Thread: expresso lovers...2 questions

well i love to make espresso for a quick latte in the morning or to add to my protein shake for some caffeine kick.

my questions are

1. how fine do i grind the beans in my grinder, as fine as i can?

2. how much pressure do i put on the grinds when i fill the little bowl...mine can either take 2 table spoons for double or 1 for singles. I have a heavy stainless tamper.

thanks...i dont know all the technical terms...here is my machine...


Amazon.com: Breville ESP8XL Cafe Roma Stainless Espresso Maker: Kitchen & Dining

There is a special place in Hell for people who spell espresso as expresso.
It's a Starbucks, you'll see it in the reception area.

Grind the beans according to taste, you need to experiment.
If you have a grinder with blades (as opposed to a burr grinder) be careful not to overheat the coffee if you grind it fine.

You also need to experiment with how firmly to tamp the coffee. I just aim to tamp "nice and firm." Only thing to be careful of is that finely ground + heavily tamped equals stress on the pump, so don't overdo both.

Playing with the above variables affects extraction times - yet another factor to be experimented with.

Just keep varying these things. But keep track of what you did. When you get a "God shot" you'll want to know how to repeat it.

thanks ray...i fixed the spelling errors...haha...sounds good i will experiment. i have been getting ok shots I think...start out nice and dark almost black then about 2/3 of the way to done they get to a frothy light brown...is this what i am shooting for?

I grind very finely, about 8-10 seconds in the grinder, and tamp medium gently.

X

Originally Posted by erictski

thanks ray...i fixed the spelling errors...haha...sounds good i will experiment. i have been getting ok shots I think...start out nice and dark almost black then about 2/3 of the way to done they get to a frothy light brown...is this what i am shooting for?

Sounds good, but don't take it further. Sometimes it's tempting to keep extracting to fill the cup, but after a certain point you've already extracted all the good flavour, what follows can only go downhill. Judge it by time rather than how full the cup is.

I usually grind the beans really fine; almost to the maximum of my grinder. I've found that the extraction time increases when the grind is too fine, so I usually back off the grind until I can get the 30-45 second pull with a light to medium tamp.

For completeness .... I use a hand cranked burr mill.


I read somewhere on the 'net that the proper tamping force should be around 30 pounds. I would consider this to be a medium to hard tamp. Because the grind is very fine, it is easy to really compress the puck into something that water has a tough time passing through, so I usually error on the light side and work my tamping up within a few pulls.

Originally Posted by erictski

my questions are

1. how fine do i grind the beans in my grinder, as fine as i can?

2. how much pressure do i put on the grinds when i fill the little bowl...mine can either take 2 table spoons for double or 1 for singles. I have a heavy stainless tamper.

1. very fine. I use a burr grinder on its finest setting.
2. very very gently. I use a plastic tamper, and only put a tiny bit of pressure on it. I imagine with a metal one you can just use the weight of the tamper

1) I don't know much about this machine, but many in this price range have a pressurized portafilter (I think this one may). If so then the tamp isn't really all that important. The manual should give you an idea.

2) usually a burr grinder is needed for this. Grind it fine and time the shot. If it it is over 28 the grind is too fine. Less than 20 it is too coarse. as close to 25 as possible.

for a better answer, join coffeegeek.com and post a question in their forums.

For decent espresso, you need a burr grinder. If you use a bladed one to grind, you can get it fine enough but you need to grind for so long that the coffee gets heated & burnt. IMHO of course. I only drink about eight triple espressos a day, so what would I know?

The lighter coloured coffee which comes out last is the "crema" & the best sign you are getting the the best out of your beans. In Italy, the crema is how a caffe is judged. The thicker & longer lasting it is the better.

Originally Posted by Spike J

I only drink about eight triple espressos a day, so what would I know?

what it feels like to experience cardiac arrest on a regular basis?