Sam Plett

My Starbucks Barista (also known as a Saeco Via Venezia) espresso machine comes with the factory with a pressurised portafilter.  The advantages of a pressurised portafilter are:

• Don't have to worry about coffee grind fineness
• Don't have to worry about coffee that is not that fresh
• Don't have to worry about espresso extraction times.  I have noticed on my machine that extraction times are about 15 seconds (which is too fast according to the golden rule of espresso)

The way the pressurised portafilter works is that is has a spring that keeps the espresso from coming out until the pressure in the portafilter is high enough then the valve opens and the espresso is distributed.  In addition to this pressurised portafilters usually also have some kind of "crema enhancer" which is essentially a tiny little hole that creates "fake" crema.

I was having problems on my espresso machine with having a shot time longer than 15 seconds but if I ground my coffee finer than I could choke my machine and the pressurisation valve would open and close several times while pulling a shot.  So I decided to remove the pressurisation valve as well as the crema enhancer as per this forum post.

I have only pulled one shot after the modification but here are some preliminary observations:

• With the same grinder and tamping settings I now get an extraction time of about 27 seconds - which is a bit long.  I used to tamp pretty hard in an attempt to get the pressurised portafilter to increase its extraction time so I am probably over tamping.
• I will have to play with grind and tamp pressure because it matter a lot more now.
• Espresso extracted still has a decent amount of crema - but not as much as before.  But my crema before seemed to have a lot more larger bubbles and never really disappeared (which I think it is supposed to over time if you let the shot sit)
• Extracted espresso is quite a bit stronger.  It might just have been the pull but I think it also has to do with the longer extraction time.
• I don't think I would recommend the mod to someone who is just starting with experimenting with espresso.  Wait until you have a good grasp of extraction times, grind, etc.  Also do not consider the mod unless you have a good grinder. 

Here is a video on how to perform the mod.

Please note:  In the video I take the pressurisation and crema enhancer off and then put it back together again.  I did this for demonstration purposes only if someone ever decides that they want to revert to the original way.  I am currently using the portafilter without the crema enhancer or the pressurisation mechanism.  The pressurisation mechanism is the one that has the spring and the needle, whereas the crema enhancer is the plastic disc (the one that fell on the floor).