In the discussion of espresso clarity of flavor vs body, the Decent has always been strong at clarity, but less good at body. I tasked my coffee master Paul Chan with understanding why. He spent months with different profiles and baskets, and presented me his results live in this video. decentespresso.com/basket
We discuss how preinfusion speed, headspace above the puck, puck spacers, the spacer kits, lever machines, portafilter basket widths, dose sizes, and waisted baskets all affect body.
We dive into using our waisted baskets, along with espresso profiles that maximize espresso body.
We found that a low temperature (84ºC descending to 78ºC) was very helpful in controlling acidity with lower dosed (12g to 14g), thick shots. We discussed how 7g and 10g baskets are very difficult to pull without channeling, and resulting sourness.
Our best taste result was with our standard 15g basket. It was very quickly pulled shots (in just 16 second), with close to a 1:1 ratio (14g in, 15g out). With this approach, we had great body, but without the espresso being over-concentrated (too high a TDS).
With our slightly-waisted 14g basket we got significantly more body, at the cost of a bit less clarity, no flavor defects, a bit less aroma.
The very waisted 14g basket gave us about the same amount of body, but sweetness and almost no acidity. This would be best for someone chasing a very easy to drink, classic Italian espresso.
We show how to create these recipes yourself on the Decent: adjusting preinfusion flow rates, and temperature profiling.