Espresso Bongo!
Espresso, the King of coffee, (or at least it is when made properly) — take a little time with these tips and tricks and we’ll make a barista of you yet
Now, at OHCO we do think a single shot of delicious espresso is pretty much the Coffee King! It’s a sensory overload of the essence of coffee, after all, Italians know a LOT about these things and if you ask for a ‘coffee’ anywhere over there, an espresso is what you get!
However, you might not be enjoying it at home. Espresso is a little tricky to get right, and your poor xmas present machine might have been relegated to the cupboard, because you could never get it quite right.
As ever though, trust OHCO to give you the skinny on all things coffee and help you create that perfect shot — because really, if you get the basic steps right, you’ll soon find yourself experimenting with grind, beans and tamping to not just make a great espresso, but one that’s unique to you.
First up, well begun is half done, so take note of these basics to get off to a flying start.
The Beans: Basically garbage in, garbage out, so choose high-quality, super fresh coffee beans. Espresso typically uses a darker roast, and we’d recommend kicking off with our Casa OHCO house blend (obviously), as it’s a great all rounder with plenty of espresso shot ‘umph’.
The Grind: Grind the beans just before brewing to preserve the freshness and flavouring. You should look to a pretty fine grind to ensure proper extraction.
A quick word on amount too, you should zero your portafilter on a digital scale, and look to add 18 grams of your grind to it. That’s a great amount to yield a classic shot (about 36grams) of liquid in about 30 seconds.
The Tamp: After filling the portafilter with your coffee grounds, ‘tamp’ them down evenly and firmly (there will be a circular disc on your machine to press your filter up against, or you can buy a hand tamper pretty cheaply. This step ensures uniform extraction and a proper flow of water through the coffee. We love that the Italians also wipe a finger around the rim after to ‘bless’ the coffee, this removes any loose grounds that could compromise the air-tightness of the filter.
The Brew: Attach the portafilter to the espresso machine and start the brewing process. A good machine will heat the water to around 195-205°F (90-96°C, remember ‘a coffee boiled is a coffee spoiled!’) and should pass (or ‘espress’, hence the name) the liquid through the coffee grounds under pressure for about 25-30 seconds.
The Serve: Once brewed, serve the espresso immediately in a preheated cup. A good espresso should have a rich, flavourful crema on top.
DELISH!
But if your coffee still isn’t up to snuff, check these five easy mistakes that could be compromising your cup.
1: (Not) Cool Beans
Using stale or low-quality coffee can really ‘ewww’ the flavour of your espresso. Always use fresh, high-quality beans, storing them properly in an airtight container away from light, heat, and moisture.
2: Goldilocks Grind
If your coffee grounds are too coarse, the water will pass through too quickly, resulting in under-extracted espresso that lacks flavour and depth. Conversely, too fine a grind, the water spends too long with the coffee, then you get over-extraction, which can lead to a bitter and burnt taste. This will take a bit of trial and error to get it just-so for your taste, but the tip about the weight above is handy to gauge your grind. A shot should be 30 seconds or so, so if your cup fills too quick or too slow, a little tweak might be needed.
3: Tamper Tantrum
Inconsistent tamping: uneven, too hard, too soft — again your water is not going to cascade through your grind smooth and even—part of the compressed coffee might not even get absorbed into the liquid and you’ll miss out on all that flavour. Take your time, and press smooth and slow. Sweet.
4: Hot Stuff Coming Through
Your espresso machine should really take care of this bit, most machines are calibrated to deliver that perfect sub-boiling temperature every time. That said, those crazy cats at Slayer, who make our favourite espresso machines, have some extra gizmos on their kit that deliver even finer tuning options for the real espresso experimenters.
5: Try a Little Tenderness
Most importantly, look after your machine! Espresso machines are truly beautiful things, but they are under a ton of pressure (literally) every time you use them. Pumps, elements, steam, there’s a lot of moving parts, and so you should adopt a regime that keeps it tip top. Residues and limescale can build up pretty quickly, so clean and descale it often, and you’ll keep your daily shot(s) tip-top too!
So sure, a great barista in full flight looks like the master of a dark art (and in a way, they are ;-)) and a great one can produce shot after shot of perfect espresso, hundreds of times day. But you needn’t miss out on that Italian bar taste at home.
OHCO’s Paul agrees “You don’t have to compromise on taste when making espresso yourself, and you don’t need a huge airship-sized machine in your kitchen to get a great shot every time. Yes, at first it will all seem a bit of a faff, but stick to the steps outlined, you’ll get a good coffee straight away. If you keep tasting and tweaking though, one day BANG!, you’ll get it spot on, and you can repeat that result every day without trying. And once you do that, you’ll wonder why you ever let your machine gather all that dust.”
“If you keep tasting and tweaking though, one day BANG!, you’ll get it spot on, and you can repeat that result every day without trying”
The Casa OHCO house blend has plenty of espresso ‘umph’ to get you started.
