Espresso: About 30 ml of coffee essence . A good cup of espresso is complex, rich and sweet. It is the best start to our day.

Espresso is not just a drink, it is the favorite of most coffee lovers , just like many people love latte, cappuccino, Americano, flat white, cortado, macchiato... these coffees (it is also the base for making these coffees).

In other words, learning how to extract a good cup of espresso may be the most important thing for you to become a barista.

Remember: brewing a good cup of espresso requires dedication, attention to detail, and consistency at all times . So, let's get started.

Basic parameters of Espresso

As with any coffee, you need to know the amount of ground coffee (and how coarse it is), the amount of water, the brewing time, and the amount of coffee you will get . These factors are all closely related to making coffee, but for Espresso, you can currently ignore the amount of water.

Let’s break it down:

• The brew time is 25 seconds, try to stick to this unless you plan on doing some different experiments.

• The amount of coffee powder will depend on the size of your powder basket (single-head or double-head). Each espresso requires 8-10 grams of coffee powder.

• A serving of espresso is usually 25-35 ml, which can be easily adjusted through other parameters.

Then remember: these parameters are a flexible guideline for you, not a fixed rule that must be followed. Different coffee beans need to be treated differently, some need longer extraction time, while others do not. The roasting and grinding degree of the coffee beans will also affect each parameter.

When you are learning how to brew espresso, you can use these rules as a reference, and if you want to get further, don't be afraid to experiment. Remember: the final taste is the key, and you will only know how the espresso you brewed is when you drink it. These parameters will help you brew a good cup of espresso, but they are not the criteria for customer ratings.

Now that we have the parameters for Espresso, let’s get started.

1. Cup

Remember to warm the coffee cup before using it and rinse it with hot water. A hot coffee cup can better preserve the flavor of the coffee.

2. Extraction handle & powder bowl

Next, check that your extraction portafilter is clean and dry. Remember: residual coffee grounds will affect the taste of the espresso. A wet powder basket will also affect the extraction of the espresso, which will make the coffee powder wet.

3. Coffee bean grinding degree and powder amount

Put the ground coffee powder into the powder basket, pay attention to the grinding degree and the amount of powder to ensure that it does not cause under-extraction or over-extraction (under-extraction will cause sourness, over-extraction will increase bitterness). If you have a precisely calibrated grinder, it will be easy to control. If not, please use a digital scale.

4. Cloth powder

Tap the edge of the basket to evenly distribute the grounds. If you have a distribution tool, use it. This step is very important. It will ensure that there are no large gaps between the grounds. If the gaps are too large, due to the channel effect of water, the water will gather more towards the gaps during extraction, rather than evenly passing through the grounds, which will cause some grounds to be over-extracted.

5. Pressed powder

The purpose of this step is also to eliminate the gaps between the coffee powder and ensure that the coffee powder is evenly distributed.

Use the tamper to compact the coffee grounds, making sure your arm is moving vertically and evenly along the coffee grounds. A common rule of thumb is 30 pounds of pressure, but you don't have to stick to that. Applying pressure vertically ensures that the surface of the coffee grounds is flat, which can help avoid inconsistent extraction.

6. Correction powder

Use a tamper to correct the surface of the coffee powder. Place the tamper on the coffee powder and rotate it. This will eliminate the small ridges on the surface of the coffee powder and ensure that the surface of the coffee powder is flat and smooth.

7. Clean the powder bowl

Think about ordering a cappuccino and getting coffee grounds in your cup. To avoid this, make sure you clean the grounds around the basket and around the edges.

8. Clean the brewing head

Before installing the portafilter, you should clean the brewing head on your coffee machine. This will remove any coffee grounds that are left on it. Don't skip this step. If any coffee grounds get in, the final taste will be inconsistent.

9. Espresso Extraction

Finally, install the portafilter that you prepared with great effort on the coffee machine, press the extraction button, and start extracting your Espresso. Make sure to extract it immediately after installation. If you wait for 2 minutes before coming back after answering a phone call, all your previous work will be in vain.

10. Serve coffee

Whether the coffee machine automatically sets the extraction time or you manually press the stop button after 25 seconds, once the extraction is completed, you can remove the coffee cup from the coffee machine tray. A cup of espresso is ready, and you can serve it directly to the guests, or make latte or cappuccino with milk.

11. Throw away your powder

Remove the portafilter from the coffee machine and pour the brewed coffee grounds into a special box. Remember never to skip this step, after all, it's not nice to let the coffee grounds sit in the coffee machine like this.

12. Cleaning

Rinse your handle and prepare for your next cup of espresso.

13. Clean the brewing head

Turn on the water button and clean the brewing head with a small brush. You need to thoroughly remove the remaining coffee grounds on it, otherwise it will ruin your next cup.

14. Replace the handle

Put the portafilter back on the coffee machine. This will keep it clean and warm, and you won't have to look for it when you make your next cup of espresso.

The above are the 14 steps to extract a cup of espresso. This is just a basic reference step, but you'd better never ignore it.

Some of these steps may change over time as you gain experience and new tools become available. That’s just how the industry works, there’s always something new to learn.