Best overall Profile - for dark roasted espresso

The best overall pressure profile for espresso, often referred to as the "Best Overall Profile" 

by some, (was made famous by Scott Rao)

typically involves 

a fast fill, a pre-infusion of about 2 bar, a ramp-up to 9 bars of pressure, followed by a gentle decline. 

I think its very similar to a classic lever espresso style shot but it never finishes at the low pressure that

the Cremina shot did.

This profile aims to balance extraction, avoid bitterness, and produce a well-rounded, balanced espresso.

Below is what this profile looks like on a decent DE1.

 The DE1 version  (for 18g in, 36 out) has 

1. a ramp up to 4 bar over 20 secs, 

2. steep Rise to 8.4 bar and hold for 10 secs

3. gradual decline to about 6 bar over the last 30 secs.

4 stop pour at 36ml

This is a really good profile for milk based drinks.

Classic Italian espresso profile - dark to medium dark roasts

What does it take to make the Classic Italian espresso?

This is a complex question and I'm not an expert. The espresso machines & grinders vary across the country, as does the water and the beans themselves. So the answer depends on lots of factors.

Plus, one can't discount the beauty and richness of Italy itself. Just sitting in a cafe while looking at Roman architecture is bound to elevate the senses.

Italian coffee is often described with words such as rich, thick, chocolate, caramel, toffee, creamy, etc

Generally, Classic Italian espresso machines are set to use "Italian-style" roasted beans (medium dark to dark).  

Most machines use the standard “flat 9 bar” profile.

This is a simplified (and in my humble opinion, less good) version of the Lever Profile. 

https://djjondent.blogspot.com/2025/04/cremina-lever-profile-for-darkly.html

https://djjondent.blogspot.com/2024/12/spring-lever-pressure-profile.html

Below is a screen shot from a DE1 (decent). It's "classic Italian profile" is :

1. pre-infusion =< 8 sec, ramping from zero to about 4 bar.

    Flow at 8ml/sec.

2. Raise the pressure to 9 bar & hold (up to 35 sec)

    The pressure doesn't drop. You simply stop the extraction when you receive the dose aim.

    (18g in , 36 out in the 1:2 ratio case below).

    Flow is limited to 4.5ml/sec.

The temperature throughout is set at 94C, however I like to aim for 

88C (for dark/medium beans) to 92C (for light roasts).

It's good to remember that the darker the beans, the more brittle they are. 

You have a larger margin for error with dark roasted  beans because they are easier to extract.

(the lighter the coffee, the harder to extract).

Water temp and grinder particle distribution is not as important with darker coffees.

With darker roasts there is not as much acidity.

Re grinders,....  many are old, un maintained, use poor beans  etc etc.

The baristas don't seem to pay too much attention to weight. 

They just quickly dose by time & go.

I think coffee is considered to be a commodity in Italy.

The average price for an espresso is approximately €1.00 to €1.20

(prices like this would make most cafe owners in Australia cry).

I don't think this price has changed for 30 years and the quality has possibly gone down over that time. 

Has the percentage of Robusta to Arabica increased over time?

BTW,  portion size is usually 7g.

Nobody seems to be willing to pay specialty coffee prices.

Maybe this is because coffee is not grown in Italy .

It seems that lots of bars in Italy are run with a husband and wife team or family members, .... minimising the wages bill ??? 

This might help to keep costs down (along with a love of cash).

Many cafes use heavy Robusta blends that allow for more crema but also keep the cost down.

I saw a lot of Mazzer Super Jolly grinders being used in cafes in Naples.

These use 64mm flat burrs.

Mazzer and Ceado seem to dominate the Italian market, with Mazzer serving over a million baristas daily. 

Ceado being a Venetian-based leader in grinder production is also very popular as are Anfim and Eureka. 

With dark roasts, the coarser you can grind the better I think it will be.

You will also get more crema with a coarser grind.

The SCA defines espresso as:

In: Single shot: 7-10g/ double shot 14-20

Out: Single: 10-25g / double: 21-45

Shot time 20-30 secs

Brew ratio: 1:1.5 to 1:2.5

Experiment.:

When you prepare the portafilter, reduce the headspace as much as possible.

To thicken the shot, pull for less time.

To decrease the thickness.. pull for longer or coarsen the grind.

I commonly use this recipe;

I grind a bit coarser, 18g in, 30g out, in about 20 seconds.

My modified Rancilio Silva (Gaggimate) has a "Classic Italian" preset which is similar to the DE1 preset..

This is what the shot looks like. I dosed 18g in and was trying to get 36g out in under 30 secs but it pulled a bit long (36s).

I'll coarsen the grind a bit next time.

I used a DF 64V grinder with the setting at 15.

So I might try 16  or 17 next time.

The Bookoo scales are quite nifty. They connect to the Gaggimate app and the Rancilio via blue-tooth.

I must remember to flush just before I pull the shot to bring the initial temp down a bit.

A video of the shot:

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Londinium profile

Londinium is a brand of coffee machine that hail from the UK.

They primarily focus on lever machines.

These machines have become famous for their unique style of shots

to the point that many baristas have tried to emulate the 

"Londinium shot" on other machines.

My moddified Gaggia Classic (Gagguino) and Rancilio Silvia (Gaggimate) have "Londinium Profiles".

The Decent also has something similar.

So what is it?

It's a spring lever machine that uses pressurised pre-infusion at the beginning..

The technique it uses is something like a GS3 puck slam.

It really slams the puck with something like 25mls of water.

This very fast and early saturation of the puck compresses it much faster than is usual leading to a denser & thicker starting pour.

It's sometimes called a "water hammer".

The adapted "Londinium profile" for a standard lever machine involves

quickly hitting the puck with pressure (called the puck slam .. it's about 3-4 bar) 

holding it there.

Notice the initial flow rate is about 9ml/s then drops to 0.3ml/s.

The "standard Spring lever profile" has a much lower pre-infusion pressure. (About 1bar)

+  Spring lever pressure profile.

3 Bar appears to be the perfect pressure to balance capillary preinfusion with pressure preinfusion.

(3 Bar is also common in "Blooming profiles").

This gets the water through the puck evenly & quickly  & hopefully this will result in minimal channeling.

The initial flow rate needs to be really low ... about 8ml/s (0.3 to 0.5g/s) range.

This will give you a beautiful thick top to your espresso.

After this, ramp up to 9 bar, then gradually drop back to zero

as the puck degrades.

Try to keep the flow rate constant during this second stage.

This second stage has much less body.

Sometimes, after the shot reaches 9 bar, the pressure declines more slowly (than in the above Gagguino example) ... or sometimes it even hangs around the 9-8 bar range.

It all depends on the flow rate.... the important idea is to keep the flow rate constant.

When you drink a shot like this it feels super creamy due to the thick top of the preinfusion.

This pic is the graph from my Rancilio Silvia (Gaggimate mod).

The Londinium preset settings for this machine were 18g in, 36g out.

I used a DF64v grinder at setting 12. (1000 rpm).

Temp 93c

Pre-infusion 3 bar (14 sec)

Ramp up to 9 bar (1 sec)

then drop to 8bar, 7bar, 6bar, 5bar.

Hold at 5 bar for the rest of the shot until you reach your desired final weight.

The duration of each step & the final shot length will depend on the grind size.

I think my grind size was a little to fine ...as it took 43sec to get 36g out.

I'll dial the DF64 to setting 10 next time.

So for this Gaggimate - Londinium profile I decided to maintain the final pressure at 5bar but this could be lower ... maybe 4 or 3 bar ?? 

Some profiles use higher pressures. 

I think it all depends on keeping a steady final flow rate and thus maintaining puck integrity.

In summary:

1. Pre-infuse:  8 ml/s, low pressure & hold at 3 bar.

                   (About 13 secs). At this point, the puck is held in a compressed state.

2. Post infusion: raise pressure and hold at 9 bar.

3. Final stage: decline to 5-3 bar (and hold at this pressure)

You need to monitor the flow in these last stages.

Your aim is to keep the flow at about 2g/sec (2ml/sec).

This profile works really well on dark to medium roasts.

Usually, I aim for a 1:2 ratio

One important think to note is that although I use the measurement of pressure a lot, what is also important is flow.

Pressure = flow x resistance

This type of shot is really tasty with milk based coffee like Latte

Below is a graph from Decent.

Temp is around 89C

The flow changes quite a bit.

... up to 8ml/sec (puck slam) then back to 2ml/s 

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Rao Allonge / Sprover profile - coffee shots

Scott Rao's Allonge shot or a Coffee Shot

Sometimes called the Sprover = espresso + pour over

Very controversial because it's super long.

It's kind of like an Americano or a Australian long black, but the difference

is that you don't just add water to an espresso.

Basically you are trying to make filter style coffee using an espresso machine.

Initally it started with using a standard espresso machine (with 9 bars) and

a coarse grind.

The method was to pass water through the puck at 9 bars for 30 secs ... aiming to get

a ratio of 1: 10 etc 

According to Decent/John Buckman,

a 1:5 ratio (can do 1:4-7 or so) is good.

But with a sprover  1:11 or 1:13 is common

It's hard to do this on many "standard espresso machines" as they don't usually hold enough water

Remember to use a coarser grind than usual.... like on a Aeropress or V60

and Pull for around 30-60 seconds

Matt Perger recommended using the EK-47 grinder

https://hex.coffee/blogs/journal/why-we-coffee-shot-how-we-coffee-shot

These really long shots give amazing clarity ... esp for lighter roasts.

Ideally try to get a low flow rate -- maybe 3ml/sec to 4.5ml/second flow rate the whole way

- peak at 8-9 bar, and ideally finish around 6ish on a lever. 

Pressure shouldn't go below 4bar on a lever , but with a e61, it can finish at 1-1.5 bar

... just experiment

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Not all coffee machines can do this type of shot.

You need a machine with a large reservoir , and the ability to control flow rate.

If you have a entry level single boiler, you will probably not have enough water.

Machines that can do these types of shots are:

Most flow profile e61 machines

Breville dual boiler

Nomad manual lever

Decent

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Blooming espresso profile

Blooming was inspired by pour over drip coffee brewers... releasing CO2 and allowing the grounds to be fully saturated.

It's a great profile for extracting sweetness, esp from lighter roast coffee that is really acidic.

It's a high extraction profile that is also very forgiving.

A big thanks to Scott Rao for all his work.

This profile is exciting from an experimentation point of view as it open's a pathway for extracting

more coffee from less.

I don't usually use a dark roasts with this profile (unless I want my coffee bitter).

I think it's better with light to medium roasts.

You can replicate this on a lever machine.... or any machine that allows you to control flow.

A machine without a OPV (over pressure valve) or a way to override one is an advantage.

This profile has a very long initial pre infusion stage before a flow controlled pressured stage.

Firstly, make sure you grind finer than you would usually for espresso.

I've seen filter paper placed below and above the tamped coffee cake.

These two pieces of paper are supposed to do two things:

1. reduce channeling (top paper) and help dispersion of water over the cake.

2.speed the flow (bottom) as those particles might clog the portafilter. ???

These are just theories so experiment to you heart's content.

Maybe I want to decrease the flow and those fines clogging the portafilter might be a good thing. ...so I sometimes experiment with just the top paper?

I don't like using paper anyway (for environmental reasons) so am experimenting with a puck screen and not using a lower paper filter.

Maybe try using two metal puck screens ?

Method:

1. Ramp the pressure up 

    to 4 to 6 bar over 10 

    secs.

    Once you hit about 5 

    bar stop pushing on 

    your lever (if you're 

    using a lever machine).

2. You should have let go 

     of the lever.

    This is the blooming 

    stage where the flow 

    drops to zero.

    

The pressure will also drop to zero as water is absorbed into the puck.

If you're using a lever you may see some drops of coffee falling into the cup. 

This is OK.

This blooming stage will all take about 10-40 secs.

The water should just sit on top of the puck (in "suspended animation").

The Decent app recommends using a blue-tooth scale to keep track of how much dripping into the cup there is before the ramp stage.  

They think that about 8 grams of total dripping, (within 2 grams), gives the best tasting results. 

3. After the blooming stage is finished, ramp the pressure up (you don't want to reach 8-9 bar).

    Just try to maintain flow at 2ml/sec. Between 2-4 bar should be sufficient.

I like to aim for a 1: 3 ratio.

Or go even longer.

Pull 1:4 or even 1:5

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I like to see this profile more as a flow profile rather than a pressure profile but of course pressure & flow are hard to separate..  It has 3 stages:

1. Pre-wet stage - 25sec - 4g/sec

2. Bloom stage - 30sec - zero flow

    In this stage we stop the flow but try to maintain some (passive) pressure.

    This is hard to achieve on most automatic machines (not the Decent, Gaggimate or lever machines)

    since when you stop flow, you stop pressure (the OPV opens on most machines). 

    It's important to have some remaining passive pressure in the system to maintain

    puck integrity.

3. Brew/percolation stage - ramp up to 2g/sec and maintain for 25 secs

This is a shot from my modified Rancilio Silvia (Gaggimate mod)

Flow is the priority

1. 4g/s for 7 secs

2. zero flow for 30 secs

3. 2g/s for the rest. 

My aim was a 1:3 , 1:3.5 ratio.

18g in, +54g out.

I manually stopped the shot at 60secs when I reached 62g.

I need to grind finer. Dripping too much in stage 1.

and the pressure never rose above 1 bar in stage 3.

I don't have a TDS meter so can't give a scientific measure of the extraction levels, but it tasted strong. Quite pleasant, sweet, a bit of acidity. not bitter.

Gaggiuino also have a version of this which I'll explore later.

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