I had never used a bottomless portafilter before. When I was in college I worked as a barista for a few years, we calculated that I had made close to 20,000 coffee drinks in one year. But I had NEVER used a bottomless portafilter, until TODAY! I always wondered what the strange apparatus setting next to the tamper was. I knew it wasn’t for cleaning or backflushing the machine, but it never occurred to me this would make a great shot of espresso.  After I asked our tech guy (he gave me a sideways glance) “what is THIS thing for?” he explained it was a “CRAZY thing for making ESPRESSO”-then I asked him how to use it. Now I felt silly because he thought I KNEW how to make espresso. Apparently, a bottomless portafilter is loaded with espresso, installed on the grouphead, and brewed identically to a portafilter with spouts.

The espresso created had a dark color, rich aroma, and thick crema. I will be using this method everytime!