Comparison of performance verification of VST and IMS powder bowls for coffee quality of Italian coffee extraction standard

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IMS vs VST: Italian Coffee Powder Bowl and its role in extraction

Italian coffee powder bowls: they are small but powerful. They have a vital effect on extraction, but even so, they are often overlooked.

In fact, VST founder Vince Fedele first unveiled his high-precision powder bowl to the entire coffee industry more than a decade ago, years before technological innovations in boutique coffee equipment, such as PID temperature-controlled multi-boiler coffee machines and immersed heads. Over the past few years, however, attitudes towards espresso powder bowls have been changing.

Today, we have a new brand in the coffee industry as a challenger: IMS. So who is better, IMS or VST? For this reason, I decided to blindly test the flavor of the products of their powder bowls of all sizes.

Although VST is revolutionary, it is not their first to offer a more advanced powder bowl than the original powder bowl of an Italian coffee machine. Synesso's powder bowl, for example, has always been highly respected. However, VST has done sufficient research and analysis on the extraction effect in terms of geometry, pore size and shape, and the hole position and shape of the powder bowl provided ensure consistency.

Before that, most pennies had serious design flaws. Pore sizes vary widely-in the same powder bowl, some fine powders can flow directly through to espresso, while others are small enough to cause clogging.

As a result, VST's pink bowl has monopolized the high-end pink bowl market for many years. You may occasionally hear some baristas complain that there are many problems with VST, but most opinions (including mine) think that these "problems" can be solved by better cloth powder and pressing powder.

Now, a new brand has gone public: IMS. Shortly after the end of World War II, the Italian company began producing metal parts for the espresso industry. Now they have launched the "competition filter bowl" series, and claim to have all the advantages of the VST powder bowl.

Let's verify it now.

Performance Verification Scheme of VST and IMS Powder Bowl

We use these two brands of powder bowls to produce several spaghetti concentrates and blind tests, including Rwandan Cyanika from Colonna Coffee and Tanzanian Hasambo Peaberry baked by RoundHill. Both are light baking, but the flavor develops well.

EK43 is used to grind beans, and our Kee Van der Westen Mirage coffee machine is used. The flow rate is very slow and the pump pressure is 6.5atmosphere. The ratio of water to powder was cooked at two different ratios that were most suitable for the two kinds of beans, but remained the same in all sizes of powder bowl tests for both brands.

Another noteworthy variable is the degree of grinding. We all know that the optimum grindability varies with different bowl sizes, which is obvious because larger bowls contain more coffee powder, which slows extraction, but in theory, different filter sizes of different sizes should be able to correct the difference in extraction speed. In reality, on the premise of maintaining the same ratio of water to powder, if you want the extraction time of a 15g powder bowl to be the same as that of an 18g powder bowl, you need to adjust a scale on the dial of the EK43 bean grinder.

Interestingly, there is a big difference in the degree of grinding that is most suitable for VST and IMS powder bowls of the same size. The IMS powder bowl needs to be refined by 1-1.5 scales to be consistent with the VST powder bowl of the same size. Our conclusion is that this result is probably due to different filter sizes, but the accurate measurement of such a small filter is beyond our ability, so this is only a guess.

Different tastes: the results of our tests

In the blind taste test, the subjects preferred the product of IMS. Most of them feel that the sweetness and taste richness of the products are slightly better, but the difference is minimal. In fact, if it is a coffee drink with milk, you can't taste the difference between the two.

One possible explanation for the subjects' preference for IMS powder bowls is that when the ratio of water to powder, the amount of powder filling and the extraction time are the same, the IMS powder bowl needs finer grinding to produce the same espresso as the VST powder bowl of the same size. This may improve the overall uniformity of the grinding, because the two peaks of the coffee powder particle size distribution curve are closer to each other when the grinding degree is finer. But this is only a hypothesis.

There is also a problem with the IMS powder bowl: the minimum size of the double concentrated powder bowl (15g) requires more grinding than the EK limit for some lightly roasted coffee beans. This is not a problem for traditional espresso grinders, but if your EK is equipped with a coffee grinder instead of a Turkish coffee cutter, it will be a lingering concern.

IMS also produces single-serving powder bowls, aptly named "The Single", which is specially designed to keep its output consistent with double powder bowls under the same grinding setting. When it is actually produced, at least for our coffee, we need to make it a little thicker to keep the flow rate of the double powder bowl constant. However, it seems that the flavor of this single powder bowl is usually better than that of our cooking handle with a shunt.

Winner of the test produced by VST and IMS

Based on our test results-- of course, there are some limitations-- IMS filter bowls are slightly better in flavor. The differences are small, even much smaller than the differences between different manufacturers and between shoddy identical filter bowls (many espresso machines are still in use).

So, which is better? In the end, it depends on the individual and how the powder bowl is produced on your coffee machine.

But in any case, it is exciting for more high-performance espresso filter bowl manufacturers to enter the market. I believe this will lead to greater innovation and progress.

Original: IMS vs VST: Espresso Baskets and Their Effects on Extraction

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