An espresso is a coffee preparation made by forcing hot water through finely ground espresso coffee.
What do you need to make an espresso?
- Espresso machine
- Espresso coffee beans
- Coffee grinder
- Tamper (and possibly a distributor)
You start by making an espresso with your espresso machine. Turn it on in advance because it takes about 10 minutes to warm up the boiler in the machine. Once the machine is at temperature, you can let some water run through to warm up the brew group and the portafilter faster. It is important that the portafilter is dried afterwards; otherwise, this will affect the extraction and the taste.
Grinding the coffee beans
When making coffee, it is important that the grind is fresh. This means using fresh beans and grinding just before you are going to use it. Because the grind is freshly ground, more flavor and aroma will come into your espresso. Setting the grinder to a nice espresso grind is a matter of trial and you can read more about it here. The grind size can vary per bean and offers the barista a lot of experimentation with flavor.
Tamping or tamping
After you have the grind from the coffee grinder, the ground coffee (if all goes well) is in your portafilter. To distribute the grind evenly, I always tap the piston against the holder of the coffee grinder. Then it is important that the coffee is evenly distributed in your portafilter. This can be done very easily by using a distributor or leveler. If you don't have this, it can also be done by hand, which is of course a bit less precise. You have distributed the coffee and it is time to tamp the grind. Place your portafilter against your tamper mat and press the ground coffee with your tamper.
Extraction
Turn your portafilter in the espresso machine and then let the water run through immediately. This is important because otherwise the coffee will burn, which gives an unpleasant taste to the espresso. How long you want to let the espresso run is up to the barista and depends on taste. We do recommend keeping it around 25-30 seconds and stopping at 30ml.
