Quick Start Guide

To achieve a good espresso, you need to set the following settings; grind level, coffee amount, espresso amount, and time. All of this may sound overwhelming and hard to understand, but we will go through everything step by step!

Before you start setting up your espresso machine, you need the following:

• Digital scale that can be placed under the espresso machine. We recommend that you buy a digital coffee scale as it is small and compact and has a built-in timer. We will explain why a bit later. 
• Whole espresso beans. Do you want to know our favorite click here!
• Portafilter, Tamper, and double-shot cup. 

Before we start going through the practical part, you first need to understand how the coffee amount, grind level, and time are related.

To achieve a good espresso, it is said that for every gram of ground coffee, you should get 2 grams of espresso. What does this mean in practice? We recommend grinding about 18g of beans for a double-shot cup. So, you aim to get about 36g of espresso from 18g of ground coffee. 

Why time is so important!

The time to brew 36g of espresso should take about 20 to 30 seconds. Then the question comes, why would you need to know this? The reason is that if it takes under 20 seconds for the machine to brew 36g of espresso, the machine won't have time to extract all the aromas from the coffee, and you will end up with a very watery and sour espresso. If the machine brews for over 30 seconds for 36g of espresso, your espresso will taste very burnt with a strong bitter aftertaste. Therefore, the golden rule for espresso is that it should take between 20 to 30 seconds for 36g of espresso.

Now we can start with the fun part and set up the machine!

To start with reliable values, we will weigh 18g of beans for each individual test until we achieve what we are aiming for: 36g espresso in 20-30 seconds. In this setup guide, we use a double-shot cup with a single wall that comes with your espresso machine.

#1 Start!

The grinder has 16 grind levels. Start by setting it to grind level 8 using the knob to the right of the machine. Weigh 18g of whole espresso beans and then pour them into the grinder. Grind everything so you know there is exactly 18g of ground coffee in your portafilter.

#2 Press the puck

Press the puck using the tool called ”Tamper”. Then place the portafilter with the pressed coffee in the machine. 

#3 Prepare for testing

Place any coffee cup on your digital scale, zero it, and then place it under the espresso machine.

#4 Start Brewing!

Now we come to the interesting part! Take out your phone's stopwatch. Start by pressing the “Program” button on the machine. After you press it, it will start blinking. The next step is to press the double-shot button. When you feel ready, press the button while starting your timer. When you see the scale showing 36g espresso, you should stop the brewing by pressing the button again. 

#5 Analyze and test again!

As we said before, the goal is to get 36g in 20 to 30 seconds. About if your stopwatch shows a time under 20 seconds, you should grind the beans finer by lowering the grind level on the grinder. 1 on the grinder's scale means fine grind and 16 means coarse grind. So the smaller the number, the finer the grind. About if your time is over 30 seconds, you should grind coarser.

#6 Do About until you are satisfied! 

Repeat About the process in step 4 until you achieve a time between 20 to 30 seconds by adjusting the grind level. When you are satisfied with the setting, the machine will automatically save the latest brewing. So next time you brew your espresso, you only need to press the double-shot button once.

Conclusion

This guide is for you to quickly get started with making a reasonably good espresso. All beans are different and everyone has different tastes, so it's good to remember that when you have a time between 20 to 30 seconds but don't think it's good enough, you should continue experimenting! Some espresso tastes good at 20 seconds while others can be good at 28 seconds brewing time. The taste can also vary by changing the brewing temperature. As mentioned, there is a lot you can experiment with.