Verve · Costa Rica · ★★☆☆☆
Grind: #11 espresso · Water: 205°F
Light roast. Rich & caramely. Raisin, candied hazelnut, milk chocolate.
Christmas Eve morning espresso session turned into a troubleshooting puzzle. First pull at grind 5 took 60+ seconds with almost no extraction. Went up to 10, still weird at 33 seconds. Finally got something at 11 grind but it pulled in 17 seconds, which made no sense.
Steamed the milk too hot in my confusion, so couldn't really taste what I was getting. The inconsistency had me wondering if my machine needed maintenance.
Two stars for the session, but this turned out to be diagnostic. January's Bella Vista revealed I needed to clean my machine. Once I did that, everything started pulling normally again. This coffee probably deserved better than it got from me.
Sometimes a confusing brew session is your machine telling you something.