When examining your coffee puck, you should be able to hold the puck in your hands (excepting that it will be hot), and break it in two. Take a look at the cross section of your coffee puck for an indication that it has extracted uniformly, suggesting that your coffee ground distribution technique and tamp is okay. My technique is to;
- Grind 5 grams
- tap the portafilter twice to settle the grinds
- grind another 5 grams
- tap again
- grind another 5 grams
- tap again
- grind another 5 grams
- tap again
- Scrape the portafilter basket with an edge to remove excess grind
- Tamp
- (this is based on a 21gram triple basket. For 14 grams, I will reduce the steps to three grind applications).