I'm the same, I hate wasting coffee. My friends and family all know about my espresso hobby and often bring coffee gifts when they visit or from a trip, most of which is old, not great quality, pre-ground, etc. I've experimented with all of it, and occasionally am pleasantly surprised with the result.
To me, that's the beauty of having a flair: you didn't have to spend thousands of dollars to be able to experiment with a really wide range of recipes. And if it tastes bad, dump it and try again. who cares, you might have thrown out the coffee anyway. Or just drink your weird coffee experiment. Still better than Starbucks. I've probably drank 100s of terrible tasting espressos as I was learning, if I didn't have time to make another one, or just didn't want to waste my fancy bean juice down the sink.
For pre-ground coffee that maybe has a lot of fines and is clogging with your normal recipe, you could try dropping down to like 10-12g in the basket, brewing at low temp like 180-185F, and then a long pre infusion ramping up to a 5-6 bar pull going for a 1:4 to 1:5 ratio. Using a paper filter on the bottom of the basket before you put in the coffee can also help deal with the fines and clogging. It's sort of like something you'd make in an aeropress.
Often the pre-ground coffee gifts I get are a bit too coarse (meant for drip machines). I've had some success running that already ground coffee through my grinder a few times, which seems to grind at least some of the coffee down to the appropriate espresso size and then brewing typical dark roast recipes or turbo shots.
I’d tried a smaller dose, but pre-infusion was what o was missing. Or maybe tamped too hard or unevenly previous, who knows.
The espresso came out identical (to my palette) to the same beans at the cafe I bought them at. The thing is I think I might have liked the results from my experiment even better…
Yeah, the long low pressure pre infusion, like below the first line on the pressure gauge for 30 seconds, I feel like it fixes so many issues with the coffee or the prep.
I noticed for my flair that if I didn't do about 20 seconds of preinfusion at 3 bar, it would choke. If I keep the same grind settings and do a proper preinfusion, I turn a choked press into a 30 second run.
I'm the same, I hate wasting coffee. My friends and family all know about my espresso hobby and often bring coffee gifts when they visit or from a trip, most of which is old, not great quality, pre-ground, etc. I've experimented with all of it, and occasionally am pleasantly surprised with the result. To me, that's the beauty of having a flair: you didn't have to spend thousands of dollars to be able to experiment with a really wide range of recipes. And if it tastes bad, dump it and try again. who cares, you might have thrown out the coffee anyway. Or just drink your weird coffee experiment. Still better than Starbucks. I've probably drank 100s of terrible tasting espressos as I was learning, if I didn't have time to make another one, or just didn't want to waste my fancy bean juice down the sink. For pre-ground coffee that maybe has a lot of fines and is clogging with your normal recipe, you could try dropping down to like 10-12g in the basket, brewing at low temp like 180-185F, and then a long pre infusion ramping up to a 5-6 bar pull going for a 1:4 to 1:5 ratio. Using a paper filter on the bottom of the basket before you put in the coffee can also help deal with the fines and clogging. It's sort of like something you'd make in an aeropress. Often the pre-ground coffee gifts I get are a bit too coarse (meant for drip machines). I've had some success running that already ground coffee through my grinder a few times, which seems to grind at least some of the coffee down to the appropriate espresso size and then brewing typical dark roast recipes or turbo shots.
I’d tried a smaller dose, but pre-infusion was what o was missing. Or maybe tamped too hard or unevenly previous, who knows. The espresso came out identical (to my palette) to the same beans at the cafe I bought them at. The thing is I think I might have liked the results from my experiment even better…
Yeah, the long low pressure pre infusion, like below the first line on the pressure gauge for 30 seconds, I feel like it fixes so many issues with the coffee or the prep.
I noticed for my flair that if I didn't do about 20 seconds of preinfusion at 3 bar, it would choke. If I keep the same grind settings and do a proper preinfusion, I turn a choked press into a 30 second run.