Portafilter Baskets - Do They Matter? 

I just watched my fourth Clive Coffee video in a row. They have all been consistently clear and to the point and I especially liked the emphasis on the end product - it really is all about making a cup of coffee that you enjoy without getting hung up on gadgetry and/or technique. Can you help me with my taxes?

I really appreciate the level of empiricism you all brought to this video. I wouldn't call it scientific (because that's a very high bar), but it's just nice to see people take data more seriously. Cheers!

I like the comparison, but as an analytical scientist, your use of stats was misleading. What are the units of measure? How did you quantitate ‘channeling’? Your trend line is wrong- that is not an R2 value, but perhaps a P value. Like they say, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.

My favorite is Pullman 876 - Match with Bigstep - great tool used in my videos

I just bought a Rocket Appartamento and im struggling to get it working. It makes the coffee way too fast, 18 grams in and 36 grams out in 3.4-3.8 seconds. I weigh my coffee and im putting in the right amount. I use expensive pre ground stuff called Nescafe Blend 43. It looks to be ground quite coarse but when I empty out the jar and check the granules they all look to be a very consistent size. A friend told me to use better coffee so i have tried this brand called Macona, slightly better but I am having the same issues, less than 4.5 second brew times. I was told i need to tamp with more force so I have began to use my foot to squash the tamp down really hard. This has gotten my brew times to 11 seconds but I have damaged the portafilter channels from standing on it. Im thinking the problem might be the basket?

I was using a VST basket for many years, recently re-sold it. I get better results usually from the stock basket, I think it does depend on your grinder, coffee prep and coffee roast level and preferences as well. I think VST did offer a little more clarity (maybe less body) but I found it channeled more often than my Stock ECM machine's basket. It requires a little finer grind size and very careful puck prep. I think it is a bit better for light roasts if you get everything right.

Do you recommend a 54mm VST basket? I have a Breville Infuser if that makes a difference!

I’ve replaced stock ecm basket with the vst 18 and can no longer get a nice pour. Every shot has channels now with vst so this is opposite to the advice in your video. I’m using Niche Zero grinder. If I go too fine i get spurts and slow flow but nice colour. Everything else is too blond or too fast. I just can’t get it right in the middle. Using ocd and correct size tamper. What can I do?

What's the best option for a 54mm basket?

I have a VBM Super Domo and I use a Rocket naked portafiller with the original basket, I have ordered a VST 20g basket to see how it goes, always looking for improvement. A recent service and replacement of the vibrating pump has made an improvement in pulling a lot more consistent shots, the pressure gauge is now very stable. The article mentions discarding the first few grams of the grind, sounds like a good idea, will try that tomorrow. I am lucky I am able to buy 500g of freshly roasted beans every 7 to 10 days.

Wow someone did a least-squares regression. I have accused the coffee hobby of being a little bit precious, but this is hard core

Which better MSI or VST basket ? I want to buy one of them but I am confused.

I have just been through a spate of upgrades on my Oscar 2, replaced my grinder with a Mignon Silenzio and whilst the results were superb, the consistency wasn't optimal. Just received an 18g VST basket and the results have been game changing! Far quicker to dial in shots due to less variance between them and consistently brilliant shots. If you are on the fence, do it!

I liked it but I’m just a small homebrewer guy and when I do use my espresso machine it’s with the OEM! Since it takes a far less space using my nanopresso from Wacaco and I like to use my own ground coffee I realize this is not going to come up the most people standards as being espresso, but I say if you like it drink it! Your information was very interesting we’re probably geared more towards café owners and those who have high-end machines in their house!

Great video! Thanks for sharing! One question, are the distribution tool and tamper from SAI in size 58mm so they're able to fit the La Marzocco portafilter?

I’m using Breville Oracle, what should I expect investing in an VST 15 gram basket?

From my understanding, ism baskets are the same as vst baskets. They are made in the same factory. But with ISM they are not checked by magnification and come with no certificate. Instead ism pays to have ism printed on vst baskets. So how do pullman baskets compare against other baskets?

Hi, I have a bottomless portafilter and I just purchased a VST 18g filter for it. Using the bottomless Portafilter and VST for the first time. I pretty much had everything dialed in, but when I used the VST filter the rate of flow almost double. I got my 36g of liquid coffee in about 12 seconds. Wow! I did not change any of the grind settings. Is that expected when changing to a VST filter? Do I now have to adjust my grind settings to accommodate the VST filter? I confirmed the change in flow rate by replacing the previous Rocket filter and all was as I expected…..36 grams in about 28 seconds.

does your best VST basket fit a Breville Oracle’s portafilter? Only the 20g available or is there a smaller one?

I have VST 15, VST 22, Pullman 876 17-19, IMS 16-18, Pesado 20. All of them produce different results but my favorite is the pullman and vst 15g. 22g vst tastes terrible btw the pour look perfect but i always prefer the lower dose espresso shot even in a big latte i used around 14-19g now

Its a bit unclear what you mean by variability from target yield. Is that measured as weight of beverage in the cup at 25 seconds of extraction? Or are you measuring extraction quantity with a density meter and displaying variance from target with that graph?

What are your thoughts about pressure basket with ridges (spring wire that keeps them firmly in portafilter )versus those without ridges?

I've been using the same basket with bottomless portafilter and I'm getting different results. I need to grind finner for bottomless. Is that make any sense?

Oh great. Now I have to buy another toy for my Flair 58. Thank you!

@clivecoffee I’m getting fine particles of coffee in my espresso shot. The shot is pulling well and within the 25-30 sec with a 1:2 ratio. I was advised to change my basket. I just purchased a VST 20g ridged and still having issues. Any thoughts? Thanks in advanced.

different betwen VST Precision Ridgeless Filter Basket and ridge

Does anyone know what basket I should get for my dual boiler 920

How does IMS compare to the VST baskets?

I think your R^2 value is inverted, should be closer to 0.9 not 0.1

And compared vst and ims ? the baristapro, nanotech ones ?

ridged or ridgeless, and what's the difference as it relates to the espresso in the cup?

Great informative video. How about IMS BaristaPro NT basket?

i recently bought a 15g VST basket but i never got one good result with it. i filled 15g, it was way too underextracted, so i adjusted my grinder to produce finer grind. Now i have 15g in / 27-28g out in approx 25s but the shot taste really bad. I have channeling issues... Any thoughts on this ? (Setup: Baratza Sette 270 + Lelit PL62X)

I was thinking ... If the default size for many people is a double or 18gm at least , why isn't there a double spout pf that can hold a 36gram basket , so you can split the shot into 2 doubles

Hello! Does anyone know what machine they are using?

do you think you can use a 20g basket for 18g coffee? or is it better to take an 18g basket? the fact is that the original basket of gaggia classic at 18gr of coffee is not deep enough, because of this, prints from the mesh and bolt remain on the coffee tablet after preparation. I choose a basket between 18 and 20g

Thank you for the great videos. Any help on pulling 7g single shots ?

What is the brand and type of the tamping tool you use?

unfortunate not other options are considered next to VST such as Pullman and IMS. A cynical man would say it' s because you earn referral money on the VST basket sales

Mine portafilter does not have holes. I do not understand how the coffee comes out.

What is the difference between a pressurirized portafilter, which is regarded as worse, and a normal one? The way I understand it, the pressure is all above the coffee layer and not in the basket.

VST is the best guys worth the investment! Thanks for the review love this channel

It's surprising how companies dare to give us absolutely trashy 5$ garbage baskets even on 3600-9000$ machines, like seriously?! I'm gonna order tomorrow the new (IMS Nanotech Precision) baskets and shower with an improved E61 ring in silicon.

I have vst basket and have great results

Do you sell the IMS 21 gram basket for La Spaziale 53 mm portafilters?

Wich size do you recommend. Im confused. A 14g basket can fit 18 grams. Wich is the Right for 18g

What grinder is that to the right of the GS3?

I just got a Oscar ii, I am struggling with OEM basket right now.☹️

I just want to comment here om your use of stats. Your use of R^2 is incorrect, since you presume there to be a trend in your data while that hypothesis is completely unsupported by 10 data point. If there actually was any trend, so would be talking about Heteroscedasticity. You want to show one brew method has more variance than the other, for that you need to use the standard deviation. Where you divide the one by other as a means of showing method one has an x percent higher variance than the other. Now to show that this is a statistically significant difference you would use an f-test. And in terms of metrics you would show your audience the confidence interval or p-value of the null hypothesis of the test(which is there is no difference). Saying there is a y-percent chance these two brewing methods do not have the same variance. If you do that, you also want to show the audience the power of the test, which is very much influenced by your sample size which is only 10. So probably you want to collect more samples as the test is not going to be very powerful (usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 samples per brew method would start to give enough samples to use statistical assumptions). I am a quant, a data scientist with a masters in econometrics and chemistry. I build machine learning and data science apps for pharma and life science companies. So from that background I look at your methods and thought maybe I can help you improve .

Does anyone know if the VST 18 gram basket will work (fit) with a BDB? (Breville Dual Boiler). Cheers.

After about 3 months of using Profitec's own basket, I ordered some from Decent Espresso (which I believe are made by either VST or IMS). I prefer their shape and perfectly flat bottom with straight sides. The issue I have with that consistent shape is that it's near impossible to use lower grams for single shots. Because Profitec does not have flow profiling, the pressure just pushes water through all the same, making it run really quick through it. I lead me to understand why Dalla Corte uses 53mm :)

I have my heart set on a machine with a 57 mm portafilter. Will I regret this?

Great video!

I tend to not follow you here. Microscopic analysis from other sides do NOT second your (somewhat common) allegation about the holes of VST baskets being more precisely then today's typical OEM or noname basket. The reason might be simple: Most (if not all) of today's OEM or noname baskets are coming from the same 2 factories (IMS in Italy and a Chinese factory which is also producing the VST and La Marzocco labeled ones). Baskets produced by IMS can be easily recognized by their characteristic hole shape and tooling marks. Hint: A lot (but not all!) of their unbranded baskets can be found in their standard catalogue (not E&B or Competition). From what I have seen in my life so far, the Chinese ones also have a characteristic inside grating/polishing which indicate their origin. I see the differences between OEM/noname and labeled baskets about extra polishing and in some cases a specific shape. There is absolutely no evidence or industrial plausibility for the assumption that the holes are punched differently - again: Microscopic analyses show the opposite

La marzocco 17gr = VST 18gr, but 4 times cheaper, 99% same results, you thank me later

anyone have any basket options for an breville 870 54mm?

loving your scientific method!

I like my 20g nanotech baristapro

I'd like to see a comparison between the Breville 54mm portafilter and the standard 58mm portafilter.

This guy looks like a really tall 7-year-old.

Who knew??