Coffee Data Science
How to make Sudo-Staccato Espresso with a Niche Grinder without a Sifter
Layering without a sifter
I recently upgraded after 5 years of using a ROK grinder to a Niche Zero. I mainly upgraded because of time. It took me 5 minutes to grind beans for four shots, and I didn’t like the experience especially planning when I was going to grind to be the least disruptive to my family. I felt certain of the quality, and I figured I could save some time upgrading.
It took me a little while to dial in the grind because of all the fancy things I do in my shot preparation. However, this lead to a great discovery: the 0 setting on the Niche is very fine. So I sifted it, and I sifted some coffee grounds from the 10 setting to understand a little more about the particle distribution. Most of the 0 setting was below 400 um in size. I thought this had some potential to do a staccato shot, let’s call it sudo-staccato espresso.
I have loved staccato shots, but because of the pandemic and working from home, I haven’t had time to sift coffee. I thought about buying a larger mechanical sifter, but I don’t have the counter space. I developed staccato tamping by accident last year, and I improved the process using my knowledge from 100’s of staccato shots.
Additionally, I have always wanted to allow others to try staccato shots. Most people don’t have sifters nor would they take the time to sift enough coffee to experiment and perfect the technique. Even after sifting many pounds of coffee, the best I could get to was 3 grams per minute so for a 18g shot, it required 6 minutes of sifting. Usually, I would have to sift more than needed because I wouldn’t get the right amount of coffee grounds per layer. Typically, I would sift 45 grams at a time.
By demonstrating how to make a staccato shot with the Niche, I’m also producing a recipe that anyone with a Niche or similar grinder could reproduce. The key is that the grind setting can easily be adjusted and have a narrow coffee ground distribution. So any zero or low retention grinder with a unimodal or close to unimodal distribution would work.
Staccato Espresso in Review
Staccato shots started out as a strange experiment. I was interested in using a sifter to get a better particle size for coffee, but I was only mildly interested in it. I didn’t want to buy a sifter new because I didn’t believe I would use it long term. If I found it for a good price, I figured I would go for it. That’s why I bought my first one.
In the beginning, the Kruve sifter I bought used only had the 400um and 800um screens. This wasn’t optimal for espresso, but I’m always in the mood to experiment. So I sifted the my coffee grounds. There were few grounds above 800um, but the split between greater than and less than 400um was pretty even. I designed some experiments to determine what I could do.
Less than 400um grounds caused the filter to clog and produce uneven extraction, but in terms of taste, it was sweeter without the normal bitter notes. Greater than 400um grounds flowed better, but the taste was different. It wasn’t worse, but I began to theorize that each particle size gave a different component of the taste.
Naturally, this led to a combination, a layering.
Two months of iterations later, I determined using only a taste scale of 7 metrics, the best ordering of layers and weights per layer. Later, I used Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Extraction Yield (EY) to confirm I was getting higher extraction with a staccato shot than a normal shot.
Staccato tamping born from crisis
When the pandemic struck, I was suddenly working from home. I also happened to have bought a few pounds of coffee that was a bit darker of a roast than I prefer. However, I was still pulling shots for milk based drinks. I was annoyed by putting coffee grounds into the basket and having coffee go everywhere even though, after I tamped, it would all fit with room to spare. As a result, I started tamping once in the middle and once at the end.
I was measuring extraction yield of these shots, and I noticed I was increasing extraction yield. This led to the development of the staccato tamp technique which leverages the learnings from the staccato shot by modifying the density in two layers to approximate a staccato shot.
Over the past few months, I’ve spent more time looking at coffee distribution curves, and I bought a Niche to save on time. However, I did notice that the best coffee grinders give a tighter distribution around a central particle size. This got me thinking that maybe a higher end grinder like the Niche could be used to make a staccato shot or rather approximate to one. The Niche, in my estimate, is on the low price range of the higher end grinders in the market.
How to Layer with the Niche (or any high end grinder)
When I first got the grinder, I tried pulling a shot, but I needed to dial in the grinder. So I decided to sift two different grind sizes to understand the larger grind distribution. Distributions exist from a few sources, but nobody has swept across the grind settings to see how that has affect grind distribution. This small test did tell me that setting 1 was very fine. I suspect the Niche can go 10 or more settings finer than my previous grinder.
I started the experiment like most experiments: an educated guess. I thought the 0 setting could be a good substitute for the fine layer, setting 15 for the mid layer, and setting 30 for the coarse layer. I knew the layers wouldn’t be as tight on particle distribution, but maybe I would find something that worked.
My aim was to see if I was in the ballpark. If I was in the ballpark, some minor tweaks would get me all the way. To be in the ballpark meant that I could get close to the taste of my other shots and close to the extraction yield.
I wanted a deeper understanding of the grind distributions, and so I worked on a method to produce particle distributions. The primary aim is to help make modifications to this sudo-staccato shot.
Typically, I grind for a few shots and store the grounds in sealed containers in the refrigerator (data has shown this doesn’t affect freshness).
First, I ground the coffee. For workflow, I start by grinding the beans on the finest setting, then the mid setting, and finally the coarse setting.
Then I warm up the machine and start the puck preparation. I use a bent paper clip or a custom plastic piece to distribute the coffee grounds.
I tamp each layer, but I have found the tamps need to be light. For the fine layer, it will quickly compress under pressure, so a lighter tamp reduces channeling. I usually aim for a 200g to 400g tamp for each layer. I use a scale to measure the pressure. I also use a cloth filter on the bottom and between the fine and coarse layers for extra complications.
Then I pull the shot. I do a long pre-infusion around 30 or 40 seconds. Usually, I film the shot so I can see the progress. If the shot is donuting, I do a 1 minute or 1.5 minute pre-infusion. Then I pressure pulse.
I end the shot between the 1:1 output to input and the 1.5:1 (for 18g in, the output range I aim for is 18g to 24g). I let this cool for 4 minutes, and then I stir the shot and drink it.
Shot Analysis
In looking at Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) vs Extraction Yield (EY), my aim is for the red zone in the chart below. Staccato shots still perform better, so I have some work to see if I can adjust grind settings to improve Sudo Staccato shots.
For the past few months, I’ve been pulling more Staccato Tamped shots, and from these, they trend similarly for TDS and EY:
Dialing-In a Staccato Shot
Unlike a normal dial-in process where one adjusts the grind, I prefer to first adjust the amounts per layer first. I also have been careful about tamp pressure. I found a very light tamp (200g to 400g) is more effective because the particle size range is already tighter so the layer compacts better. This assumes a longer pre-infusion doesn’t help donating.
The staccato shot has always been next level for me, and I have done other fun tricks like a cloth (or paper) filter on the bottom as well as in-between the fine and coarse layers. Being able to cut time out of my workflow but still produce an amazing shot makes the Niche an incredible purchase for me.
The grinder doesn’t have to be a Niche. You could be any high end grinder that gives close to uni-modal distributions. I suspect flat burrs might be even better suited, but I don’t know until I get some data on multiple grind settings.
If you like, follow me on Twitter and YouTube where I post videos of espresso shots on different machines and espresso related stuff. You can also find me on LinkedIn. You can also follow me on Medium.
Further readings of mine:
Collection of Espresso Articles
