For those who remember the glory days of coffeed.com -- today some folks out there are feeling a huge sense of vindication.
Back in the day, James Hoffman happened to mention the infamous "perspex portafilter" experiment. This was a legendary experiment conducted by La Spaziale, where a transparent portafilter was constructed in order to be able to visually analyze the extraction of espresso.
James' big "mistake" (one might say) was to tell the world that he had seen the video.
My big "mistake" (in the same vein) was to back James publicly when it came to what he had observed in the video.
Suffice it to say that many folks in coffee were somewhere between skeptical and belittling in their responses. This actually got to the point where many believed (based upon the insistence of various really loud voices within the community) that James had simply lied about seeing the video.
This was largely the result of two facts.
First - the video showed extraction occurring in a manner which flew in the face of some "common wisdom" within the coffee world. And that threatened certain "experts" in espresso.
Second - La Spaziale refused to share the video with the world.
Well..... Guess what....
I'm confident James is going to take the high road and be quite gracious about this. I, on the other hand, am not so nice of a person.
To everyone on coffeed.com and on home-barista.com who talked shit about the existence of this video.... to everyone who either claimed or implied that James was lying about its existence....
You know how to reach James. You don't need to apologize to me. But you sure as fuck do need to apologize to him.
And I have to ask.... how does if feel to be so fucking wrong all the time?
