How to Affect the Taste of an Espresso

As I’m coming up on getting into more training, I’ve been thinking a lot about the different ways a barista can affect the taste of a shot.

For the time being I’m going to leave out the temperature and pressure adjustments as I don’t have the privilege of working on a machine with those controls. For now my thinking revolves around: Grind, Dose, Tamp & Brew Time.

For a cafe setting I am going with the argument there is going to be a set & standard ‘shop way’ of pulling shots for the 12oz and larger milk drinks. I would apply that same standard to demitasse drinks as well after factoring the baristas familiarity with the customer. The may be a difference in the way a single or a double is pulled as there needs to be enough espresso to provide a certain level of coffee flavor in order to pull through the bigger milk drinks. I don’t see this as a problem as those that are getting espressos are going to appreciate the slight difference in the shot from day today and often times look for that.

I’m for consistency if I’m for anything in a cafe setting as the number one reason I hear from my regulars as they travel is that they go to Starbux because they know what they are going to get, not necessarily because they like what they are going to get. A lot of independent shops have not been extremely focused on stressing quality or worried too much about maintaining a certain level of consistent quality so people are never really sure as to what thy are going to get when they go into an indie shop they have never been in before.

So the espresso has been chosen, and the desired taste/flavor profile has been decided upon. For the moment let’s assume that is 20g @ 20sec at a volume of 1 oz. Everything is set and in place and humming along and then something changes and the shots are no longer quite as sexy as they were at opening. How does one go about correcting the problem? Because of the training I have received, I am immediately say to change the grind to get things back in line. Now I don’t mind the occasional glass of Cool-Aide, but how long am I going to continue to let myself be drowned by it?

Is changing the grind the best way to go about bringing the “flavor profile” back in alignment?

Do the 4 things mentioned above, that a barista has direct & immediate control over, have different things in the flavor profile that they control. For example: Does the Tamp cave the most direct control over the amount of “cocoa” tasted in the shot, the Dose the Fruits, the Grind the Spice, and Brew Time the Citrus?

Does one change several at once, or take a more scientific/methodical approach to things? Making the grind finer, barring nothing else changing, will increase the shot time, but so will any of the other 3 factors. But in what ways do they affect it. While this hypothetical shot is somehow running short, how has the taste been affected? If everything is the same except for the citrus/acidity angle, but not the time factor or any of the other flavors. How is this best corrected?

Or,, the shots are running long. Conventional thought would say to make the grind coarser. But what would happen if the Tamp was lightened or even the dose lightened up?

How would one go about determining things like this if they are even measurable.

Am I even making any sense? Or should I just have another whiskey and go to bed?