Can I get a play by play on this video?

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So this video has been circulating around, I’d love to get a play-by-play on what’s actually going on here, along with some commentary on the impact of each step. It’s definitely much more involved than my routine.

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  1. he’s pouring some ghirradeli sauce (chocolate or caramel) into his demi. (gross).
  2. He’s dosing his shot (18g, pretty standard for a dbl espresso)
  3. He’s spraying a tiny bit of water on the coffee to keep the static and chaff at bay when he grinds (not an entirely necessary step).
  4. while is coffee grinds (damn his grinder is slow) he cleans up his portafilter and makes a bit of a show of it (yet for some reason doesn’t worry about cleaning the diffuser screen at the group head, which would be the more likely place to see deposits from the last shot… one can assume he did this by flushing following his last shot)
  5. Loads his coffee into his portafilter (inexplicably using a jam funnel even though he has a dosing cannister that is sized for his portafilter)
  6. He uses a distribution tool to break up any clumps (another slightly helpful but mostly overkill step, if you’re using a decent grinder)
  7. He tamps his shot using a push tamper (I know I’ve been throwing shade at this dude, but actually dig these)
  8. Then he adds another diffuser screen over his grind bed (again, another slightly helpful but mostly overkill step)
  9. He begins pulling his shot on his shot scale so he can check output weight.
  10. Then he goes to dose his milk (a actual barista would usually dose their milk first, so they could steam and pull the shot at the same time, but that’s more of a timing workflow consideration).
  11. He steams his milk (goofs it a little bit by aerating in the last stage, but overall not too bad)
  12. Stops his shot at a pretty good spot.
  13. Shot looks pretty ok (eh 8/10, which is pretty mid considering all the little gee whiz tools he uses, but w/e).
  14. He cleans up a bit while his milk settles, swirls his shot and milk, then pours a pretty nice but kinda sloppy three tier tulip.

I cannot for the life of me understand why someone would put this kind of time and money into making a macchiato only to douse it in ghiaradelli caramel sauce. This is like watching someone buy a Wagyu ribeye, cut it with a high end gyuto knife, sear it to mid rare perfection on a viking range, then proceed to dump A1 on it.

Sorry for all the shade. All in all this guy follows good barista protocols pretty well. Just kinda looks like a dude who’s super into “gear larping”.

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Great play-by-play, @Tecmo_Bo!

Yeah, this was the most puzzling thing to me. I wondered if it was perhaps a deliberate faux pas to trigger all of the discussion around it.

Yeah, I’m a big fan. Has made a huge difference to the consistency of my coffee.

This was the step I was most curious about. Wasn’t sure if it was just water or there was some mystery additive that I hadn’t yet encountered.

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I’ve been looking at a lot of hand grinders lately and many recommend spraying w/ a little water before grinding to avoid static and get more consistent grinds

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