That's a really nice intro to WDT, balanced and complete. One thing I'd add: for a home-made tool, look for acupuncture needles on one of the bigger Chinese websites. I got 20 needles for 5€, which is more than enough for 3 tools (I use 6 on one tool), and it gets cheaper if you buy more needles. :) As you said, the size matters, around 0.4mm in diameter. I cut mine to be a little bit shorter, for personal convenience, but also to get rid of the pointy ends. These thin needles are also flexible, and I think it helps. In addition to breaking clumps, I find that while using the WDT, you can get a feeling for areas in the puck that are denser than others, so you can further improve evenness. Clumping happens even with good home grinders, especially as you have to grind finer for certain beans. So I think a WDT is useful if you want to explore various beans at home. Less so if you stick to the same beans and always get fluffy grinds. Also, you mentioned the need for a funnel: I agree, and I'll add that one should look for a funnel that sits on the outer rim of the portafilter. Funnels that sit on the inside tend to leave a dent around the coffee puck, which goes against our goals. I got one for 6€ (again, Chinese online store), totally worth it. I would be surprised if WDT became a trend in cafés: in addition to the extra time spent, you lose some consistency, because it's very much a manual process. But at home, it's worth it for me.
Home user : Eureka Single Dose Grinder. WDT has definitely improved my espresso. I was first advised to grind, WDT, OCD, then tamp. I get better results if I leave out the OCD. Thanks for posting your technique!
@@ArtistiCoffeeRoasters HI! I rewatched the video and a couple of things I wondered about. When pulling the shot, you mentioned 'dark areas and light areas'. What does this mean? This morning I watched and the right half was blond color, the left half was a deep brown???? And, when looking at your final shot, you mentioned the 'pale' portion of the shot. Is this an over extracted portion? Maybe a video on 'color' and what to look for? Thanks....lyle
Thanks for this vid! I have been looking forward to you making one about WDT for a while! It made my extractions so much better. I was wondering if you were also going to go over that new trend of using paper filter underneath the puck that Lance Hedrick, James Hoffman and Jonathan Gagné recently talked a lot about. I have been using them for over 3 months now and it really changed my espresso game! Cheers guys
I never heard of WDT as a barista but when I got into coffee at home I did. I wouldn't use it in the cafe but perhaps when pulling a single origin I might but when they're mixed in with a bunch of other orders.... Yeah no.. Edit: just found out Barista Hussle are planning to bring out the autocomb which could be interesting. It would be good to get some feedback from artisti when it finally drops.
Great video again, you certainly wouldn’t have the time to use that in a cafe, can I ask you how water was also dripping from the group head while you were pulling the shot. Once again great video and full of info. Kind regards to you all from Scotland. Johnny
Yes it was leaking from the head, the seals were bedded in to a different handle, we did not pick this up till after in editing, so we left it in. The machine was moving on the bench as I tightened, NOTE don’t wipe the bench with a wet cloth before you start a video. 😜
I use a Niche Zero grinder, and grind directly into the basket (and funnel/collar) which I rotate under the NZ funnel, for evenness. Accordingly, I don’t see much much, if any, clumping. Still, I have always WDT’d and am loth to give it up. So I deep and mid WDT with very small circular motions, which I more broadly spiral from outside to in. I then surface rake, with a 3D printed tool that I bought on Etsy, into which I have inserted 9 acupuncture needles of 0.35 mm each (80 mm long, including the 30mm handle portion). Still, I am always concerned about moving coffee grounds around, as I understand that less is more. This 9 needle configuration seems to move the grounds around somewhat (not hugely but it does move the grounds around abit). Should I reduce the number of needles (say to 6) or reduce the size to say 0.30mm or do both? As I do not see any pre-WDT clumps, I am wondering whether I am introducing more channeling risks than there were in the first place. Post WDT, I do see some evidence of channeling (1mm wide but not deep holes) and say 75% coverage of the basket bottom during the initial beading, on say half of the shots that I pour. Any suggestions here, as I am looking for consistency.
The raking seems to be a bit over kill after WDT, I assume you have pressure consistent? The raking could move grinds and make channels as is they are the same location in a basket essentially you making a groove.
I have that same WDT that I brought from eBay. I think it works better if you only use half the needles, like in every second slot. Have you guys tried that?
I saw sprometheus do a controlled tds trial with what I can only guess is some sort of kruve-esque sifter. I'm always worried about workflow but have seen needles on the end of an ocd handle sold on aliexpress. The question is whether such a tool is as good as the 'ol needle stir. The other thing is that spro' didn't do tapping puck prep on all, whereas I go tap>ocd>tamp so whether tap>needles>tamp is better remains to be seen. At the least, it makes sense in that if your grinder gives out the big clumps, an ocd doesn't fix those clumps, whereas mr. slightly smaller herb grinder might actually do the job. I'd just like one inbuilt into a dosing funnel for the ultimate workflow efficiency
Thank you, I look forward to geeking out on the TDS and the best results, I know the best results won’t be good work flow for a cafe, but excited to see the best for flavour. Cheers luke
If you look at James Hoffmann's technique video, you can see that he does WDT > tap > tamp, although he forgot to mention it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xb3IxAr4RCo.html It's what I do too, mostly to check that I still have a somewhat flat surface to tamp on.
erm.... im just gonna buy some acupuncture needle and made my self a cheap nice distributor needle....... why buy $33 branded shit when we can make it with only $3..... right ?
For those who can’t afford a declumper tool, Another alternative can be a cork from the wine bottle with four or five toothpicks bedded into the cork to give us ability, and Wala, you have your tool homemade at cost you nothing.
@@storiestobesung he's no one "important" like a celebrity in the industry, but he's the guy who came up with the idea to use needles to distribute the grounds back in 2005
Some feedback: The way you were swinging around the WDT and leaving the points up on the bench is a recipe for getting stabbed- please remind people to be careful. I’ve switched to the Idroprep tamper and that is proving to be a great technology. There is no more WDT and distribution. Give it a try!
We need to let Darwin be in full affect. If you get stabbed and you don’t have enough self awareness to no get stabbed the first time and subsequently second time you shouldn’t be operating an espresso machine and definitely not consuming caffeine. Let people learn lessons without wasting everyone else’s time.
If people need to be told that, I worry about them using anything sharp. A wdt that uses acupuncture needles is going to be 0.3mm in diameter. If you make a wdt using the cork, putting it down needle side up is the most convenient way to store it. Don't store it on its side or you risk bending the needles and not wdt'ing the entire bed of coffee.