Finally pulled the shot timer data from my last 200 espressos

I got curious last weekend and hooked up a smart scale to track my shot times for a month straight. Turns out my average extraction was running 32 seconds when I thought I was hitting 27 every time. Found a little stat online from some coffee science blog that said 90% of home baristas overestimate their consistency by at least 4 seconds. Really made me rethink my whole grind setting routine. Has anyone else run actual numbers and been surprised by what they found?

2 comments

2 Comments

gonzalez.phoenix2d ago

That 90% stat sounds made up since I couldn't find any real study backing it.

wadeyoung1d ago

Yeah that 90% thing gets thrown around a lot and it drives me crazy. I mean I've looked for it too and never found anything solid backing it up. It's probably one of those stats someone made up years ago that just stuck around because it sounds good in a headline or whatever. Reminds me of all those "backed by science" claims that fall apart if you actually Google them for five minutes. Seems like people just repeat it because they heard someone else say it, not because they checked the source. So no it's not just you, that number is pretty suspicious.