Do those words fill you with joy? Naked portafilter. Aaaaaaah…it’s like music. Are you confused, filled with dismay, like you are missing out on something? By the time you’re done reading you will be reaching for your telephone to order one and get a second one at 1/2 price! Today only!
Wait, WHAT!? Holy anachronistic Infomercial! Do you even know what an infomercial is? Yes? You’re dating yourself. No? That’s completely fine, you didn’t miss anything. Move along.
What exactly is a portafilter? It is the oh-so-essential component nestled within your E-61 grouphead. The thingy with the handle? The object you grab and fill up with ground coffee. Just imagine if you ducked down, craned your neck, and you could see the bottom of the filter basket. A flat expanse of holes where the magic happens. Where the espresso magic-waterfalls from. The little spouts at the bottom of the portafilter are no longer there, and visible now are alllll the little holes that let the espresso through. Nuthin’ blockin’ your view of the espresso velveting out. Glorious.
There is definitely something extraordinary about the naked portafilter. Once you start using a bottomless portafilter, there IS no going back. Plus, after you experience it, you wouldn’t want to. You will become mesmerized by the delicious elixir coming out the bottom of the portafilter. I mean, you already are, because espresso, but now you get to SEE it. Completely breathtaking to watch an extraction. And it never, ever gets old.
One important thing to note: it will immediately showcase any mistakes with your technique. Kinda guaranteed there will be some aspects that you will have to improve on. And that’s ok! It ain’t too late for improvement, and your shots will be better from here on out!
The bottomless portafilter is a gentle instructor on what you have been doing wrong. It is teacher and discipliner simultaneously. If your grind is too fine, it lets you know. Your tamp doesn’t have enough “oompf”, it will let you know. Not enough coffee in the basket, shot extracted too fast? The portafilter will not hide that from you. It showcases any flaws in your technique, and gently nudges you to hone your skills. You will be surprised to learn what errors have been there this whole time, and with a little tweaking, you’ll be pulling shots like you never have before. And they’ll look AMAZING! If you’ve never seen an extraction from a naked portafilter, your first time will be a shock to the senses.
And isn’t that the endgame? The perfect shot? Yes. Plus it’s just really reeeally cool looking. And if you ever want to upgrade your filter basket, because that is an improvement to your Caffeinated Life, the bottomless portafilter easily accommodates any size. You wanna really go nutzo and score yourself a 22 gram basket (triple shot!), well then you definitely need a bottomless portafilter. This humongous basket won’t fit a regular portafilter with a regular bottom with the little spouts. Nope! The 22 gram basket is huge/awesome. Game changer. And an immediate increase to your efficient intake of the best substance there is…espresso.