WAFO BASKETS - My Experience With These $200 Baskets 

As someone who manages a cafe, I’m always looking to keep the bar flow approachable and simple. We just got some Pullman 876s and I think that’s as far as the cafe will go. We value service and consistency. These baskets seem like they are marketed towards boutique cafes with room for experimentation. Totally fine, just not everyone’s cup.

Thank you for being honest and not beholden to a company. Please never lose this trait. Just subbed to channel!

Thank you for your work, no bias, no complicated words, purely professionalism

Thank you for your time reviewing these and producing a balanced review.

Gonna echo what other people are saying: thank you for always making content that’s put into simple practical layman’s terms. Not everyone cares to know the minute details of the latest coffee trends so always nice to have a voice that cuts to the chase. Did you notice any issues of grounds getting clogged in the tiny holes? I’d also be curious about underdosing with a finer grind to get similar results as a conventionally prepped shot. Saw a random comment on Reddit I think say they did something like 12g doses in their cafe that’s been working well in their setting.

this is such a clear and fantastic video man, very much impressed with the consistent high quality of your content!!😁😁

Thank you so much for this review!! I was ready to hear this because I had already assumed italians were already doing things well enough.

Wafo had some trouble explaining the "science" behind those baskets as there simply is none. They just made some fancy unique designs that no one really needs. This continues with the crazy idea of a "Wafo workflow". I mean, why would someone use a recipe for a basket? Brewing recipes should depend on the beans, roast, etc. All in all, they seem dubious not only for me. It seems that they just wanted to compete with other ultra-precision basket manufacturers but they don’t deliver any value for the price. The sworksdesign basket for example gave me some of the best and fruitiest shots in terms of clarity I’ve had so far...

As P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute." IMO mostly hopeful, clever marketing. This was a well-done review that hit good points . Your impartiality intact. Many thanks for your reviews.

Thank you for your time and effort, reviewing the upper high end of espresso tools. Especially the comparison with the paper workflow I found most interesting. When you found out about the bitterness connected to the WAFO baskets, did you try lowering the temperature substantially? Like pulling a turbo shot in the 85°C range? The idea behind is that the WAFO allow for more even extractions due to their holes/slots until the basket walls. So, you might have gotten less combination of over- and under extraction when compared to your standard basket shots, resulting in an overall over-extraction. So, lowering the temp could counteract this. I would be very interested in further temperature experiments with the WAFO baskets... ;)

Excellent job leaving an honest review on a product that might not have been your "cup of tea". Very tastefully done. And that's the last subtle espresso pun I can whip up under pressure..

Do love your videos and how honest and analytical you are. Seriously looking forward to your Sanremo You video with money at the ready haha

The more I dive into this, the more I realize all hobbies have their bullshit. For audio, it's cables worth multiple thousands of dollars, massive amount of "burn in", etc. For espresso, snob baskets (among other things, I'm sure).

I have soe/spirit basket and i pretty happy with the results, best shots ever, BUT i started to pull great shot when i moved away from wafo recomendations, i use a paper filter, a metal puck, 93 C and the best shots where with ratio 1:2,2, mainly 19 gr, the only recommendation i’m agree is with the 6 seg of preinfusion and 6 bar of extraction, great vídeo spro, and would be great if you add another with your own recipe using this baskets

Again a good video. Please what Filter do you use in your pullmann baskets?

Nice video! I've wanted to test them but hesitated to spend the $200 per basket. For me I think of price as "how much better espresso does this get me" and if these baskets improved extraction yields by a decent amount, I would be on board.

Thank you my friend. Have yourself a great weekend.

Thanks for the video, Spro! I saw those types of baskets first from Weber and they got me really interested, as I like light to medium roasts. From a water flow perspective, having a basket that has many small holes reaching all the way to the edge seems to make sense in terms of extraction evenness. Your video makes me sceptical whether the 150+ bucks are really going to bring an improvement.

Fantastic breakdown and testing my friend!!! Like you said breaking the rules can lead to some great discoveries but general extraction theory is pretty consistent. So while some of these new and innovative products are really unique and the quality seems next level, is it worth it?

This was a much clearer review of the baskets than any other ive seen online, so thank you.

Have you also tried the Sworks designs baskets or the Weber Unifilter or Unibasket? I just started playing with the Unifilter but not sure about it yet. Haven't done any side by side tests vs The Pullman or Decent baskets.

Do you regularly brew with a paper filter? I'm still experimenting there as I have to grind much finer in order to get a good shot, otherwise it pulls waaay too fast. I'm using a flair 58 with the straight wall IMS basket ☕

Thanks for keeping brief

Weird they'd recommend such a high temperature, I wonder what machine they were using to test their stuff with! I kinda agree about the shot timing thing, the desired weight / brew ratio in the cup makes more of an impact than the shot time, but shot time is a good indicator of whether your grind size is way too fine or coarse, so it's still good to use as a guide in that way.

No. However good these baskets might be (which they're probably not), they're not worth 200 USD. WAFO being able to charge this ridiculous price is because people with more money than sense actually pay for them. I guess what the brand did was basically instead of pricing at an 'expensive', say, $70, might as well charge $200 and throw in some extremely vague marketing material. Give out free ones for people to 'review' and build up the hype on social media to lure people in.

what a great transition to the ad

Great video. You brought up the concerns that many had about Wafo's extraction claims as well as did a comparison vs the Pullman basket + paper filter. The Pullman combo, for me, has produced high and even extractions (measured via vst refractometer) and resulted in the best taste. I hope you get your hands on the Weber unibasket. The design seems to be more in line with current extraction theory.

I’m perfectly happy with my Pullman, seems like a good balance

Interesting findings! Did you compare TDS/EY between Wafo and traditional baskets? Maybe the Wafo does increase some kind of (micro) channeling thus over extraction?

This was the most polite trashing of a product I've seen! 😄

Great job!

We have actually moved over completely to WAFO baskets at the shop I run. We've done so much testing against 'standard' baskets and the difference between both were night and day (In a good way too) - We've found these are really forgiving with most coffees. I could go on and on and on about the testing we've done lol

Part of why we make espresso at home is because we want the best taste. If cafes start using these for 'faster shots' and the coffee tastes less nuanced and more bitter... they'll just lose discerning customers and suddenly no longer NEED that 'faster' workflow. Thanks for helping me not have FOMO over these $200 wastes of money baskets.

200 USD for a basket is crazy, no go, no matter how much of engineering and materials...

Try the Pesado High Exstraction basket :-) I had the VST precision 18g filterbasket, but prefer the Pesado!

I was really hoping to get your two cents on these baskets. I always appreciate that you can be so objective in your reviews, even if you yourself aren’t a big fan of the product.

I use the baskets exclusively, but I use more traditional norms on brew (e.g. 204F, 20-30 secs extraction). The overall experience is better and I get cleaner extraction every time, vs VST where I would get much more channeling and uneven extraction. $200 is a hefty amount, but I take the recommended settings from WAFO as a starting point and then you dial it in the way you want. Great video!

Je ne pense pas dépenser un jour 200 £/€ pour ces paniers. Non pas que je n'en ai pas les moyens, mais le résultat aléatoire m'en écarte. Oui, beaucoup de producteurs de vidéo sont amoureux de ces paniers. Est ce l'effet placebo ❓ 🤣 Merci pour votre franchise 👍

About the Wafo baskets, so far I had the comment from other channels and from people who participated Dave's sessions personally: 1) You shouldn't compare the result with the standard espresso, just treat it as some other coffee beverage 2) You'll need very carefully picked beans (no defect, no quakers, ...) to produce a good result, basically it expands the taste notes, both good and bad 3) It's a lot more difficult to tune a shot. If you change your coffee beans weekly/monthly, you'll need to drop notes for each and even tune for different batch 4) For niche and high end cafes (you can afford to test and tune a shot according to the taste profile of a customer, or at least spend time/beans to tune every batch for best result) this will benefit a lot. For cafe that only focus on consistency of each drink it is not a preferred choice as Wafo can produce unwanted result for some

Probably the most negative review i’ve seen of the Wafo baskets which is interesting (in a good way) since a majority of reviews seem to be mostly positive. I enjoyed this weeks dose of sprometheus

Interesting, given your bar I find this very surprising. Overall, I think folks taking a traditional approach to a non-traditional basket may be in for some hard times. I also think WAFO's recommendations set folks up for that exact scenario too. I've had my SOE/Spirit for 4 months now, and I have to say it went from NOT WORTH IT to oh man, HOW COULD I GO BACK to the traditional baskets. The turning point in taste for me was using more grinds, less heat, (around 96 C) and depending on roast/roaster playing a bit with flow control. My workflow right now is 19g in, 48gs out (light-medium roasts that have rested about 3 weeks). I hit it with 9 bars to start (about a 6-10 sec preinfusion), then at 30g out, I decrease the flow until 48g output. Haven't had a overextracted or too bright of a shot once I started experimenting with what I had at my disposal. Tweak slightly for each roast. (For fruitier roasts I just leave it at 9 bars start to finish. Has a nice juicy pop to it.) I get a sweet shot with a bit of clarity and a bit of body. A nice balance of modern and traditional mouthfeel.

I just want to know what the best general use basket is? I can’t keep using my stock stuff

Personally I prefer Eggo Wafos

Hi Son, great video! Love, mom.

How do you like that scale compared to the lunar?

Why you gotta do me like that in the first 10 seconds, dude...

We're at an inflection point where coffee will soon become like the snake oil pervaded world of audiophile

That glass carafe, though! What is it?

The sections aren't working by the way, just letting you know!

The WAFO recommendations are soooo off. I have Weber Unibasket and my impression is that you should go in opposite direction in temp. The basket should be well filled in. I use mesh screen on top and paper filter at the bottom (the latter probably is completely not needed).

Sprometheus: “Or you’re my mom” Me: Hello sweetie

3ks for sharing your studying

☕☕☕ Love Is Important

I feel like some of these expensive baskets are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

If I ever dropped $200 for one of these baskets...I'd hate myself for weeks. Great review however.

SproMom "You're looking skinny are you eating?"

I have had a very different experience than you over all of these baskets. Based on your experiences I've had the exact opposite experience to the point I'm curious where we differ so much.

Just here for the coffee p0rn. Hadn't heard of Wafo, but my 15gm VST basket is perfect for my needs. I'm not a coffee explorer. I'm a grail coffee basker. I'm living my perfect cup dream, twice a day, every day.

it depends on your passion

I want to post something rude so I can make an Instagram story cameo but can’t think of anything.

$200? Anybody paying that much for a basket has more money than sense. There is a lot of BS when it comes to coffee and this is right up there.

👍

Thats alot of money but it might be worth it

I could think "ok another product that may someone will find interesting and some other indifferent, just like leveling tools that i sincerely think that are useless BUT when you charge 200 for a basket that it's not guaranteed that you will have better cup, and the most expensive after that costs 4 time less(VST), irritates me to have a flame comment about this product I think there is no need to talk more

Coffee gear is becoming more unreasonable for its price.

I use Decent baskets.

Shoot. I’m in the wrong place. I’m not deep down the rabbit hole or your mom. Where do I belong?

Why does these baskets can’t produce a sweet cup in your opinion?

It seems to me they are flawed from the get go, water runs through them far too quickly. Im not convinced, seems like a scam.

So, basically these are not worth it and marketed with MLM schemes. it works if you have the passion.

I have a son?! :o And he's bald? No man... The reason I clicked on this video is that I think I've watched every single video on youtube that might be just slightly relevant to me. This is what's left now. I have no idea what a wafo is and I have a feeling that I'll never even see one in my life.

diminishing returns...

20 sec ago!!

I have 3 wafo baskets 🫣

Wafo coincidentally rhymes with awful!

$200 for a friggin basket??? There is one word that can describe this: scam.

Hi son

You made the same mistake as Karl Marx. Additional labor doesn't add value unless it produces a better product. The fact that these are machined doesn't make a bit of difference unless it results in a better cup of coffee. About the price, it's just a matter of how much $200 is to you. For me, it's a couple of weeks of "mad money", for a friend of mine it's what he makes in 6 minutes at his work. The product isn't aimed at poors like me, but that's fine, lots of people with lots of money like to spend it on toys.

@mama sprometheus: great intro by your son

Summing up. These "super baskets" are a novel way to separate people from their money. Other than the normal OEM double basket, my Gaggia Classic produces outstanding espresso shots using a $7 Breville OEM, 58 mm double basket. Go figure.....