Brett, I am not surprised with what you experienced, although my own personal thoughts on differences for top notes are perhaps not that great, but of course it will depend upon machine, grinder and extraction style. Here is some real comparative information from back-to-back testing using machines, grinders and baskets at the same time - not the rubbish you read on forums elsewhere about people banging on about their god-shots at home. I spend a lot of time during the week and weekend on the road visiting clients and also checking out cafes that are not clients - not selling, but just experiencing and learning. Yesterday, I had not intended to do this, but ended up doing a mini cafe crawl from 1pm through to 7pm with one of my absolutely mad coffee nut customers (he roped me in, yet again). The objective was to find the unofficial best 8oz takeaway cup in Melbourne. We had already had some vigorous debates in the weeks leading up to yesterday in order to narrow down the short-list. I make a habit of asking the geeky barista's at cafes what baskets (type and size) they run, along with volumes in and out, shot times and yields. My friend runs a LM GB5 with Synesso baskets. His brother who owns another quality specialty cafe also runs Synesso baskets on his LM Mistral. They have both been through the use of VST baskets many times over the years but in the end they dumped the VST's for the Synesso baskets because there is less channeling and more consistency with the Synesso baskets compared to the VST. In a busy cafe, you need consistency first and foremost before a possible "high note". As you are pumping out coffees, consistency can and will drop under pressure and other factors like grinders getting hot blades, etc. all contribute to less than ideal shots, or variations that need to be compensated for. Time and again, the Synesso baskets have proved to deliver the best back-to-back consistency. Without doubt In terms of high notes, we have spent hours and hours on the best machines and grinders and compared one basket to the other. When the shots are perfect on each basket, the resultant cup has been impossible to reach a clear and unanimous decision on which basket has the edge - it's always a split decision. Again, we are dealing with personal preferences on cup notes and character, thus we could not agree on which basket produced the best shot. Taking a step to the prosumer level, if I looked at my own home setup of PID multi-boiler machine with Robur-E and Kony-E grinders, I tend to prefer the VST baskets as I am only making a few cups and have plenty of time to sink those that don't measure up. In my mind, when I am at home, first thing in the morning, it's the most important coffee of the day as my palate will be most receptive. There are times when I absolutely curse these damn VST baskets (particularly on a machines that have smaller flow restrictors installed) and these are tempered with my moments of joyous delight when it all magically comes together and works a treat. My sense is that for the majority of home espresso setups, there is perhaps a 50/50 split between the good+great shots versus barely-drinkable shots for those using VST's. Somewhat akin to a roller coaster ride. Is one basket better than the other ? Perhaps. But it will depend upon your goals.
