Espresso Tips - Grinding, Dosing, Extraction and Tamping

[RichardCranium365]

Coffee guru? The dude is reading from a monitor like a hired monkey.

[cmbruno46]

I'm new to the world of Barista and I just purchased the Barista Express. I've made several attempts at the perfect cup of espresso ( at least according to the gauge) with little success. I'm always under extracted. I've increased the grind size to the max and I've increased the amount coffee. Only then did I get a rise out of the gauge. I've watched multiple videos and none of them had to set the grind that high nor did they tamp it as hard as I have. What am I doing wrong?

[RichardCranium365]

@cmbruno46 Use really fresh coffee to start with. If coffee is too stale you can grind to Turkish fine and won't slow it down much. Don't give much thought to the gauges on the machine as they are simply a reference point. Always go by taste, color and flow pattern.

[SpencerDonahue]

I don't know about a perfect shot taking 11 seconds before liquid flows. I work on a 2 group LM Linea every day of the week and 24 second shots start pouring after no more than 4-5 seconds. Your machine clearly doesn't hold pressure before you run a shot and thats clearly why it takes so bloddy long for your shots to start pouring. It might be a "key guide" for your machine, but anyone else using this advice might be kicking themselves for following it depending on their machine.

[MrRyguy76]

@SpencerDonahue 6 seconds of pre-infusion plus the 4-5 seconds you mention, gives you 10-11 seconds as was suggested for this machine. If your machine doesn't have pre-infusion defaulted to 6 seconds, then this might not be advice to follow. This is more for this particular machine.

[RichardCranium365]

@MrRyguy76 Who needs pre-infusion to begin with? It's a feature built-in for the newbies that can't control variables naturally. It does nothing to impact the taste of espresso and that's a fact! Kind of like having a timed grinder for those that don't know how to eyeball or use a damn scale. Companies like Breville need to put function over form. No wonder people in the industry still laugh at Breville and it's "prosumer" offering. What a fucking joke!

[mushroomzagain]

very helpful thanks

[Craig10240]

Great summary - thanks Phil