4 Letter Word · Decaf Aba Mecha

Sat, Aug 8, 2026, 10:34 PM (Shot 118)

DoppioSlowNormalDay 11 · Peak window

Shot

Grind Setting35.5

Dose17.8g

Grinder Retention0g

Adjusted dose 17.8g

WDT UsedYes

Distribution ToolYes

Spring Weight30 lbs

Pre-infusion7s

FlowOne spout dominant

Shot Time44s

Stopped at29.8g (+6g drip)

Yield35.8g

Ratio 1:2.010.81 g/sSlowNormal

Target

Espresso

Aiming for Espresso (35.6g, 25–30s) — yield on target, ran slow.

Taste

Balance

SourSourBitter

Shot Rating

★★★★★

Notes

Flow was restricted from the beginning, flowing slowly at times on the left side and dripping throughout on the right. Taste was sour and intense will continue to tinker with the extraction

Drink

DrinkLatte

Milkwhole

Milk Quantity180ml

Foam25ml

Overall Rating

★★★★★

Latte Art

Picasso

Drink is great, with the milk eliminating any intense or lingering notes. Latte art was promising but did not resemble anything in the end

Analysis

✦

AI Analysis

Problem

Summary

Shot 118: 44s, 35.8g yield, balance 2 (sour), grind 35.5. The channel pattern from shots 1–3 is still here — restricted start, left slow, right dripping throughout. This is shot 4 on Aba Mecha and the bilateral restriction has not changed despite grind moves across 34–35.5. The puck prep issue is the common thread.

What the Numbers Say

Time is Slow at 44s, ratio is Normal at 2.01. The sour balance 2 aligns with the restricted flow — channeling is causing uneven extraction, underextracting parts of the puck while the rest over-compensates with flow time. The 6g lag is standard Bambino behavior, no flag.

The One Thing to Change

Drop back to grind 34 and rebuild your WDT technique before this shot: extend to 45 seconds, slow down, and spend the final 12–15 seconds in deliberate full-perimeter edge coverage — overlapping strokes at the basket wall, full needle depth, all the way around. The right spout drip is consistent across all four shots regardless of grind setting, which means the puck edge near that spout is not being consolidated by your WDT. Grind is not the variable here.

Four shots across grind 34–35.5 all show bilateral restriction and right-spout drip. The channel mechanism is puck prep — specifically, incomplete edge coverage leaving a low-density zone the water preferentially exploits. Until a shot runs clean with even bilateral flow, grind adjustment is noise on top of this signal.

Bean Context

Aba Mecha is an EA washed decaf at 11 days post-roast, which puts it right at the recommended 10-day rest threshold the roaster calls out — freshness is fine. As a decaf, the bean structure is more open and extracts more easily, which means channeling defects will be amplified and show up more dramatically in the cup. The melon and milk chocolate notes are nowhere in the taste right now because the channel is masking them. This bean should taste noticeably sweeter once the puck prep is clean.

Progress

Four shots, four identical channel signatures — this confirms the diagnosis definitively. The next shot isn't a grind test, it's a WDT test. If the flow runs even with full-perimeter coverage, you'll know the fix.

Cached · Aug 8

Bean

Roaster4 Letter Word

BeanDecaf Aba Mecha

Days Since Roast11 days — Peak window

Roast Date2026-07-28