Posted by: moorea19 | March 27, 2008

The perfect shot of espresso cont’d…

After another particularly bitter shot of espresso this morning, I decided to do a little investigating. The shot took especially long to pull which led me to believe the grind is too fine for the machine and/or I applied too much pressure to the grounds.

Lesson #2:

Proper tamping is done by adding approximately 30 - 40 pounds of pressure to the coffee grinds.

I realize I am not a professional Barista so if anyone out there would care to offer any additional suggestions, be my guest.

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hi, reiss here. i run a bespoke roasting company in London, England. you will find us at http://www.LondiniumEspresso.com

personally i think coffee in general & espresso in particular are surrounded by too much mystique, which only serves to confuse newcomers.

my first piece of advice, not knowing anything about your grinder or machine is to always dumo the first espresso that comes out of your machine - think of it as a warm-up

secondly check that you have beens that are intended for use as espresso. this is not a function of cost, in fact many expensive sought after single origin roasts are simply unsuitable for the espresso process as they have too much acidity in the bean.

assuming you have the right kind of roast for espresso you next need to ensure that the coffee you are using is fresh. if you are have any problem getting nice dense & deep crema (assuming your grinder is about right) then the beans you are using are not fresh, yes, thats right, even if it says ‘fresh coffee beans’ on the packet and even if the roaster you bought them off says ‘oh yes they’re fresh’. crema is the acid test of freshness i’m afraid. yes some coffee will give off more crema than others, but even a coffee that gives off less crema will still provide you with plenty when freshly roasted

oh, i have just thought of something else, i assume you are buying beans & grinding them yourself just when you need them (if you are buying pre-ground coffee you are simply throwing your money away). you MUST buy a grinder

the other thing is with fresh coffee you hardly need any pressue with a tamp at all as the presence of the coffee oils on/in the grounds will cause the grounds to bind together nicely. if your coffee is stale the grinds will be like sawdust (dry). If your coffee is fresh the grinds will feel damp & slightly oily/sticky

also, i assume you machine is CLEAN. this is critical.

if youre still having problems visit our site, click the Skype button & you can talk to use fore free with no obligations.

Reiss.

By: lespresso on March 28, 2008
at 3:09 am

Thanks, Reiss. Looks like I need to grind the beans fresh along with changing my tamping technique.

By: moorea19 on March 28, 2008
at 6:54 pm

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