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Round two! Normally I would let a coffee rest a little more before I pulled the first shot of espresso but after last nights difficulties I was eager to take a second stab at using the Lido for espresso. So up today was the Sumatra - Wahana Estate - Natural from PTs in Topeka, KS that was roasted 5/30. I've tried a few coffees from them before but mostly their espresso blends. The first shot of the day was ground in the Lido with a setting of 1/4 turn from the original zero. As an aside for those using a Lido, my zero has drifted about 1/8 of a turn clock wise from where it originally was set when I received it. So I fired up the Peppina and pulled 13.5g at this setting. The shot ran a little faster than what I like but not unreasonably so. The initial sip tasted ok but the rest was sinked. Next I went with the same 13.5g dose but with a Lido setting of 1/8 turn from zero. This shot looked spot on and is the one pictured above. It tasted very nice. Flavors I could make out were of subtle chocolate and fruit. I'd call it a success. I'm going to give it a few more days rest before I come to a final conclusion on this coffee as an espresso but I think the initial results are promising.

 

Some thoughts on the Lido used as an espresso grinder. I think when it comes to the doses I'm using it works quite well. Ergonomically it's easy to hold and grind and the catch jar makes it very easy to get all the ground coffee out. Today I put 14g in and got 13.5g out both times. The grind retention is very minimal but the one downside to it is that the next time I grind for drip I'll inevitably get more fines in the cup if I'm doing an immersion brew. Even with a lot of brushing and tapping there still a lot of coffee stuck to the burrs. I guess I could remove the inner burr and clean each time I switch from espresso to drip but that seems a little cumbersome. A less time consuming approach may be to get a mini shop vac and suck out all the stray grinds. Slightly obsessive but I had already been thinking about this before I started grinding espresso with the Lido.

 

All in all a much better espresso session than the last!