It’s all about the recipe

Preparing your coffee is one of those precious moments in your day when you stop for a while and have that excellent feeling that something good is about to happen… too poetic, isn’t it…

Let’s go straight - whenever you prepare your food or drink, you follow some recipes. Not doing so can bring either terrible results or, with some luck, great inventions.

The same is true for your coffee preparation - you have to follow a recipe to have an enjoyable result. And unless you have profound experience and knowledge about coffee, you had better follow it strictly.

What does recipe mean in terms of espresso preparation? 

The right ratio between coffee grounds and the amount in your cup and, very importantly, precise extraction time. That’s all if we want to keep it simple.

And, again, for the sake of simplicity, we can put some numbers: a 1 to 2 ratio for 30 seconds. In other words - if you put 20 grams of ground coffee in the portafilter, you should have 40 grams in your cup for 30 seconds.

For sure, many coffee freaks will start arguing that it is not that simple; there are different recipes, and extraction time varies between different beans. And that’s absolutely true. But, if a beginner is able to achieve this basic recipe and repeat it over time - this is already a big step towards the perfect espresso.

But what is the way to do this?

You need a proper espresso machine, for sure.

And a good consistent grinder, with precise enough settings to fine-tune the coffee grinding. This is the way to control the speed of extraction.

Finer is slower, and coarser is faster.

But there is one tool that is absolutely necessary to prepare the perfect espresso - a coffee scale. 

What makes a scale a “coffee scale” - it must be precise to 0.1 gr.; it must be fast, so you measure the amount of coffee in the cup while it is preparing; it should have a timer to measure the extraction time; and ideally - it should be small enough so that you can place it underneath the portafilter with the cup on it.

So, how does your workflow (or better - coffee ritual) should look like:

First - you measure the coffee beans you put in your grinder.

Then - grind.

After that, coffee grounds are put in the portafilter, leveled, and tamped.

Time for brewing - put your scale under the portafilter with your cup and tare.

Start the extraction, and don’t forget to start the scale timer.

When the weight in the cup approaches the target value (double the coffee grounds) - stop the extraction.

What does your scale timer show - 30 seconds? Congrats! Enjoy your great shot!