For the past few months I’ve experimented with various options for my espresso and I thought I would share my results. This is completely unscientific and based solely on my opinions but still might be interesting to some. My set up is a LaMarzocco GS3 and Kafatek Monolith flat, pulling mostly straight espressos, mostly medium dark roast but sometimes lighter.

Baskets I like the high extraction baskets, even for medium dark. I compared my VST with a Weber and a Pesado. I preferred the Pesado with a 1:2 ratio. However it sometimes leaked where the portafilter met the gasket. After trying numerous gaskets I found success by using the 6mm LM silicone gasket. However you need to apply a nice coating of silicon Molykote gel to the gasket before inserting it and this seemed to do the trick. So far so good. For medium dark I felt the taste with the Weber was a bit too bright. For light blends I might prefer the Weber pulled at like 1:3. The other issue with the Weber was size. I pull 17 grams. This works quite well in the Pesado medium basket. But Weber has either a 16 or 20. At 16 it touched the shower screen and at 20 the puck was soupy. But both He baskets provide more flavor to me than the standard VST and I prefer them even for medium dark.

Shower screen I’m using the Pesado. I like it better than the VST. It’s well built and produces more even flow. But again with the LaMarzocco there’s a potential issue. The Pesado design is quite different and has no "screen", so when you back flush there is the potential for coffee to flush back up unless you use a puck screen. The GS has an "aerator" where the water flushes into the drain tray and it has a screen like on a faucet. That got clogged. However that screen is completely unnecessary and the easy fix was to unscrew it and let the water just flow into the tray. Then of course (spoiler alert) I discovered puck screens. BTW - the folks at Pesado were very responsive to questions about this and the gasket and offered immediate help along the way.

Portafilters I really like the Buck from Weber. The original LM portafilter is also nice but I found the Pesado to be weighted a bit weirdly and it kept falling out of the Monolith. But the main advantage of the Buck is that it sits completely flat. I really find that so much more useful.

Puck Screens I’m mostly using the Pesado or Weber 2mm puck screens. With 17gr into the medium Pesado this works perfectly. Sometimes I forget it and I can’t say there’s a massive difference in taste. But there is some difference and more importantly it keeps everything much cleaner and prevents clogging. Weber also has a "puck saver" that is super thin at .2mm. I used this in the 16 gr Weber basket but 17 grams was still too much.

Paper filters I tried the Weber paper filters but felt they did not enhance medium dark shots. In fact I experienced the opposite so stopped using them. They were useful however on light blends with higher volume shots.

Distribution Tools I’m a convert to shakers. I have a Pesado WDT tool and a Duomo the Eight. The Duomo is very convenient and quick. But I like the shots from the shaker better. I’m using the Sworks version. I like that the lid stays on and there is a bottom funnel. There’s a adjustable slider to fit in the grinder so you can easily raise it to any height and grind directly into it. It takes a bit longer than using the Duomo and maybe is slightly messier. If you’re new to shakers there’s absolutely no "instruction manual" anywhere on the Sworks site about how to set things up and no way to contact anyone but the best shots I experienced were using this shaker.

Well there you have it. A completely unscientific opinionated and perhaps naive quest. There are lots of much more data driven reports but this is just a little real world report. You don’t really need any of this stuff to make great espresso but if you’re into the lifestyle its fun to experiment.