7 things to do to improve your espresso coffee

A Bay Beans customer wrote to me today asking how to improve thier coffee from their espresso machine. I get a number of requests like this and thought it might be helpful to someone else if I start sharing these here on the Bay Beans Blog.

The question was:

I own a breville cafe roma machine with an extra purchased non pressurised basket. The coffee usually drips out over 30ml in 15 or less seconds. I've never used a tamper, is it important? I use the small flat tool that came with the machine to push the coffee. I don't get much crema in espresso and at times none.

And the reply is;

Hi,

Thats a great decision to use an extra non pressurised basket - now you can see what is really going on.

The lack of crema can be for a number of reasons;

• supermarket beans and other stale coffee beans will lack crema - its difficult to get fresh beans from any shopfront or cafe. 
• you might get more sucess with making your grind finer.
  
• a better tamp is helpful, but so long as you are using one, then thats fine.

the idea is to try and be consistent with the following;

• aim for around 14grams of coffee in the basket. you dont need to measure it, just aim for a heaped hump sitting ontop of the basket. usually any extra will naturally fall off the sides of the basket anyway.
  
• tamp with around 15kg of pressure. if you have bathroom scales at your place, try practicing on top of the scales to get an idea of what 15kg of pressure feels like
• stick with 30 seconds pour.
  

if you do all that, and the only thing you then need to adjust is your grind. if you get too much coffee in the cup over 30 seconds, your grind is too coarse. if you dont get enough coffee, your coffee is too fine. You are then able to repeat knowing that most everything else is consistent.


I hope that helps. let me know how you get on.


James Axisa 
Chief Espresso Officer
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