Man of Honour
As i ended up chatting to Justin about how to make coffee last night for a couple of hours i figured that i might just make a thread on how to pull a decent espresso.
an Espresso can be the base of most coffee drinks, add water and get an americano or long black, add steamed milk for a latte, add steamed milk and milk foam for a Cappuccino etc etc
First thing you need are the beans, i'm using the Skyberry i get from my local coffee lady, but anything thats be recently roasted is good - coffee goes stale over time so try and use it up within a month of roasting ideally. Hasbean do a good selection and send out as close to the roasting as possible.
Ideally you want to grind the beans yourself. Once a bean is ground the coffee deteriorates at an alarming rate, losing flavor within the hour. I'm using the Iberital MC2 from happy donkey (~£100). Its a very adjustable grinder for making espresso, although i wouldn't recomend it for anyone looking to vary between methods of making it as the adjustment is very fine. The Dualit bur grinder is also acceptable for a starter(~£50). Make sure you get something that grinds, not cuts!
Adjustment of the grind is pretty much the biggest control you have over your pour, its all trial and error but you want your shot (30ml) to pour within ~25seconds. The best bet is to make it as fine as you can, this may well stall your machine so work backward from there.
add beans and grind to portafilter
once you've ground your beans into your portafilter (basket that fits to your coffee machine) you need to flatten off the top with your finger (or spoon, bit of useful sized wood etc) tap the basket down and "tamp" the coffee down with a tamper. The one i've got here is a reg barber but the plastic ones that come with the machine are ok to start with. you need to put a decent amount of weight behind the tamp (30-40 pounds) so use most of your body weight.
flattening and tamping the coffee
the next step is pushing hot (85-95 °C / 185-203 °F) water through the coffee. To do this most people use a coffee machine
i'm using a gaggia classic, a good compitent machine thats at the lower end of the market for ~£200. Below this your better off using a cafetiere, stove top moca pot or similar. I'm using a double shot basket in my machine so i get more lovely coffee.
The machine should be preheated so it has time to get to temperature, the portafilter locks into under a "group head" kind of like a highly pressureised shower that forces the hot water through the coffee at about 9bar of pressure. The coffee should take a couple of seconds to start appearing and should come out as a treacly looking substance, too fast and the grind needs to be thinner, too slow and you get a "Ristretto" so back off on the gind a little.
not the best pour, but gives you an idea. My Skyberry is getting a little old & the grinder needs to be a little finer
you should get a nice thick redish brown crema (head) on the shot which will form much like the head of Guinness. Enjoy your espresso in two min before it starts to deteriorate so drink now!
that should give you a reasonable basis to try making a coffee, have fun
an Espresso can be the base of most coffee drinks, add water and get an americano or long black, add steamed milk for a latte, add steamed milk and milk foam for a Cappuccino etc etc
First thing you need are the beans, i'm using the Skyberry i get from my local coffee lady, but anything thats be recently roasted is good - coffee goes stale over time so try and use it up within a month of roasting ideally. Hasbean do a good selection and send out as close to the roasting as possible.
Ideally you want to grind the beans yourself. Once a bean is ground the coffee deteriorates at an alarming rate, losing flavor within the hour. I'm using the Iberital MC2 from happy donkey (~£100). Its a very adjustable grinder for making espresso, although i wouldn't recomend it for anyone looking to vary between methods of making it as the adjustment is very fine. The Dualit bur grinder is also acceptable for a starter(~£50). Make sure you get something that grinds, not cuts!
Adjustment of the grind is pretty much the biggest control you have over your pour, its all trial and error but you want your shot (30ml) to pour within ~25seconds. The best bet is to make it as fine as you can, this may well stall your machine so work backward from there.
add beans and grind to portafilter
once you've ground your beans into your portafilter (basket that fits to your coffee machine) you need to flatten off the top with your finger (or spoon, bit of useful sized wood etc) tap the basket down and "tamp" the coffee down with a tamper. The one i've got here is a reg barber but the plastic ones that come with the machine are ok to start with. you need to put a decent amount of weight behind the tamp (30-40 pounds) so use most of your body weight.
flattening and tamping the coffee
the next step is pushing hot (85-95 °C / 185-203 °F) water through the coffee. To do this most people use a coffee machine
i'm using a gaggia classic, a good compitent machine thats at the lower end of the market for ~£200. Below this your better off using a cafetiere, stove top moca pot or similar. I'm using a double shot basket in my machine so i get more lovely coffee.The machine should be preheated so it has time to get to temperature, the portafilter locks into under a "group head" kind of like a highly pressureised shower that forces the hot water through the coffee at about 9bar of pressure. The coffee should take a couple of seconds to start appearing and should come out as a treacly looking substance, too fast and the grind needs to be thinner, too slow and you get a "Ristretto" so back off on the gind a little.
not the best pour, but gives you an idea. My Skyberry is getting a little old & the grinder needs to be a little finer
you should get a nice thick redish brown crema (head) on the shot which will form much like the head of Guinness. Enjoy your espresso in two min before it starts to deteriorate so drink now!
that should give you a reasonable basis to try making a coffee, have fun
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sometimes I live on coffee 
