Re stockfleth's, I think that if I had the luxury of time I would give it more thought, but the fact is that I am generally working as fast as I can, and stockfleth's doesn't give me the speed that I need to churn through, say, a line of takeaways. A simple, fast levelling sweep is all I use when I'm going fast - it's consistent enough, and any hit on quality is barely there if everything else - dose, grind, tamp - is set and done right. I tend to focus on a sort of Occam's razor approach to everything when it comes to coffee - the most direct path is the best path. Overcomplicating things, such as bringing Stockfleth into a busy rush, just risks your consistency and you can lose the kind of relentless, non-stop quality that comes with the least intrusive techniques. I should mention the baristas who tamp down 3-4 times and polish several circles! I must say though, I've not seen what I'd call proper Stockfleth's being performed here in Sydney. I see a lot of baristas attempting to do it, but many times I just see the same mound of coffee being pushed back and forth on top of the basket, disrupting the integrity of the cake, etc. If I am taking more time with my distribution, I'm generally more likely to use something like a simplified version of the chicago chop. By the way, it's great that you've revitalised the boards!
