Espresso Calibration

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So this is the kind of pre-scientific stuff that I get to think about at work, these days.

This example is a slide prepared to lay out my thoughts to my colleagues (based on data, etc.) regarding two shots of espresso, and what we should do next. We go through DOZENS of such iterations in a day. Each iteration takes a competent operator 1-3 minutes to tweak a variable and test it, and costs $1-3 of raw material, on a setup costing about $21,000.

Often, we don't talk about every dimension of available data. I hope that in the future, a more rigorous framework can be designed by which people in the industry do more consideration of all available data.

Someone asked what the end goal was.

The process? Espresso tastes like shit unless you fix it up every few hours or so... so you have to keep re-calibrating it. Yes, the aficionados who are actually excited about coffee look for the "god shots".

My own goals? This job pays my bills and doesn't require me to sit down. The rest is stuff I'm told to do. Not shooting for any rockstar barista WTF here. I have too many other things to focus on... :(