Like a lot of the home enthusiasts, i have started by making coffee in a pour over set up first. Then as me and my wife were finding furniture for our new home, she suggested that we get an espresso machine, little did she know, she started this burning curiosity in me that made me binge watch how every well known barista made their coffee and what equipments they used.
The rule of thumb for brewing espresso is 1 part coffee grinds, to 2 parts of espresso beverage (in terms of weight). Example, if your coffee grinds weight is 18 grams, you want your espresso beverage to be generally in the region of 36 grams. This is a good starting point and from there we can start tweaking to get the best result.
Equipment
- A small scale with timer, or a seperate timer (if yours doesnt have the timer option).
- Tamper.
- Espresso coffee grinder.
- Espresso machine.
Ingredients
- Good espresso roast coffee (we recommend our brazilian fazenda samambaia).
Method
- grind 20 grams of coffee into your portafilter.
- Level out the grinds in the portafilter by tapping it with your hand and on the tamping station before you press it with a tamper (be gentle, no excess force is needed in here, you just want to make the grinds perfectly leveled).
- Clean out the edges of the portafilter from any coffee grinds to ensure that a good seal is formed and the cleanliness of your machine.
- Hook the portafilter into the machine and put a small scale on the drip tray and your cup on top of it, then tare the weight so the scale counts only the drink’s weight.
- Start the espresso machine and start the timer at the same time.
- Watch the beautiful espresso pouring into your cup and when you almost reach 40 grams on your scale stop the brewing (i stop it when i get to 38.5g and usually it stops around the 40g mark).
- Check the time it took to brew this coffee, it should be around 28 to 32 seconds, if it is shorter than that, then the grind size is too coarse and you need to make it finer, if it is longer than that then your grind size is too fine and you need to make it coarser.
- Stir your espresso and taste it, then calibrate from there to your own liking.
I hope you find this recipe delicious and enjoyable.