Go to the Article: Espresso Discussion
My favorite espresso was from the Veronica Cafe in Lviv, Ukraine, which has a long history with coffee and annual Fall Coffee Festival attended by 100,000 people. Coffee is serious business in Lviv, so much so that until a couple years ago you couldn't buy "coffee to go" in a paper cup.
Veronica also has a wonderful bakery, so in the late Spring you can get a freshly made tart with wild strawberries and blueberries and a latte on a beautifully set table for under $5 USD. We go to Lviv every couple of years and this is what the Veronica "breakfast" looked like for us almost every day of our three week trip.
Have you guys heard of the Strietman ES3. If so, what're your thoughts on it?
what do you think of this one? http://www.amazon.com/Breville-BES860XL-Barista-Express-Espresso/dp/B002S51RQG/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1412125932&sr=1-1&keywords=sage+coffe its got some great reviews everywhere(i think its by heston blumenthal) and its got a built in grinder
Avoid anything that goes in the direction of All-In-One. The grinder's in these machines just won't do the job properly. You need the best grinder you can afford. Get a great grinder and a good or average machine. You'll never make good espresso without a great grinder. I own a mazzer mini, ~$550, which is a decent home machine, and worth every penny.
You can pick up a used Olympia Cremina single lever manual machine, Swiss made for $1,000. That's a great start, and after you dial it in you wont be disappointed (I owned one for several years before upgrading).
While I'm dispensing advice, never buy a roasted coffee that doesn't have the 'roasted on date'. For espresso application, roasted coffee has a shelf life of about 10 days after resting (2-5 days after roasting). Then it deteriorates. Even better, roast your own.
Cheers.
yeah, thats what i ususally do, but i dont know with this one. it was recommended to me and watched tons of videos about it and the reviews are great, and as far as i know you can customize everything from grind size to amount to shot time and temp, so it looks very good to me, but for sure im going to have a look at your recommendations, but i dont want to spend 1000s of dollars on a coffee machine right now.
Looks heavenly!!
I'd agree with Joe. Buy a great grinder now and drink French press, and buy a great machine when you can afford it. You'll get better results, you'll keep it longer, appreciate it more, be able to repair it yourself, and it won't end up in landfill nearly as quickly.
If you're gung-ho on the Breville, if it's at all possible get a demonstration by either the person who recommended it to you, or a store that stocks it, and be very objective when tasting the resulting shots. If you're going to drop $600 on it, it's worth seeing what it can actually do right?
Good luck and don't get sucked in to buying before you try!
This is so helpful as a concrete place to start. Thank you!
Question: In following your guide here, I find that even with a relatively fine grind (Baratza Virtuoso setting 9), I'm quickly reaching a brew ratio of 1:2 or more in something like 17 seconds. At the same time, the espresso doesn't start coming out of the portafilter for a good 6-7 seconds (so it's only about 10 seconds from the time the coffee starts coming out to the time I reach 1:2). Furthermore, the coffee keeps coming out of the head for 4-5 seconds after I hit the off switch.
Is this indicative of a problem with the pressure or something else in my espresso maker? Admittedly, it's an old, cheaper Capresso... So I wouldn't be too surprised. For what it's worth, I feel like I'm tamping with approximately 30lbs... Is there anything I can do short of buying a new espresso maker to increase the brew time without drastically increasing the amount of time it takes for the first drips to come through the portafilter?
Thanks!
How much coffee are you putting in the basket? At my cafe we have a 19g for 28g in 29 second recipe atm. With you saying it took 17 seconds and giving none of the other perimeters leaves things a bit vague. Also, from my experience 6-7 seconds seems a little long, but with no real cause for concern. Just to verify, do you start the timer when you engage the pump (start the water running through the bed) or when the espresso hits the cup. The correct or more popular method would be the former.
With regards to the espresso not stopping promptly after hitting the button, I havnt heard of that before, it's probably something you should get a professional to look at, but if you can adjust the pressure, the spot around 8-9 bars (which is where it should be) will five you the fastest running shot with all other perimeters kept standard. Until you figure this out, simply pull the cup away from the stream of espresso when you're happy with the shot, instead of relying on the machine to stop it for you.
good luck!
Hey Talley,
First, try a finer grind size. Any time the espresso liquid is coming out too quickly, the most likely culprit is a too-coarse grind. Even if you feel like it's already fine, if it could be finer, try it. It's normal that the espresso wouldn't come out for 6-7 seconds after you press the button. That's just your machine building up pressure to start the extraction.
What you're describing with the espresso coming out for 4-5 seconds is because your machine is on the cheaper side, and it probably doesn't have a backflush to immediately stop the pressure. But it shouldn't be a problem—just pull your espresso cup out from under the portafilter when you press stop, and don't allow that last bit to drain into the cup.
Also, make sure you dry out your portafilter before you put coffee into it. If it's wet and sticky, you might experience channelling, where water can drain through the puck without sufficient pressure.
Keep us posted—if you still can't get it to work, we'll try something else!
It's a very pretty machine! I've never used one but it's probably capable of pulling a very good shot.
That style of open-boiler lever machine goes way back and includes machines like the Bruni Brunella and the Arrarex Caravel. The big advantage of the open-boiler design is that since the water is held at brew temperature, the group never overheats. It's also a very simple, reliable, design.
This is in contrast to most modern lever machines that have a pressurized boiler operating at a higher temperature. This is needed so that the machine can also steam milk, but unfortunately it also means that temperature stability suffers.
One of the best classes to date. I have no plans to make my own espresso in the near future (not because i would not want to, just only so much time and money to go towards projects) and found every part of this class fascinating. Great photos, great videos, great layout, great info. I feel like the CF team really knocked it out of the park with this one!
Thank you, Jason! Our team had a blast working on this class.
I understand that nice equipment will yield superior results, but as I know very very little of what good coffee is and can't really invest in the good quality machines, I feel as though maybe a lower end less expensive machine would be adequate for me. Are there any of these machines worth buying? Any recommendations on this would be amazing.
Also thought I should say this course was extremely good. Very thorough and well explained information. It is so good to have numbers to work off of as opposed to the usual subjective directions. The myth debunking was also really really interesting. Thanks for all the hard work that went into this.
Brilliant class guys..!! I have to agree.. one of the best to date!
Thank you William and Karen for the replies! here are some more details:
I'm using 18 grams of coffee and yield 40 grams of espresso in about 17 seconds from the moment I engage the pump (so about 10 seconds from the moment the espresso hits the cup). I'm starting with a dry portafilter. Also, 18 grams just about fills the portafilter, so perhaps I should try a little less coffee. I will also try a finer grind, pull the cup at the appropriate brew ratio, and perhaps tamp a bit harder... I'll let you know how it goes.
In any case, I'm thrilled to have some real numbers to work with to optimize the process. thanks again for a great post and thanks for the tips.
One trick to see if you're over-filling the basket is to grind and tamp the shot, lock the porta-filter in the machine, and then remove the portafilter (without pulling a shot.) Generally, if you see an indentation from the dispersion screen or any other part of the group, then you're overfilling the basket.
Awesome content, wouldn't mind seeing a little more on roasting as well, what I use is a qm67, the Mazzer with a dozer after burning a few Baratza, and a Behmor roaster.
Beautiful! I stared at the first image on their site for a full minute… A real collector's piece, and probably very fun to use.
Thank you for all the work put into this class! I'm reading Scott Rao's book at the moment and these videos are a perfect match to it. Class A.
You might actually try replacing your basket (ideally with one from VST). I've known baskets to simply be worn out with enlarged holes that lead to super fast shot times. Especially if the machine is second hand - it's something that people tend to forget about.
I guess my question is more coffee than espresso - but do you have any thoughts/recommendations for a vacuum coffee brewing system? Also, is there an ideal temperature for brewing (the fictional system set up by Gale on Breaking Bad brewed coffee at 84C under a mild vacuum - I realize its just a tv show but it seems like a reasonable premise)? Have you tried heating water with an immersion circular to a precise temperature for example and aiding the infusion process under pressure, say in a whipping siphon, for example?
With most brew methods it comes down to personal preference. With vac-pots, since the water is at boiling temperature when it enters the brewing chamber, it can be tricky to end up with a balanced cup. Personally I prefer pour-over, but vac pots definitely have their fans.
There isn't one ideal temperature for brewing, but the range is relatively small. This was touched upon in The Espresso Recipe and the same basic idea applied to other brewing methods.
For pour-over, I use a temperature controlled kettle, but using an immersion circulator to precisely control the temperature throughput the process is an interesting idea - maybe I'll give it a try!
Thanks for a great class. My husband and I just finished it, ran to the kitchen to look at our beans (we get them from a small local roaster) and the beans were oily? We've concluded that we have no real baseline for comparing coffee so we're ordering some Herkimer. This will be our first step into exploring coffee instead of just drinking it. I expect we'll be buying an espresso machine soon. Thanks so much!
What do people think of the Slayer Espresso Machines, particularly the Single? How would the Single machine stack up against the GS3 in price, technology, and quality?
Hi Guys,
I just signed up for the coffee subscription that you recommended. If I cant use up 2 pounds of coffee in a reasonable amount of time, how should I be storing leftover beans? Is the freezer a good idea for roasted beans?
Freezing is a good option, especially if your freezer is cold.
For a lot of detail and experimental results, check this out: http://www.home-barista.com/store-coffee-in-freezer-conclusions.html
Hi, I would like to know if there is any rule for the coffee beans grind size for making a good espresso?
Thanks
Roughly similar size to table salt or caster sugar.
Thanks, Jason!
Loved the class, great work and congratulations to everyone involved. I have a couple of questions. I just bought a GS/3 and have been having a lot of fun with it. This is the first machine I have with a pre-infusion option and would love some pointers on how to start experimenting with it. Where could I find info on pre-infusion profiling and the like? What about pressure profiling? I've heard some baristas are experimenting with it and others don't really believe anything will come out from it. Another question specifically about the GS/3, should I trust on a consistency for the volume pre programmed buttons in relation to the weight expected out? Or am I just better off using the free flow button every single time? Seems like 4 very good buttons gone to waste no? I started out programming the buttons with every new bean bag but I see every single time you did an espresso in the GS/3 during the videos for this course it was always with the free flow button. Thanks again for a great course.
So glad you enjoyed the class, the ChefSteps crew is unbelievably talented.
As far as pre-infusion goes, I like to think about it the same way that you think about pre-wetting the grounds in a pour over coffee method. You are adding extra work through heat and dwell time. In my experience this is especially effective when brewing lighter roasted coffees where the cell walls are stronger and need more work applied in order to extract at higher percentages. There is also some thought around the idea that it reduces channeling because it allows the puck to swell and fill in any empty spaces in the distribution, I can't prove this but it makes sense as a thought experiment. For a starting place, I would try a three second on and three second off pre-infusion setting and then try comparing it to a shot with no pre- infusion with the same brew ratio and brew time subtracting the 6 seconds for pre-infusion from your pre-infusion shot. So if your pre-infusion shot is 31 seconds shoot for 25 with your no pre-infusion shot. Would love to hear your thoughts after you play with it and taste your shots.
Pressure profiling is still at the frontier of espresso experimentation. I will say that you can absolutely manipulate flavors with pressure profiling. Baristas are still working to come up with some consistent correlations to understand completely how to best take advantage of this technology. Scott Rao's book Espresso Extraction: Measurement and Mastery discusses the topic, but it is a more in depth conversation than I have room for here.
As far as your GS/3 goes, I'm so happy you are enjoying it! I exclusively use the auto volumetric buttons to make coffee. We showed using the free flow button because we wanted people to understand how weighing the in's and out's would work with any machine. But the A/V buttons make the GS/3 a joy to use when applying the brew ratio method. I have programmed my buttons for different out weights. Here are my programs 27 grams, 32 grams, 36 grams, 40 grams. I always use an 18 gram basket and dose 18 grams. Depending on the coffee I'm using I will dial in the time using my preferred button/ratio. This allows you to only have to weigh your "in" and then dial in for time. The volumetrics won't hit the exact out weight every time, but actually will be more consistent than we are with a scale. Check out this experiment: http://www.lamarzoccousa.com/blog/ben-kaminsky-barista-vs-volumetrics/ Keep enjoying!
Thanks for the great reply. I loved the post on the lamarzocco blog, I'm mostly pulling 36 gram shots but I'll use your example programming for variety. I'll start with some experiments in pre-infusion see how that goes. I just got Scott Rao's first book so I'll start with that one but look forward to reading the second one. I guess I'll stay away from pressure profiling in the meantime while I learn more about the topic. On another note, I think a small chapter about water, water hardness and how it affects coffee and espresso machines and recommendations on what water to use would be a great addition to this already excellent course. Thanks again
Nice! Thanks for the link!
Fine. But use the guideline the amount of espresso, and the time it takes to extract. 18g coffee to 28 grams espresso in 25-30 seconds is pretty typical. So, if you're in this range you have the proper grind size. Also, humidity and freshness of beans will affect the pull. And the temperature at your brewhead affects quality.
It's funny, I basically learned most of the lessons here on my own over the past many years. Good to hear that I (mostly) have it right.
Thank you so much for an amazing (and beautifully designed) course. It changed completely my views on espresso. Can't wait to take it into practice! Have an awesome week. Thanks again!
In 2009 I was living in an apartment in the mixed commercial/residential neighbourhood of St-Henri in Montreal, and a micro-roaster set up shop downstairs with the roaster's chimney coming out through the corner of our back deck. 'Twas no disturbance at all; I can tell you that heaven had moved in. The owner is an exceptional cupper, and those first few months calibrating his different roasts were a delicious spiral towards greater deliciousness. My love for making espresso was born then and the passion is still burning strong. I live and work in Ottawa now, but I still stop in at Café St-Henri, m_icrotorréfacteur_ every time I pass through Montreal.
Hey guys! Congratulations! Great job on this class. I'm colombian, l love coffee and everything around it. Would be nice if you can present more courses about the other brewing methods of coffee (french press, aeropress, syphon, etc..) so we can all know more about this great world. If you come to Bogotá someday you can miss all the amazing coffee shops we have! Greetings and thank you!!
Actually the water isn't boiling when it enters the top chamber — it is forced up by the air above the water expanding with heat and happens well below boiling. For repeatability you can heat the water before adding the goblet (use a kettle to speed this up if you have one). Then at a chosen temperature, eg. 94°C add the goblet and continue to heat. When all the water has reached the top, add the weighed coffee, stir and time eg. 1.5 minutes before cutting the heat and letting the drop in pressure suck the coffee back down. Then you can adjust the grind, temperature you add the goblet, and infusion time independently and repeatably.
@Daniel somewhat confusingly the brewing devices commonly called vacuum-pots don't actually brew under vacuum. The vacuum part happens when the coffee is sucked back down through the coffee grinds which act as a filter bed. Have a look on youtube for "cona coffee maker" and it will become clearer. Brewing under positive or negative pressure would be interesting though, probably most related to cold brewing.
Thanks for this class / tutorial. It provided so much more than other sources, in that it explored both the technical and historical aspects of making espresso. The more you know.
From working on a Slayer in a cafe, I would not recommend it. It was not enjoyable or easy to make consistent coffee. Even worse is it's propensity to have mechanical faults. A lot of cafe's in Aus and NZ had them, but got rid of them. They aren't cheap either!
You had me at "Espresso" ....
Great class and great video production too.
I've been using a stove-top Bialetti for a fair few years and a couple of years ago I went from a Harico hand grinder to a Vario for speed, consistency and upscaleability (is that even a word?)
A few months ago I got myself a wee DeLonghi (EC680) which I converted to use unpressurised baskets and I also made a bottomless portafilter for it to help practise my dosing/tamping with the proper baskets.
It took a short while to get my routine consistently in the sweet spot (I only cup once a day), but already I'm looking to get a dual boiler to replace the DeLonghi. It was great for getting the basics down, but now my toes are wet I'm ready to move up to the next level of machine
(my g/f isn't happy about the extra space needed, but it's my only vice so ... )
Keep up the great work guys
C.
What a great bit of life experience
Thank you for this introduction in to the coffeworld. I'm impressed as there was so much I didn't know about making coffe. Great... and soon My own GS3 will arrive and I'm so exiting about it.
I can't seem to get the right amount of crema or at least that is what I think is the issue. When I pour in my steamed milk, instead of it appearing from below the cream it simply dilutes the cream into a light brown mess. Can't seem to figure it out
One of my best memories is a vacation in Italy at Lake Garda, espresso is so much part of live that while chilling at the water, I could walk 10 steps to order amazing espresso, once I finished I jumped in the water and chilled some more! Love what you guys are doing, thnx!
Hi! I have been reading and watching a lot about coffee in the last months, but this course it was next level, amazing work you did, and with La Marzocco behind supporting all this it's the key to be a total reliable information. So, thank you very much for this.
I have a question for you.
I'm from Portugal and we are already one of the most coffee addict country where 80% of our people drink coffee every single day and an average of 3 espressos per day. But the true is that we have this habit but you can't find a really good espresso anywhere, the people and the regular cafe employers ( I can't say we have baristas) they don't really know how to do it. So, we are planning to change this. We want to start a new wave of information about the science of coffee like we have already about wine. But to start I need to learn all that I can with the best in the world, so I'm planning to comeback to Australia and the end of this year and try to learn the much as I can during one year. My question is where should I start? Who are the best ones in Australia, and what can I do to achieve this? I'm planning to learn from the bean cultivation to the roasting process, until the barista espresso magic! Thank you for your help and congratulations!
Germany, Braunschweig, Marienstrasse 34. Michael Jäger in his own Roaster And Cooffee bar with the Name KaffeeFabrik is a freaky, friendly perfectionist for all coffee based drinks. He works on a lamarzocco strada, with various mahlkönig K30 Grindrs. Here I had my first FlatWhite. WOW. WOW.
Thank you for a great class. We run a small farm cafe in South Africa and recently purchased a second-hand espresso machine. I did an introduction barista course with a local coffee roaster which taught me a lot of the basics but I found this course cleared up so many little things I had been wondering about. 1:1, 1:2 & 1:3 ratios and use of the scale were really great lessons for me. Thank you for helping us all make better coffee.
Check out Onyx Coffee Lab, LaColombe, Dogwood Coffee Roasters, Stumptown, just to name a few.
Today I discovered your website and was very pleased to stumble upon this gem of a class! My husband and I have been making lattes and cappuccinos as part of our weekend ritual for the past couple of years, but our shots have been inconsistent. You debunked a lot of myths and hopefully this weekend, with some practice, we can master the perfect shot! One thing I am still confused about is your comment on the oils and how an overly oily bean can indicate over-roasting. I have noticed that fresh beans from a vacuum-sealed bag are usually oily and glossy, but over time they dry out and lose some of their luster. Is there a way to tell the different between old beans and ones which are roasted better? I ask because we usually go to a local store the day before and buy just enough beans to make our espresso. Sometimes they are glossy, other time they are not. I want to make sure we're getting good beans as opposed to old. It seems the oily ones produce a more aromatic shot, but that could be my imagination. Thank you in advance for any advice! Oh, and favorite espresso memory has to be in a sidewalk cafe in Florence with a chocolate croissant for breakfast!
I run into a similar problem. It would be nice if someone had tips for us!
Great series, learned a lot about my favorite non-adult beverage. Just a note that, for me, none of the sessions' initial videos would play. Kept getting an error message about server security. However, all the other videos played well. Again great class!
I don't know if you've received any input on this, Vanna, but I figured I would give you a hand since I have some knowledge! First thing you should check on is the roast date. Any good shop should be putting roast dates on their bag to indicate freshness of the coffee. In our shop I've found that our shots taste best 3-4 days after roasting. Another thing to take into account is how darkly roasted the beans are, the darker the roast, the more likely it is that there will be oils on the outside of the beans because they have been roasted out. Although coffees that are oily tend to dry out over time, that doesn't mean that every dry bean is old, again it just depends on how long its been roasted! Let me know if I can clarify on any of this.
to add to Dani's great comments, you may want to look for a local roaster who roasts to what is known as "first crack" (lower temperature. When coffee is roasted to second crack (higher temperature) it tends to have less flavors. First crack is where "3rd Wave" style coffee is roasted to, which is about the nuance flavors of the coffee. When roasted to second crack the nuances are generally reduced. First crack, 3rd Wave coffee will generally not be a dark roast (light or medium more commonly) and will not have oil on the outside of the bean.
