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Maybe You’ve Been Making Light Roast Espresso Wrong

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6 months ago

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Maybe You’ve Been Making Light Roast Espresso Wrong


“You need to realize you’ve already rejected tradition by not getting a dark roast coffee. You’ve embraced modernism,” Hedrick says. “And if you’re going to embrace modernism and reject traditionalism, you must always also reject traditional shot parameters.”

But terrific light roast is possible. There are two ways to go.

You can go traditional—changing your dose and ratios a bit but aiming for a cup with intensity and balance. That’s what I’ve been honing for the past year.

But there’s also a wilder, weirder path: The turbo shot, also called a gusher. Hedrick, following the results of new scientific research from University of Oregon biochemistry professor Christopher Hendon and others, has gone all in on throwing out the entire traditional espresso rulebook in his pursuit of light roast espresso that’s neither sour nor bitter.

Here are two ways of making light roast espresso, and the results.

How to Make a “Traditional” Light Espresso Shot

Some of the knee-jerk advice for light roast espresso was just to keep grinding finer and finer and jack up the temperature on your machine in order to get better extraction.

Problem is, the finer you grind, the more likely you’ll choke your machine. And also the more likely that water will clog up in places and find a path of least resistance through your coffee puck. Which is to say, it’ll “channel” through only some of the coffee, extracting too much from some parts of your coffee puck while under-extracting from other parts. The results will be intense, bitter, and sour. It’ll taste like those early light roast espressos that put me off of light roast espresso.

There’s a different path.

Instead of pretending light roast is dark roast and going finer and finer, you can instead adjust the amount of coffee and water. Use more coffee and pull longer, for more time—and grind fine but not ridiculously fine.

This was the approach used on a recent visit to Sterling Coffee Roasters, one of the few Portland, Oregon, roasters I’ve found that regularly (and expertly) pulls light roast espresso shots. The shop offered up an excellent, cranberry-fruity light roast Ethiopia Bensa Bombe using this method. My barista let a two-ounce shot drag out for 37 seconds until its fruity-acidic flavors mixed with a little bit of backbone, not to mention the flavors of ferment resulting from natural-process beans.

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

This is the classic approach I’ve arrived at through trial and error, a bit of research, and a lot of conversation with smart baristas:

  • Increase the amount of coffee you use. A darker-roast double shot is often 15 or 18 grams. But going bigger, about 20 grams, can extend the extraction time without having to grind so fine you choke your machine.
  • Increase the water-to-coffee ratio. Standard espresso is a 1:2 ratio. That means if you use 15 grams of espresso, you’ll aim for 30 grams of espresso in your cup. Longer ratios, often called “lungo,” will also help increase extraction by simply running more water through a certain volume of coffee. I often go as long as 1:3, which is about 60 grams (two ounces) for a 20-gram espresso shot.
  • Go a little longer. It’s a long shot, and a lot of coffee. Don’t worry about the “25 to 30 seconds” you’ve been told is the only way to go. Drift a little longer, maybe into the mid-30s or so. You may find a more balanced shot by the end of it.
How to Make Light Roast Espresso According to Chemists

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

  • Grind only as finely as you need to, but don’t go crazy. Longer shots, and thicker pucks, will offer resistance to the flow of water, without needing powder-fine espresso dust that ends up creating more unpredictable results.
  • Spritz your beans. A recent paper by authors including Hendon showed that there’s real science behind the idea that spritzing water on coffee beans can help reduce static electricity and clumping, leading to more even extraction.
  • Look for natural-process beans, not washed. Most modern beans, until recently, were “washed,” which removes all of the coffee fruit before processing, leading to a more predictable result. But lately, a lot of growers in Latin America and Africa have begun to try out natural process beans, fermenting some of the coffee berry sugars or mucilage. Natural processing, or honey and bourbon processing, can lead to more body, more sweetness, and more complexity. It can also lead to less acidity. The result, in light roast espresso, is coffee that’s not just more balanced but more nuanced, with added earthy notes that can bind the coffee’s flavors into a more organic whole.
  • Use a grinder well-attuned to light roast espresso. Some geometries are better attuned to light-roast beans than others, notes coffee expert Hedrick, largely because light roast beans grind less easily. Hexagonal or pentagonal geometries, with more “points” on the conical burr, tend to have better results. Assuming you’re not on a huge budget, Hedrick recommends the Kingrinder K6 manual grinder that’s also recommended by WIRED. I’ve been using it for months, with good results, to make light roast espresso.
Kingrinder K5, a manual coffee grinder composed of a cylindrical container and a handheld crank

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Kingrinder

K6 Manual Coffee Grinder

How to Make a Turbo Espresso Shot, or “Gusher”

Here’s the new-school approach laid out by coffee expert Lance Hedrick, following new findings published in 2020 by coffee scientist Christopher Hendon at the University of Oregon, among others. The turbo espresso shot, also called a gusher, involves up-ending pretty much every assumption about how good espresso is made—grinding coarser for light roast espresso and running a whole lot of water through the puck quickly and at lower pressure.

The result is a fully extracted shot, sometimes even better extracted than a classic one. But the flavor is different: It tends to be sweeter, aromatic, and almost devoid of bitterness.

Crazy, right? Not really. There’s a bit of science behind it, which you can read about in the bottom section of the article. But first, here’s how to make a turbo shot, according to advice from coffee expert Hedrick, who says the best shots he’s pulled all come from this method.

  • Use less beans by volume. Try out a 15-gram double shot to better facilitate flow of water through the puck.
  • Grind coarser. In my own attempts to replicate Hedrick’s method, I’ve found that you need a coarseness a lot closer to the coarsest espresso.
  • Use a high ratio. Try out up to a 1:3 ratio, meaning 45 grams of espresso for 15 grams of coffee.
  • Let it gush. The resulting fast flow will knock out a big shot in 10 to 15 seconds or so, way faster than any traditional espresso.
  • Don’t worry about crema. You’re not going to get the same stable crema you’ll get from robusta-dark-roast Italian beans on traditional methods. But crema is not the most important part of your espresso, and less important to mouthfeel and body than many assume. “Don’t worship crema,” Hedrick says. “In fact, crema is the most bitter part of your espresso.”
  • Don’t neglect your water. Good water means good extraction. Filter your water, of course, which will help keep your machine running longer. But also? Throw a little baking soda in the tank, if you’ve got soft water, and it’ll help reduce the acidity of your espresso.
  • First, adjust yield. Then grind size. Don’t play with your grind first. If your coffee is sour, try running the shot to a higher volume. If bitter, dial it back. You can get more consistent results playing with yield than with grind. (Though, you may also need to adjust your grind.)
  • OK, the pressure thing. Hendon’s research showed best extraction on a turbo shot with 6 bars of pressure, which helps slow water’s path through the puck. But unless you do some modding or hacks on your espresso machine, you probably have a machine designed to pump 9 bars. Is it all for nought? According to Hedrick, it’s probably kinda fine, even if you don’t have a machine that can program lower pressure. With a coarse grind, a fast shot, and fewer grounds, you likely won’t build up 9 bars anyway. Just roll with what tastes good.

The Theory Behind Turbo Espresso Shots

OK, so how does a turbo shot work?

A gusher is exactly what it sounds like. It’s an espresso shot that practically just pours out of the portafilter so it’s over in about 15 seconds, even at high volume—a heresy among traditional espresso people. Conventional wisdom says this shot should taste terrible, underextracted, sour. But magically, it doesn’t. Extraction is in some ways better and more reliable.

How to Make Light Roast Espresso According to Chemists

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

A turbo shot tastes … kinda sweet, actually.

The idea isn’t just maverick. It’s backed by science. Back in 2020, a few researchers, including University of Oregon chemistry professor Christopher Hendon and Australian barista Michael Cameron, published a research paper that used mathematical modeling to show that a lot of what people had assumed about espresso was just kinda untrue.

Finer grinds don’t necessarily or always mean better extraction, they showed. And the 25-second espresso shot is a tradition … not a scientific certainty. Often, a lot of the unpleasant flavor compounds start to emerge after a mere 20 seconds. But especially, Hendon tells WIRED, grinding more coarsely, and using lower pressure and lower volumes of beans, leads to much more consistency between shots.

“What we were trying to do is find brew parameters that would allow us to make highly reproducible espresso,” he said. What he and his collaborators learned was that if you grind finer, extraction got better, but not forever. At some “critical point,” grinding finer actually led to worse extraction. Coffee clumped up. It clogged. Water actually got less contact with coffee grounds, not more.

If you ground beans more coarsely, and let the water flow longer through lower volumes of beans, you could get more even extraction, they discovered after analysis. This method also offered more repeatability. Using less coffee, and lower pressure, likewise allowed water to spend more time in contact with the coffee grounds—leading to even better extraction.

How to Make Light Roast Espresso According to Chemists

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

And so, grind coarser. Use less coffee. Use less pressure. Let it gush. Result: excellent extraction of sweet and aromatic compounds. Almost no bitterness. Hedrick tells WIRED that the best shots he’s pulled in recent memory have come using this method.

Hendon figures few would have paid attention to his findings if Hedrick hadn’t taken up the research and run with it—making video after video about the new technique for making what Hedrick now calls “modern” espresso, highlighting a bean’s bright aromatics without all the bitterness. Traditional shots just don’t get the flavors Hedrick wants, and have too many of the bitter flavors he hates.

Now, in the meantime, there are caveats. Hendon published a more recent paper showing that clumping at finer grinds could be avoided if you just spritzed your beans with a bit of water before grinding. (Coffee nerds had been doing this for a while; it just hadn’t been backed up by science.)

Which is to say, while turbo shots are a new and interesting and fun discovery, classic light roast espresso shots can also get good results.

Which Is Better, Classic Light Roast Espresso or Modern Turbo Shots?

Classic light roast espresso shots and turbo shots are both achievable. But note that turbo shots are a lot easier to pull off: Coarser grinds are quite simply more manageable. You’ll get more consistent shots time after time with gushers, Hedrick and Hendon both note.

So, how does a turbo shot taste? It is, on my attempts over the past couple of weeks, not quite as complex as more traditional, longer, finer-ground shots—at least when I’ve attempted them with more traditional 9-bar machines, like the Breville Oracle Jet and the new Meraki espresso machine I’m currently testing.

The combination of coarse grind and fast flow actually end up reminding me somewhat of results from some newer superautomatic espresso machines like the excellent De’Longhi Rivelia. These machines grind coarser and flow faster, and smooth out the edges of traditional shots. The results on my turbo shots were likewise smooth and flavorful, and a bit more sweet, but maybe also a less exciting and eventful ride.

  • Photograph: De’Longhi

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

  • Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

This said, I’ve also struck intense flavor gold with some turbo shots. And when they were good, the results were shockingly good. I have drunk a 12-second light roast espresso with flavor so round and full it made me question everything I’d previously been told about how good espresso should be made.

The difference between turbo and classic light roast shots is actually, if I’m comparing, a lot like the difference between a new-school hazy IPA and a West Coast IPA. The turbo shot, like a modern hazy IPA, offers more juiciness and less bitterness. Maybe it also offers a little less complexity. But in exchange, it’s an easy, smooth ride across the palate that’s more in line with modern tastes. It’s delicious.

So which do you prefer? Juicy or balanced? Complexity and intensity, or affable aroma and sweetness? A difficult test of espresso mettle, or an easy win? Shoot your shot.

Meet the Experts

  • Lance Hedrick is one of the most-followed coffee industry voices on YouTube, a two-time World Latte Art champion, two-time US Brewers Cup finalist, and director of EU and West Coast wholesale for Onyx Coffee.
  • Christopher Hendon is associate professor of computational materials chemistry at the University of Oregon and has authored or coauthored numerous published works on the chemistry of coffee flavor and extraction.



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Here’s Every Country Directly Impacted by the War on Iran

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March 5, 2026

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Here’s Every Country Directly Impacted by the War on Iran


On February 28, United States and Israeli forces launched a series of strikes on Iran, kicking off turmoil in the Middle East.

Pete Hegseth, the secretary of the Department of Defense, said in a recent press conference that the operation could last as long as eight weeks. President Donald Trump himself said in a press conference on March 2 that the administration projected the operation would last four or five weeks but had “the capability to go far longer than that.”

This week Iran has responded in turn, attacking Israel, regional US embassies and military bases, and other sites across the Middle East. Iran has peppered neighboring countries with hundreds of drone and ballistic missile strikes since the operation began. While many of these have been intercepted, over a thousand people have died in the region and multiple buildings have been damaged, including luxury hotels in Dubai, US military bases and embassies, and international airports and marine ports.

Israel has also started bombarding Lebanon, following strikes at the country by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The Trump administration has given various, and at times seemingly contradictory, justifications for the military action, citing everything from potential “nuclear threat” to unverified claims that Iran attempted to interfere in the 2020 and 2024 US presidential elections. As of March 5, Congress, which in the US has the sole power to declare war, has not done so.

The attacks have already disrupted supply chains, creating uncertainty for the oil and gas and fertilizer industries as key infrastructure has been targeted or shut down out of caution. Shipping traffic has halted along the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route.

As the conflict continues to escalate and expand, WIRED is tracking which countries have been affected and how. This article was last updated on March 5.

Iran

As of March 4, Iranian state media estimates that over 1,000 people have died in the country since the US-Israeli attacks began. Several schools and hospitals have been hit, according to Al Jazeera. The Israeli Air Force says it has struck Iran with over 5,000 munitions since the beginning of the operation.

Israel

Israel has faced retaliatory strikes from Iran. As of March 4, at least 11 people have died and over 40 buildings have been damaged in Tel Aviv, according to Al Jazeera.

Azerbaijan

On March 5, Azerbaijan said drone attacks launched from Iran had crossed over the country’s borders and damaged an airport building and two civilians. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan said that the country’s military forces “have been instructed to prepare and implement appropriate retaliatory measures,” according to Reuters. Iran has denied responsibility for the attacks, according to Al Jazeera.

Bahrain

Missile and drone strikes have targeted different locations in Bahrain, including a US naval base, according to the BBC. On March 2, Amazon reported that a drone strike occurred in close proximity to one of its data centers in the country. CNBC later reported that Iranian state media said that Iran had targeted the data center because of the company’s support of the US military.

Cyprus

On March 2, a drone strike hit a British air base in Cyprus, according to Reuters. It caused limited damage and no casualties. Greece, the UK, and France have lent defensive support to the country, according to a Bloomberg report.

Iraq

Since February 28, there have been reports of multiple Iranian strikes aimed at a US military base near the Erbil International Airport, according to the nonprofit monitoring group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data.

Jordan

Jordan’s armed forces have intercepted dozens of missiles since the start of the conflict. At least one Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq has claimed responsibility, according to the Associated Press. On March 2, the US Embassy in the country announced that all its personnel had temporarily departed.

Kuwait

Kuwait has endured multiple waves of Iranian missile and drone attacks since February 28. On March 2, US Central Command said in a statement that three US fighter jets were accidentally struck down by Kuwaiti air defenses during an attack that included Iranian aircraft, missiles, and drones.

Lebanon

Israel attacked southern Lebanon after the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah launched rocket and drone attacks against them. Lebanon prime minister Nawaf Salam subsequently banned Hezbollah’s military and security activities, according to Al Jazeera.

Oman

Oman’s Duqm commercial port has been hit by several drone attacks, according to Al Jazeera. Omani authorities have said at least one oil tanker off the country’s port of Khasab in the Strait of Hormuz has been attacked.

Qatar

On March 2, QatarEnergy posted on X saying that it would halt production of liquified natural gas following a military attack on its operational facilities in the country. It did not attribute the attack to any particular country. On March 3, it posted again, saying that it would also stop the production of additional products, including urea, polymers, methanol, and aluminum.

Saudi Arabia

Infrastructure in Saudi Arabia has been targeted with projectiles. On March 3, the US embassy in Riyadh, the country’s capital, was damaged following an attack. On March 4, Reuters reported that one of the Saudi Aramco’s largest domestic refineries of Saudi Aramco, the majority state-owned oil company, was targeted by an attempted drone attack.

Syria

Tom Fletcher, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, says that civilians and civilian infrastructure were under attack in several countries including Syria.

Turkey

On March 4, the Turkish Ministry of National Defence announced that NATO had intercepted ballistic munitions launched from Iran, and that munition fragments had fallen into Hatay, a province that borders the Mediterranean Sea and Syria. Iran has denied any missile launch towards the country.

United Arab Emirates

As of March 4, UAE Ministry of Defence officials say that the country has intercepted hundreds of drone and missile attacks from Iran. Despite the relatively high rate of interceptions, debris created by the fallout has still damaged areas of the country. In Dubai, the luxury hotel Burj Al Arab was struck by debris, as well as the Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island home to high-end hotels and apartments. On March 2, Amazon Web Services announced that two of its facilities were directly struck in the country, causing “elevated error rates and degraded availability.”

Countries Evacuating Citizens

On March 2, US assistant secretary of state for consular affairs Mora Namdar posted on X urging Americans to depart from several middle eastern countries due to “serious safety risks.” On March 4, Reuters reported that the US military has offered seats on military transport planes to Americans trying to leave the region.

Over a dozen countries have announced that they will be evacuating their citizens from the area or sponsoring repatriation flights, including the UK, Ireland, Germany and Italy.



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OpenAI Had Banned Military Use. The Pentagon Tested Its Models Through Microsoft Anyway

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March 5, 2026

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OpenAI Had Banned Military Use. The Pentagon Tested Its Models Through Microsoft Anyway


OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is still in the hot seat this week after his company signed a deal with the US military. OpenAI employees have criticized the move, which came after Anthropic’s roughly $200 million contract with the Pentagon imploded, and asked Altman to release more information about the agreement. Altman admitted it looked “sloppy” in a social media post.

While this incident has become a major news story, it may just be the latest and most public example of OpenAI creating vague policies around how the US military can access its AI.

In 2023, OpenAI’s usage policy explicitly banned the military from accessing its AI models. But some OpenAI employees discovered the Pentagon had already started experimenting with Azure OpenAI, a version of OpenAI’s models offered by Microsoft, two sources familiar with the matter said. At the time, Microsoft had been contracting with the Department of Defense for decades. It was also OpenAI’s largest investor, and had broad license to commercialize the startup’s technology.

That same year, OpenAI employees saw Pentagon officials walking through the company’s San Francisco offices, the sources said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity as they aren’t licensed to comment on private company matters.

Some OpenAI employees were wary about associating with the Pentagon, while others were simply confused about what OpenAI’s usage policies meant. Did the policy apply to Microsoft? While sources tell WIRED it was not clear to most employees at the time, spokespeople from OpenAI and Microsoft say Azure OpenAI products are not, and were not, subject to OpenAI’s policies.

“Microsoft has a product called the Azure OpenAI Service that became available to the US Government in 2023 and is subject to Microsoft terms of service,” said spokesperson Frank Shaw in a statement to WIRED. Microsoft declined to comment specifically on when it made Azure OpenAI available to the Pentagon, but notes the service was not approved for “top secret” government workloads until 2025.

“AI is already playing a significant role in national security and we believe it’s important to have a seat at the table to help ensure it’s deployed safely and responsibly,” OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said in a statement. “We’ve been transparent with our employees as we’ve approached this work, providing regular updates and dedicated channels where teams can ask questions and engage directly with our national security team.”

The Department of Defense did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

By January 2024, OpenAI updated its policies to remove the blanket ban on military use. Several OpenAI employees found out about the policy update through an article in The Intercept, sources say. Company leaders later addressed the change at an all-hands meeting, explaining how the company would tread carefully in this area moving forward.

In December 2024, OpenAI announced a partnership with Anduril to develop and deploy AI systems for “national security missions.” Ahead of the announcement, OpenAI told employees that the partnership was narrow in scope and would only deal with unclassified workloads, the same sources said. This stood in contrast to a deal Anthropic had signed with Palantir, which would see Anthropic’s AI used for classified military work.

Palantir approached OpenAI in the fall of 2024 to discuss participating in their “FedStart” program, an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to WIRED. The company ultimately turned it down, and told employees it would’ve been too high-risk, two sources familiar with the matter tell WIRED. However, OpenAI now works with Palantir in other ways.

Around the time the Anduril deal was announced, a few dozen OpenAI employees joined a public Slack channel to discuss their concerns about the company’s military partnerships, sources say and a spokesperson confirmed. Some believed the company’s models were too unreliable to handle a user’s credit card information, let alone assist Americans on the battlefield.



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Don’t Risk Birdwatching FOMO—Put Out Your Hummingbird Feeders Now

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March 5, 2026

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Don’t Risk Birdwatching FOMO—Put Out Your Hummingbird Feeders Now


Though most people associate the beginning of March with the hopefulness of spring and the indignities of daylight saving time, there’s another important event taking place yards all over the country: hummingbird season.

While many species of hummingbirds can be seen in regions year-round, others are migratory, and this time typically marks their return from wintering grounds in Central and South America. These tiny birds can lose up to 40 percent of their body weight by the time they arrive here after having flown thousands of miles, and since many flowers haven’t bloomed yet, nectar feeders can be a source of essential fuel.

Though I test smart bird feeders year-round, I don’t use hummingbird feeders as often as I should, as it’s imperative that they be cleaned and refilled with new nectar every two or three days (a ratio of 1:4 granulated sugar to water is best, and avoid any dyes or additives) to prevent deadly bacteria and mold, and I don’t always have the time.

But if you are going to invest the energy in maintaining a hummingbird feeder, right now is the best time, as you have a chance to see migratory species you might not otherwise encounter, such as black-chinned hummingbirds. A smart feeder helps you ID them, whether they’re stopping at your feeder on their way north or arriving at their final destination.

Birdbuddy’s Pro is the smart hummingbird feeder I recommend and use myself when I’m not actively testing. The app is easy to navigate and sends cleaning reminders, the built-in solar roof keeps the battery charged, and, unlike other feeders, only the shallow bottom screws off for refilling. No having to pour sticky nectar through a narrow opening, or turn a giant cylinder upside down and risk spilling.

Note that it’s not perfect; the sensor is inconsistent and doesn’t capture every hummingbird that visits, but for the camera quality (5 MP photos, 2K video with slow-motion, 122-degree field of view) and ease of use, it’s a foible I’m willing to put up with. If you already have another Birdbuddy feeder, the hummingbird feeder images and videos will integrate seamlessly into your app feed.

Birdbuddy

Pro Smart Solar Hummingbird Feeder

Right now, the feeder is 37 percent off on Birdbuddy’s website—a deal I usually don’t see outside of shopping events like Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day. Note that the feeder only runs on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and while it is fully functional without a subscription, a Birdbuddy Premium subscription will let you add friends and family members to your account so they can see the birds as well. That’s $99 a year through the app.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that’s too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.



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