Espresso

How I started

I never was really a coffee or espresso person until my girlfriend at the time (now wife), moved in. I noticed that she owned a little Nespresso machine and enjoyed making Americanos everyday. At the time we lived near some really awesome Coffee shops. It didn't take long before I realized I really liked mochas. It is important to understand that buying mocha lattes all the time can become expensive. My wife then took on the challenge of trying to recreate the mocha latte at home. It took a few attempts but was able to get the coffee to a point where we didn't need to go out and buy it as much.

During Covid, we decided to upgrade from the Nespresso to a Breville Barista Express. I really believed it was as simple as grinding beans, tamp in portafilter and brew. Well, I was mistaken because making espresso was not that simple.

Thoughts about initially learning how to make espresso.

The first challenge was deciding what type of espresso machine we wanted. Options included automatic (machine does the work) and semi automatic (you do the work). Our decision was based on user reviews, research (of what I thought was important) and price. My wife wasn't convinced I would stick with it, so we set a budget around $700. I liked the idea of learning something new that was likely challenging. We settled on the Breville Barista Express.

The Barista Express was a great starter espresso machine. I remember when i first started in espresso, a sibling and a friend of ours said yea we just grind some beans and press the button and poof, a cup of espresso for drinking. We were going going through 5 lb bags of coffee as if it was a black Friday special that had a lot of hype around it. I was having my wife taste all my shots and had a 98% rejection rate. Not only did she not like the shots but it was taking around an hour to produce a shot she liked.

Breville's web site

https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/espresso/bes870.html

The first espresso shot

The Breville Barista Express arrives at our house, I then ground a bunch of beans, gave it a little tamp/attached it to the machine and pressed the button to brew. The espresso came flying out of the machine like a water fall. Not knowing any better, I was expecting this shot to taste great but I was very wrong. The shot was horrible and we were sad. I came to a realization it was time for some research via google and youtube.

Research

I intensely searched the web for any and all articles related to espresso. The two first videos I came across was by Lance Hedrick and James Hoffman who unknowingly taught me a lot about espresso. In addition to the people above I found Whole Latte Love very informational. Of course these are not the only resources I have found, just the ones that have stuck out the most.

Improving my shots

My shots slowly started to improve when my espresso variables become better controlled. Making good espresso that is remains consistent requires controlling many variables such as but not limited to: time, dose, grind size, and temperature. I figured out that I could put 18g of ground beans into the portafilter without overfilling the basket. Now that my dose was under control I could start working on grind size.

Timing

After reading the internet posts and listening to youtube there seems to be a variety of opinions on how long espresso should brew for. Some say 22 to 35 seconds, others suggest 25 to 30 and really any combination in between. For me, I try to keep my shots between 24 and 30 seconds.

Scale

Initially I bought an inexpensive scale that was able to measure in grams. At first, it was tricky to manage the stopwatch, starting the espresso machine and keep track of how many grams I was producing at the end of the extraction. This reminds me of when I first learned how to drive a manual transition car, just alot to think about between the clutch, traffic, steering etc. Once I knew I was going to stick with learning more about espresso I decided to upgrade to scale that can auto start the timer and measure grams at the same time.