4 Letter Word · Decaf Aba Mecha

Shot 10 on the Decaf Aba Mecha — clean extraction, nailed the Espresso target (28s, 35.6g yield), and balance came back to 4 after the very sour outlier on shot 5. The one flag here is the taste: you're calling it light and watery despite solid numbers and a balanced rating, which is worth unpacking.

Time at 28s is Normal, ratio 1.90 is Short — both squarely in range. Flow on the naked PF was normal with a healthy edge-to-center merge. The 7g lag is right in the known pattern for this bean and completely expected. The contradiction worth noting: balance 4 and quality 5, but you describe the cup as 'light and watery.' That's not an extraction failure — it's a concentration issue. At 35.6g yield on 18.7g dose, you're at the longer end of what's historically worked on this bag (shots 6–7 dialed in at 34–38g). The shot isn't thin from under-extraction; it's just less concentrated than a ristretto pull would be.

Melon, milk chocolate, and graham cracker are inherently delicate flavor notes — this bean doesn't have the density of a dark roast or a heavy natural. At 34 days post-roast it's well within its peak window. The 'light' character you're tasting is partly the bean. For milk or chocolate drinks, pulling ristretto-style (26–28g yield, tighter stop) will give you the intensity you're after without changing the extraction quality.

Shots 6–7 established this bean as dialed in, and shot 10 confirms it's holding. Balance 4 on a well-extracted decaf after a rough outlier on shot 5 is exactly the kind of consistency you're building toward.