Where is Scott Rao?

I’m thrilled to contribute to the first edition of the new coffee magazine ! Published by the lovely people of , the magazine features beautiful photography, a deep-dive into Lisbon’s coffee scene, and some wonderfully written articles.

I wrote about pre-batch espresso, as I felt I wasn’t receiving enough grief online this month 😅. More seriously, pre-batched espresso is a topic I get asked about often, and I believe the conversation around it tends to skip one salient point: pre-batched espresso, the way it is done at .coffee and in Australia, tastes *better* than fresh espresso. The reason is based in sound coffee science. Want to know more? Read the article …

Thanks to for opening my eyes to the profound difference between filtered and not filtered espresso. And hat tip to for recognizing ages ago that crema is, indeed, rubbish

Excerpt from The Physics of Espresso by 

“Top: The temperature across the vertical layers of an espresso puck can differ by 30°C (54°F) for the first several seconds of a traditional shot. This means that the different layers contribute significantly different flavor profiles, an effect that would be furthered with a thicker espresso puck or shorter shot ratio.”

Notes from Scott:

I remember reading a 1998 blog post by David Schomer of  , in which he drilled a hole in the bottom of a portafilter basket and inserted a bead probe to measure the temperature at the bottom of the puck. Of course, I immediately tried the same experiment, and was shocked how low the temperature stayed until near the end of an extraction.

This is one reason lightly-roasted espresso can often be sour. The majority of espresso extraction occurs during the first 10 seconds, when the lower half of the puck averages about 50℃.

One way to “fix” this temperature gradient is to pull a blooming shot. In the second image, soaking the puck using a 30-second bloom homogenizes the temperature across the puck. The impact is greater than these graphs imply at first glance, since very little extract leaves the puck during the first 35 seconds of a blooming shot.

I’m pleased to announce my roasting masterclass in Brussels during World of Coffee. Whether you roast on an air roaster or a drum, this class contains everything you’ve ever wanted to know about roasting. After working on almost 900 machines in my career, I’m ready to dive into the specifics of how to optimize any machine.

Class topics will include:

How to create a warmup and between-batch protocol for flawless consistency

Optimizing drum RPM, airflow, and BBP for different machines and batch sizes

How to use curves and data to improve roast quality and consistency

How to manage air roasters vs drum roasters

Sample roasting and cupping strategies for green selection

Roasting QC methods, including color measurement, weight loss, and cupping

Cupping of underdeveloped and light-but-developed roasts from Prodigal

endless Q&A

and much more

In recent years, I’ve added a lot of information and tips about air roasting, as well as how to differentiate approaches to washed and natural coffees. I will adapt the class as needed to your machine and experience level.

Tickets: $275 (Seating is limited, so this class will sell out well ahead of time)

See link in bio or www.scott.com for tickets

Date: Saturday, June 27

Time: 8am—11am

** Past attendees of my live seminars are entitled to 25% off. Email [email protected] for a discount code.

Those of you at World of Coffee who tasted fresh-crop Finca Las Palmas bourbon aji, Las Delicias geisha, or El Renacer geisha know that these are special coffees.

Likewise, if you stopped by the booth and had a cup of the Ecuador Vinka honey sidra or Colombia Flor Blanca geisha, you had some of the best coffees at the show. 

This is the leanest time of year for fresh green coffee, but Regalia and Prodigal are pulling out all the stops to bring you fresh green. 

Note: just because a coffee is on a third-wave menu, it doesn’t mean a coffee is fresh. But our companies buy green directly from origin and have it shipped immediately after it is milled, we expedite green shipping, and buy small enough quantities of each coffee to run out of green well before the green can possibly taste aged.

Roasted coffee from fresh green doesn’t cost extra, so why not insist on the freshest green?

Stop by Sunday morning 7–11 for some fantastic batch brews. No matter how busy it gets, we are going to attempt to prevent anyone from ever waiting more than five minutes.

We will have retail bags available, and from will be on hand to upgrade your coffee experience with his mineral wizardry.

We’d love to see you there!

☕️ COFFEE TIP OF THE DAY!! ☕️ How to find the rough side of the filter


If you use a Pulsar or Pulsar Mini, Filter3, or a Hoop with my upgraded filter paper, all of those papers are “creped” on one side. Creped paper has been deliberately wrinkled, crinkled, or textured during manufacturing, resulting in a three-dimensional, wavy structure rather than a flat, smooth surface.

Creped paper provides faster flow with lower risk of clogging. Since the creped/rough side of the filter paper has more surface area than flat filter paper, it can catch more fines and can accommodate more holes for high flow. To achieve such flow with a flat surface would require larger holes, which would decrease flavor clarity. So creped filters can provide high flow, low clogging, and high clarity.

I have received more than 100 “How can I tell which side is rough?” messages over the past few years. Here are two suggestions to find the rough side: 

1. Rub the filter between your thumb and forefinger, then flip the filter over several times, rubbing between those two fingers. Flipping the filter should help make the textural contrast easier to detect.

2. If you still can’t feel the difference, look at the filter along its profile in front of a light bulb or a dark surface. The rougher side of the filter should look like it has small hairs sticking off of it.

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Today’s matchup is an intense one! and started almost at the same time three years ago, and both roast lightly using air roasters.

Hydrangea roasts a bit lighter on average, and buys a wider range of green, including coferments and more “experimental” stuff, while Prodigal focuses on classic and clean.

Today’s other matchup, vs .coffee are friends, and friends of Prodigal. Gonna be a heartbreak either way

We’d love your support! Vote in the stories at the IG account reviews_coffee

Please see today’s IG stories to ask anything, and see responses! (No questions in this post, please)

Photo credit

☕️ COFFEE TIP OF THE DAY☕️

How to Optimize the Fellow Aiden

I’ve seen many recipes out there for the Fellow Aiden, and most of them mimic the way people use their Fetco or Curtis batch brewer. That’s understandable, but there is a key difference in how the Aiden works, and I recommend factoring that into your recipes.

First off, for optimal bed depth, I recommend using 65-70 grams of grounds

Second, the Aiden dispenses water slowly, as it is limited by its heating element drawing only 1700 watts.

Because of the low flow rate, if you program your Aiden the way you program your Fetco, the coffee bed will be dry for a large portion of the brew time, and the brew could take as long as 8–10 minutes. So, instead of using a typical prewet, prewet delay (bloom), and several pulses, I recommend using either one long pulse, or multiple pulses separated by only one-second pauses. 

The benefit of using multiple pulses is it offers the opportunity to change water temperature throughout a brew. One may want to do something like begin with rather hot water (perhaps 205°F/96°C) and once the slurry temperature is reasonably high, drop down to something like 198°F/92°C. 

The optimal grind setting is the coarsest setting that prevents the slurry from drying out before the final drawdown. Keeping the coffee bed immersed in a slurry maintains higher extraction and helps make the extraction more uniform; a dry coffee bed loses heat quickly and also promotes channeling, as it allows the 12 spray jets to hit the coffee bed directly, rather than hitting the slurry, which buffers and spreads out their impact.

I prefer a 17:1 ratio, as the Aiden’s slow brewing and even water distribution (kudos ) tend to yield very high extractions. I often find myself adding a bit of hot water post-brew to bring the TDS down to my preferred range of 1.35-1.4%.

A good general recipe would be:

* 70 grams of grounds, coarse grind (eg EK10 on a 1-11 EK dial)
* 17:1 ratio
* First pulse: 205°F/96°C, 300mL
* One-second pause
* Second pulse: 198°F/92°C, 890mL

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Please save our World of Coffee San Diego schedule!

Prodigal retail bags will be for sale at all events.

We are stoked to share an event with of at Sunday morning, where we will serve three gorgeous Prodigal coffees on batch brew and Simon will walk people through using Apax mineral drops so you can taste the difference.

We look forward to working with , , and

Prodigal retail bags will also be available throughout WOC at the booth 4234!!