Espresso is the most precious thing to me in the world and scope of coffee. For me at least, it's the ultimate expression, not to mention extraction, of what high end specialty coffee can offer. In 20 years, we've had many variants of our "How to Make Espresso" guide up on CoffeeGeek. It was revised again this summer, putting more focus on WDT and how even just using a paperclip can make your coffee better.
@coffeegeek nice! It's been 10+ years since I read this guide. Now I need to go find some paperclips! Wdt seems like a step I need since my vario just sometimes has clumpy days that make it hard to dose and I end up with a bit of channeling. That may get the consistency I'm sometimes missing.
@patricklang The Vario is such an excellent grinder, but retention and a slightly clumpy output are its two main issues. This will definitely help. One of our bloggers had that journey:
https://www.coffeegeek.com/techniques/the-weiss-distribution-technique-changed-my-espresso-game/