. The water content of the bean is reduced at a much faster rate than the minimal caffeine loss.

When you consider that many people dose espresso by weight, then the opposite of what you say comes into play.

Hmm, I see what you're saying. A dark roasted bean will have less caffeine per bean, but will weigh less too so per basket dose caffeine could be higher for dark beans. Thing is, if you're dosing dark beans by weight you would use less beans purely because it would take less weight to fill the basket.

 

Compared to a lighter roast? No, more beans, because darker ones weigh less than lighter ones for a given dose weight.

 

Yes but you wouldnt be able to use the same dose weight as it wouldnt fit in the basket

 

You are wriggling on the hook now

Get a bigger basket.

 

Is that a bigger basket if I want the same amount of caffeine?

You'll need a bigger hook to catch this fish

 

I think if you go back a couple of posts and re-read, you see you've already been caught, landed, boned and fileted, and I'm about to tuck into you with a fine chianti.

 

I think you're tucking into a red herring

 

success !!!

ive been tinkering with times, weights etc with my 1kg of lusty for over a week, got it to pretty much the times and weights etc everyone has liked it at, decided im not weighing my shots all the time now ive got it in the ballpark its too much fannying around, i just want a coffee, cleaned the machine last night, proper puly caf back flush etc, got home from the gym tonight, had the machine warming up for about 45mins, weighed out 15g, ground, tamped, into the machine, straight into a cup but watching the colour of the extraction this time, let it blonde for 2-3s (i now know what blonding looks like properly now ive got the naked PF), diluted with water, added milk, result being one of my best americanos ever, proper tasty

thanks to everyone who has helped me along this journey since starting with a xmas present of a gaggia classic, ive learned so much, and bought much more lol, but ive finally pulled some crackin shots and made a drink id be happy to pay for from a cafe

i should also add that my lusty was roasted on the 16th Feb, so hardly 'fresh' but ive now got the best out of it, better technique probably, but also maybe its now at a better point time wise, for my tastes anyway

 

Well done!

 

success !!!

ive been tinkering with times, weights etc with my 1kg of lusty for over a week, got it to pretty much the times and weights etc everyone has liked it at, decided im not weighing my shots all the time now ive got it in the ballpark its too much fannying around, i just want a coffee, cleaned the machine last night, proper puly caf back flush etc, got home from the gym tonight, had the machine warming up for about 45mins, weighed out 15g, ground, tamped, into the machine, straight into a cup but watching the colour of the extraction this time, let it blonde for 2-3s (i now know what blonding looks like properly now ive got the naked PF), diluted with water, added milk, result being one of my best americanos ever, proper tasty

thanks to everyone who has helped me along this journey since starting with a xmas present of a gaggia classic, ive learned so much, and bought much more lol, but ive finally pulled some crackin shots and made a drink id be happy to pay for from a cafe

i should also add that my lusty was roasted on the 16th Feb, so hardly 'fresh' but ive now got the best out of it, better technique probably, but also maybe its now at a better point time wise, for my tastes anyway

Thats good news Brun,

Any ideas how long you let the machine run for on that shot? Where do you take the hot water from and finally what did you taste? LOL

Incidentally, I left the beans I got over a week before I started using them again so they must have been about the same "age" as yours....especially towards the end. Perhaps that's a factor as well as your improving technique

 

It was 24s