What is it about Vivace Dolce that makes it so visually distinctive?
What is it about Vivace Dolce that makes it so visually distinctive? I really like Vivace Dolce and it is a first class espresso. It is on par with some of the best roasters on Roaste such as Paradise, Klatch, Velton’s, etc. It, however, is different from any other coffee that I drink in its visual appearance as it comes out. I think the key is that it just has more crema and I think that used to be obtained by adding in Robusta, but I read somewhere that Robusta is no longer part of the blend. It isn't clear that more crema is better or worse once you are already getting plenty of crema, but it is still noticeable and interesting.
If you pull Dolce on a bottomless portafilter the cone (the liquid coming down in the shape of a funnel) is much wider than on any other roaster’s coffee I know. I just pulled a shot and it looked like it was too much and I cut the shot thinking that although it had not blonded yet, it must be either ready or ruined, because the cup was so full (I was pulling a cappuccino so there was plenty of space left in the cup). It turned out that I was wrong, it was fine, but it could have gone for a few seconds longer without being ruined. It was just so full of air that the volume was a lie – it was not nearly as much coffee by weight as it seemed by volume. Perhaps this was in part because the coffee was especially fresh so there was extra CO2 in the coffee to be released, but I think it was also something special to Dolce.
Does this extra volume make better or worse espresso? Neither one as far as I can tell – it is very good espresso, on par with some really great roasters, but this post is not about it being better or worse tasting it is more about how curious this one feature is (but it is one of my regular espressos that I order often) and I am curious if anyone knows why this is the case
I also ordered some Vita recently that I have not had very many times or very recently so I will be curious to see if it holds to the same pattern or not.
If you pull Dolce on a bottomless portafilter the cone (the liquid coming down in the shape of a funnel) is much wider than on any other roaster’s coffee I know. I just pulled a shot and it looked like it was too much and I cut the shot thinking that although it had not blonded yet, it must be either ready or ruined, because the cup was so full (I was pulling a cappuccino so there was plenty of space left in the cup). It turned out that I was wrong, it was fine, but it could have gone for a few seconds longer without being ruined. It was just so full of air that the volume was a lie – it was not nearly as much coffee by weight as it seemed by volume. Perhaps this was in part because the coffee was especially fresh so there was extra CO2 in the coffee to be released, but I think it was also something special to Dolce.
Does this extra volume make better or worse espresso? Neither one as far as I can tell – it is very good espresso, on par with some really great roasters, but this post is not about it being better or worse tasting it is more about how curious this one feature is (but it is one of my regular espressos that I order often) and I am curious if anyone knows why this is the case
I also ordered some Vita recently that I have not had very many times or very recently so I will be curious to see if it holds to the same pattern or not.
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