Had my espresso machine for a week now and still have no clue if I’m doing it right… lol

  • Please_Do_Not@lemm.eeEnglish
    31·
    2 months ago

    The only key is taste. A lot of people say that a 2:1 water to coffee ratio pulled in 28-35 seconds is what you want to aim for. That’s a great place to start, but I love some sweeter light roasts at like 40 second shots for 40g of water, 20-21g of coffee, and pretty much no one would recommend that based on averages.

    So know what under and over extracted shots taste like, then aim for 40-45g water in 30 seconds with a 20-21g coffee dose, and decide if it seems more sour than you’d like (under) or bitter/cloying (over). If under, adjust to increase the brew time (experiment with both grinding finer and increasing the dose as the 2 best ways to increase extraction time). If you want to decrease the extraction time, your best best is to grind more coarsely.

    So learn what tastes under-extracted to you and what tastes over, and then you’ll just have to adjust grind size and dose for each bean for the flavor you like most. Keep those settings and brew by weight until you need to adjust again.

    • CouFou@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      That’s part of my issue. Since this machine suggests the grind it is already at the finest grind. Not sure if it is worth changing the temp or the ratio yet but I’m happy with the results so far. I’ve only run two types of beans through it and the bean in the picture is an espresso blend. Tastes alright but now I just need to try more beans to get a better idea on taste… lol I’ve got a bialetti and didn’t fully know how to use it for years. Last time I used it the power was out and I grinded my beans using my car’s electrical port and the BBQ to brew. I’ve been grinding strong drip coffee and just buying my beans at costco(found the costco espresso to be terrible tasting in my drip machine though).

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Wait is this the new Ninja machine James shows off a couple of weeks ago?

        Also “grind finer” is a running joke that “any problem with espresso brewing can be solved by grinding finer.” It’s obviously not true. 😂

        • CouFou@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          Yes, it is the Ninja luxe cafe. Been doing 2 double shots and using the medium foam setting with enough milk for a latte as my first drink of the day. My previous machine was a breville grind and brew where I had it set for a very strong 20oz of coffee. The grinder on the breville gave up trying to grind the costco espresso bean so I switched back to my cuisinart grinder… lol

          • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            BTW, if you’re buying Balzac’s Farmers Blend by any chance - that thing is notoriously difficult to extract properly for espresso on any equipment.

            • CouFou@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
              2·
              2 months ago

              I used a local Ottawa roasters espresso blend(BBCR). I managed to make a sour batch today, I tried to make a quad(luxe) shot but didn’t tamp it well enough. I dialed back the grind and my second attempt worked better but I think I prefer doing two double shots as the puck still comes out wet with the quad shot.

              • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
                1·
                2 months ago

                Ah cool. Me and my friends have all tried extracting Farmers Blend from Costco on different sets of equipment and only one was able to do it somewhat consistently and he has slow rampup pump capped at 8 bar of peak pressure. That generally makes extraction easier.

    • psud@aussie.zoneEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      I go with “if I get my 40 grams in less than 25 seconds grind finer”

    • CouFou@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Yeah I’ve seen all of the videos about the machine so far. My biggest worry is the reliability but if it doesn’t last at least it will be a good start towards something fancy.