Bottomless portafilters are helpful equipment for both experienced and novice baristas. It’s okay if you didn’t give the portafilter you chose for your espresso maker any thought beyond ensuring the dimensions matched. Many individuals are unaware of bottomless portafilters and are even less sure that they should get one for their home setup. In this article, we’ll give you all the information you need about bottomless portafilters to help you determine if you should buy one for your home machine. Let’s start!
What is a bottomless portafilter?Reasons to get a bottomless portafilter
Consistency
Change to a bottomless portafilter if you’re new to espresso or want to refine your method and consistently pull better shots. Since you don’t know much about what happens during extraction, troubleshooting faulty shots might be challenging. A bottomless portafilter helps you learn more about your coffee and makes it simpler to diagnose problems.
Clear view
You can see the coffee move through the puck and identify any irregularities causing an inconsistent extraction without a spout blocking your view. The coffee should, ideally, exit the puck in the vicinity of the middle as a thin, streamlined column. You will know that your puck isn’t evenly tamped and that some parts will be extracted more than others if your coffee drains unevenly or forms droplets.
Crema
A bottomless portafilter with fresh espresso beans and an expert barista will produce 50% or more Crema than when done with coffee machine filter papers. Only the bottom of your portafilter basket will touch your espresso shot. No spouts or bottoms for portafilters. This preserves and protects the delicate Crema bubbles we all want in a perfect shot. Additionally, the absence of a spout gives the consumer additional cup clearance and, in most cases, enables espresso extraction directly into the cup for serving. Of course, in most circumstances, brew pots of some sort will still need to be utilized for go cups more significant than 12 oz.
Better taste
Additional Crema equals greater flavor. Fewer metal surfaces (such as spouts and spout threads) mean less contamination from a dirty portafilter. We have all cleaned and soaked unclean portafilters. Additionally, it enables the user to clean the portafilter basket’s bottom between each shot thoroughly.
Cleaning it is easier
Cleaning a bottomless portafilter just like coffee knock box is much simpler than one with a regular bottom. Bottomless portafilters are easier to rinse since there are no leftover grounds and fewer areas for grounds to become lodged.
