Australian Barista-Philosopher Matt Perger philosophizes on the sense of “evenness” when talking about coffee extraction:

Throughout my Barista career, so many of my teachers and peers have told me to extract evenly. “Don’t do x or the extraction won’t be even” and “Do y to even out the extraction” etc. but I never really understood what an even extraction meant, and how it affected the flavour of a coffee. It’s one of those things that gets passed on mindlessly because it sounds good. So what is evenness anyway?

As I mentioned in the very first hustle, extraction is kind of like a two way street. At one end is over-extraction, and at the other end is under-extraction. Our goal, it seems, is to find the magical spot in the middle where everything tastes good so we can call it a day. Unfortunately this isn’t so accurate.

via The Most Important Thing About Brewing Coffee – Matt Perger.