this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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How did you prepare yours? I tried an espresso today when the beans arrived and the flavour wasn't very strong. Definitely smooth, but not the strong flavour I was expecting in NZ's strongest coffee!
That’s interesting. I burr grind my own beans seconds before making the espresso’s. I had already adjusted my grind to espresso, and timed it to fill the portafilter, takes about 25 seconds and uses 20-22 gms ground coffee.
Once the grinder has filled the portafilter, I tamp it down with quite a significant press on the tamper. We don’t mess with the milk foamer, simply splash in a very small amount of cold Boring Barista oat milk to each cup. Then for me, a small sprinkle of chilli chocolate powder on top of the crema.
For our blend I simply mixed the beans 50/50 in tne grinder.
I ground it then immedietly used it, though I just have a cheap grinder.
Are you doing 60ml of espresso and a splash of milk? I had about 80ml of water in first to make a long black, the same amount I would normally use, and it was weaker in flavour than my other coffee.
I can try tamping it down more or grinding it more, but then I end up with less than 60ml of espresso with the preset double espresso setting. I figure if I am getting 60ml out (which I practiced by measuring it into a little measuring cup thingy) then I must have the grinding/tamping around what the manufacturers expect. I've definitely had issues getting the water through if I grind it too much!
We make ours using a 60ml double shot simultaneously into 2 cups, so 30ml coffee extracted onto 30ml of hot water already in each cup. Then a small, and I do mean small, splash of oat milk.
The tamping is very important, the coffee grinds in the portafilter should be very dense after tamping. My machine user guide suggests tamping at 25Kg. If you’re not getting a full 60ml shot, with your current grind, try extending the extraction time. Maybe don’t run it on auto, but manually start/stop.
My setup, not a high end machine, can’t cope with extra fine grinds. My extraction time for a double shot is around 30 secs.
What you describe sounds like under extraction, the coffee is thin and lacking in flavour. Can I suggest you experiment and not rely on the user guide suggestions?
I definitely think my method needs improvement. My machine extracts over about 15-20 seconds, any more and it's over extracted. I'm guessing this means I need to either grind a bit more or tamp a bit more. I struggle to tamp it any more with the plastic tamper that came with the machine, maybe I need to get a better one.
I'd like a better grinder as well, but a decent grinder costs more than my espresso machine 😆
What you could try is half filling the portafilter, then tamping, top it up and tamp again.
I tamp my portafilter by filling it to the rim with ground coffee, resting the portafilter head on the kitchen worktop, then really leaning into the tamping process, only a single tamp press for me. It should drop the coffee level 1-2mm.
I've ground it a bit longer and tried what you suggested tamping it twice, which sort of helped.
It definitely has more flavour, and I had extract for closer to 30s.
However, with the grounds so dense, when I take the portafilter off it has a pool of water on the top.
Mine does too, so after use, I remove it and leave the portafilter resting on the machine base. After a while, so typically before the next brew, it has dried enough to make the old coffee removal from the portafilter easier.
Glad to see your extract is better timed. It’s all very tricky on timing to suit the machines, certainly not a plug and play!!!
My machine instructions says water pooling on the portafilter is a sign you're doing something wrong 😆
I had no idea how much this was going to be true! It looks so easy in the cafes 😆
I guess cafes need to run dozens, if not hundreds, of shots a day. Once they establish their process, and that’s typically biased to saving money, that’s when you find your home coffee tastes a million miles better than that from the local cafe.
Yeah, also the personal taste thing. Plus they probably do it much quicker because they already have their machines and grinders set to the beans.
Definitely a lot of variance in cafes. My wife laughs at me for swapping my order between long black and flat whites depending on the cafe. Often based on a snap judgement of a place I've never been before.
Time to get into the only "drink at home" principle. I have to admit, we have several friends and locals who often visit us, seemingly primarily for our coffee. Got a visitor coming tomorrow, they’ll get a taste of our new Deadly Sin blend. Won’t say anything, just ask about how they like our "new" coffee.
Haha well I don't go to cafes because they do coffee better than I do. I also don't go to cafes because they do better food than I do.
Sounds a bit like you're running a cafe yourself
Crickey, that’s an interesting response. I guess I should ask, why do you go there then?
I was ready to take on a cafe about 10 years back, but the business owners still wanted full control of how the cafe was run, so my answer was no.
The same reason I go to the pub instead of drinking at home! Because that's where everyone else is drinking 😆
I guess for a cafe there's also the benefit of not having to cook. I don't often find anything in a cafe that I couldn't make better myself. And by better I mean more in line with my own tastes, which aren't necessarily objectively better.
I fully understand the social aspects of your comments. That said, your coffee made from your own machine will be a bit more personal and need to be as best as possible aligned to your personal taste.
For sure! Just as soon as I get better at it 😅