Making Espresso

For many people a shot of espresso works as a little injection of energy and to others it is art made for the taste buds. For most people it is a combination of the two. It is easy to believe that the making of an espresso is a piece of cake. «A small cup of coffee shouldn’t be that difficult?» That attitude is the very first mistake made in learning how to make espresso. For the real professionals it has taken years to learn how to make the perfect shot of espresso, it is a strict scientific procedure, but at the same time it is of utmost importance to have a sensitive sense of taste and detail. For a private person it is of course difficult to make the same high quality espresso as the barista, no matter how much training he puts down. But there are many steps you can learn in the making process that can improve your espresso and bring it from being awful to decent and then on to really delicious. It is all about knowledge, patience and experience.

The tools and machines used in making espresso are of great significance. The semi-automatic machine is the one most frequently used in bars and cafés and the easiest one to get really good results with at home, so it is a good investment. The piston machine might give even better results, but only if you are a real enthusiast as it requires much more work. Pod machines and automatic machines are very easy to use, but will never make really impressive espressos.

A good grinder is almost as important as the espresso machine. Achieving the right grinding degree is essential for the outcome of the espresso; too coarsely ground coffee gives watery espresso and too fine makes it bitter. You should get a grinder with a good reputation, and that has different degrees of grinding so that you can try your way to find the best degree for your machine. Don´t be stingy when buying a grinder if your espresso is important to you.

Choosing the coffee bean is naturally one of the most important aspects of making any coffee. The Arabica bean is the best and if you find fresh roasted Arabica beans, they are the natural choice, but the freshness is essential. The Robusta bean has generally a much poorer quality than the Arabica bean, but many espresso enthusiasts have started mixing their Arabica beans with some Robusta beans as they give a very nice crema and sometimes also a preferable taste. Taste, however, is very individual, so the best advice here is to try different beans and blends to see which one suits you best.

When you are ready to brew your cup of espresso the first thing you do is to fill the machine with water and possibly beans (automatic machine). Then you switch on the machine to let it warm up the water to the desired temperature which is 93 centigrade. When the right temperature is achieved it´s a good idea to let some of the hot water run through the machine to make sure all parts are completely clean, and also to heat up the components not to destroy the hot espresso by cooling it before it even reaches the cup. Fill also the espresso cup with some of the hot water, so it will be warm and ready to receive the dark drops without cooling them immediately.

As mentioned earlier grinding the coffee the right way is an important key to making good espresso. There are no strict rules as to what is the perfect grinding degree, since it depends mostly on which machine you are using, it should, however, be rather fine.

Measuring the coffee is easy, for a single espresso you use 7 grams of coffee and for a double 14 grams, and so on. If you find it difficult to measure freely you can use a small set of kitchen scales. Rotating the portafilter while supplying it with coffee helps to spread it evenly.

Next is the tamping of the coffee into the portafilter. This step is also very important. If you tamp it too hard, you will get a bitter coffee and if you tamp it too loosely it will become watery. You should get a good tamper made of aluminum or other light metals, and it has to fit perfectly into your portafilter without leaving any empty room around the edge. You start off by tamping it softly once following with giving the tamper a small spin to divide the ground coffee as evenly as possible. After that you give it a strong press, the pressure should be about 15 kilos, so don’t be afraid to let some weight of your upper body help to push. Give the tamper another light spin and make sure there is no ground coffee laying on the edge of the portafilter as it can destroy the pressure during brewing by letting the air out.

When all is prepared it’s finally time to brew the espresso. Attach the portafilter to the espresso machine and press start/pull the lever. The pressure needs to be at 9 bars and the best temperature is 93 centigrade. The coffee should start pouring into the cup after a few seconds and the best espresso has an extraction time of 25-30 seconds. The jet should be the size of a thin shoe string. The result should be a rich espresso with a thick, golden crema on top.