Coffee routine

I’m gonna lay out my coffee routine in hopes that I can improve a few aspects. In general, my goal is to pill a good shot of espresso without going overboard with tools and unnecessary steps.

Equipment: Bambino Plus Baratza encore grinder Fellow kettle Scale with timer Tamp and portafilter that came with machine

  1. Turn on machine and run a double shot of just water through it

  2. Empty and dry portafilter, should be noted I still have the plastic part in my portafilter it came with. I use the larger basket it came with.

  3. Grind out the beans, I don’t single dose. I keep a day or two worth of beans in the hopper and have gotten exceptionally good at eyeballing how much I need so I’m not wasting much at all.

  4. I use the 12 setting on my baratza, it’s not course but could be finer? This is the setting I got to work best and I just stuck with it.

  5. With my portafilter on the scale, I spoon 16.5-17.5 g of grounds into it. I don’t have a dosing funnel so I use a spoon for less mess. I just find that 18 is too much and between 16.5-17.5 is great. I know that’s a big margin. If you don’t use a dosing funnel how are you getting the grounds into the portafilter?

  6. I tamp in my tamping mat. I want a new tamp, I use the lightweight one the machine came with.

  7. I put the portafilter in the machine and pull a double shot. I’ve programmed it to pull between 50-60 mL of espresso in about 25-30 seconds.

  8. Here’s what I might get roasted: I don’t weight it out or pull it manually. I can’t fit my scale under the head and so every few days, I weight my coffee cup before pulling the shot and then after to make sure I’m still in that 55mL~. And if I am, I don’t adjust. If I’m way off, I reprogram the shot.

  9. It should be noted I don’t use the single shot function because I don’t get out of bed for anything less than 2 shots of espresso.

  10. And then I steam milk/heat water depending on what I’m making. The two popular drinks in our house are americanos and cortados.

What stands out? What needs to be fixed? It’s honestly making a good shot. Just wondering if I’m missing something important or if there is definitely a tool I need. I feel lost on why I would need a different portafilter but I’m open to conversations.