Hi everyone,

I'm at the point where I genuinely don't know what else to try.

I've been trying to learn espresso for quite a while now, but I've never managed to make an espresso that I actually enjoyed. Flat whites taste good because the milk hides a lot of the acidity, but straight espresso is always disappointingly sour.

My setup:

• Sage/Breville Bambino Plus
• Sage Dose Control Pro grinder
• Bottomless portafilter
• Non-pressurized double basket
• Freshly filtered water with appropriate hardness

I've tried two different beans:

• Chicco d'Oro Tradition
• Caruso Espresso Aromatico (55% Arabica / 45% Robusta, intensity 9/10, low acidity according to the bag)

Both end up tasting sour.

What I've already tried

I've spent weeks trying to eliminate variables.

Different grinders

• Sage Dose Control Pro
• Kingrinder K6 (borrowed from a friend)

Puck prep

• Slow feeding
• WDT
• Careful tamping
• Leveling tool
• Bottomless portafilter to watch extraction

Recipes

I've tried all kinds of combinations:

• 16.5 g
• 17 g
• 18.2 g

Ratios from roughly

• 1:1.7
• 1:2
• 1:2.2

Extraction times anywhere between

• ~22 seconds
• ~30 seconds
• over 50 seconds

I've also experimented with preinfusion and without preinfusion.

The weird part

No matter what I do, I end up with the same unpleasant acidity.

It's not the pleasant fruity acidity you sometimes get from lighter roasts.

It's more like a lemon-like acidity that lingers on the sides of my tongue and even reminds me of stomach acid in the back of my throat.

If I grind finer, the shot often becomes both sour and astringent.

If I grind coarser, it's just sour.

Even a 53-second shot still tasted sour.

Things that confuse me

A friend and I also tested on his setup:

• Kingrinder K6
• Delonghi Dedica
• WDT

Using similar recipes, we still couldn't get a balanced espresso.

However, my friend recently had an espresso at a café that he described as balanced, slightly acidic, with a chocolate finish, so I don't think it's just that we don't know what espresso should taste like.

What I'm wondering

At this point I'm questioning everything.

• Is the Bambino running too cold?
• Could the Dose Control Pro really be this inconsistent?
• Could I still be getting severe channeling despite WDT?
• Am I completely misunderstanding espresso extraction?
• Or am I simply chasing numbers (30 s, 1:2) instead of taste?

I'm honestly open to any suggestions because I feel like I've reached a dead end.

Has anyone experienced something similar and eventually found the real cause?

Thanks!