How We Test Espresso at CoffeeGeek

One of the greatest tools I had access to was the CoffeeGeek Lab, which I operated for a time in Vancouver. Well over 1,500 people came through that lab, including people who went on to be world barista champions and some of the best cafe owners in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland.

All this collaborative training and evaluation served many purposes, not the least of which was helping me to develop a standardized regimen for testing coffee and espresso equipment for the reviews we write. My constant goal when evaluating a product or coffee is to present the fairest playing field I can, so that in turn, you get an unbiased and even review to read.

And it evolved frequently, at least for the first fifteen years of doing this, as I learned more and more about the art of espresso and how people make espresso in their own homes, in their own ways.

One example: For the first 14 years or so, I believed that meant using the best possible equipment to test with. If I was evaluating a grinder, I’d pair it up with a $18,000 Speedster espresso machine. If a $300 espresso machine was under the microscope, a $2,500 single dose Versalab M3 grinder was used. I had an a-ha moment around 2015 that made me move to more approachable, and affordable equipment.

So… 18.5 grams in. 35 second shot pull. 45 grams out. How did we get there? Here’s some of the major stages in our evaluation regimen.

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