There you stand. The sleek espresso machine and the high-quality grinder, both polished to a shine and perhaps already sent to a friend or two via photo. But are you standing there a bit sour-faced because your espresso just isn't turning out right? Too sour? Too rancid? Somehow not convincing?
In this post, we'll go through 20 mistakes when preparing your espresso. If you follow all the tips, that's a good step towards a good espresso. Let's get started:
1. The dirty portafilter
The portafilter should be clean and free of old coffee oils. Please regularly remove the sieve from your portafilter and clean both the back of the sieve and the inside of the portafilter.
2. The dirty espresso machine
Residues also remain in the shower screen. Old coffee grounds, oils or other impurities. Regular cleaning is a must. You can find out how to do it here.
3. Tamping at an angle
The water is pressed through the espresso puck under pressure. The water then seeks the path of least resistance. If you tamp at an angle, this leads to uneven extraction and the espresso is not extracted properly.
4. Distributing the coffee grounds in the portafilter
Before tamping straight, you should first distribute the powder evenly in the portafilter. Most grinders do not distribute the powder evenly by themselves, so you should do this with your finger or with a leveling tool. If you don't distribute the powder, you risk uneven extraction and channeling. We usually don't use a leveling tool, but gently smooth the grounds with our finger and then gently tap the portafilter twice on the tamping mat. We call this vertical compression.
5. The machine is not hot enough
Every machine needs time to heat up before the first shot. A blank shot can also help here. It's best to use the time before the first shot of the day to grind some powder from the grinder to "clean" the dead space. This way, even the first espresso of the day will taste good.
6. Not pre-flushed
After each espresso, you should flush water from the shower screen once. This cleans the shower screen and standardizes the temperature for the upcoming shot.
7. Wrong tamper size
The size of the tamper should fit your portafilter as precisely as possible. There are very subtle differences, e.g. 58mm or 58.5mm. The better the tamper compresses the entire coffee puck, the more consistent the extraction.
8. Bad grinder
The grinder is almost even more important than the espresso machine, as you have to set the correct grind size and the particle distribution should be balanced. Only then can your espresso be consistently well extracted.
9. Old burrs in the grinder
Burrs must be sharp, otherwise they will crush the beans instead of cutting them. They need to be changed from time to time. Don't worry, this is not necessary every year, but usually only after several years.
10. The cups on the machine
The cup should be placed on the cup tray on the machine. The lower part of the cup is heated through and the espresso does not cool down too quickly. This way it is also more hygienic.
11. Stale coffee
It is best to only fill as much into the grinder as you will consume in a maximum of 48 hours. Not too much time should have passed since the roast date either; it is best to consume the coffee within the first 4-8 weeks after roasting.
12. Fresh coffee
Fresh, but not too fresh. The coffee needs at least a week to degas CO². Therefore, you should at least wait this week before using it.
13. Channeling
Channeling means the formation of channels within the coffee puck. Through this channel, the water runs too quickly, leading to underextraction. Your espresso will be sour. Carefully insert the tamped portafilter and avoid knocking it against anything to prevent cracks in the coffee puck and thus channeling.
14. Hard water
Too many minerals make the water hard, and that's not good for your machine or the taste of your coffee. The acidity is no longer properly integrated into the drink. Water that is too hard can have a massive impact on the lifespan of your espresso machine. If your water is too hard, you need to filter it or use purchased water. You can find out the hardness of your water from your water supplier or more precisely by testing it yourself (to the water test kit).
15. Wrong grind size
Extraction should take between 25-35 seconds. If the coffee flows too quickly, it becomes sour (underextraction); if it flows too slowly, it becomes bitter (overextraction). You regulate the flow rate via the grind size of the powder. Too fast, then you have to set the grind finer. Too slow, then it has to be coarser powder.
16. Brew ratio
For espresso preparation, there are so-called brewing recipes. How many grams of coffee powder go into how many grams of coffee beverage. We recommend a brewing ratio of 1 to 2.5 or even 1 to 3 (10 grams of coffee become 25 or 30 grams of espresso). The brewing recipe is rounded off by the extraction time, which is in the range of 25-35 seconds. Depending on the coffee, the "sweet spot" varies, and everyone's taste is individual. In our coffee descriptions, we always provide a brewing recipe that we find tastes best for that particular coffee. This can serve as a basis for "your" brewing ratio. You can find more on this topic in our blog post How much coffee per cup.
17. Please stir
Please stir the espresso in the cup after extraction. This distributes all the extraction phases together and makes your espresso taste more balanced.
18. Wrong coffee
Not bad, but wrong. Espresso should be brewed from espresso beans. Filter coffee, for example, is roasted much lighter, which is not compatible with the espresso preparation method.
19. The temperature
The temperature at which the water hits the coffee puck should be between 92 and 93.5 degrees. You usually achieve a consistent temperature by flushing in between. Temperatures that are too high or too low significantly alter the result in the cup.
20. Bad coffee
Even if you buy the right type of beans, there are big differences in coffee quality. It's best to get your coffee from local or transparent coffee roasters who understand their craft and can advise you. If a coffee, for example, doesn't have a roast date printed on it, its age is unknown and the coffee is usually not fresh, but old.
Now that 20 mistakes have been identified, our article Making espresso - step by step will help you with further questions.
