Quick Start Guide

To bring out a good one espresso then the following settings must be set; grinding level, amount of coffee, amount of espresso and the time. All of this may sound overwhelming and difficult to understand, but we'll 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'll explain why a little later.
• Whole espresso beans. We you know our favorite click here!
• Porter filter, Tamper and double shot beaker.

Before we start going through the practicalities, you need to understand how the amount of coffee, degree of grinding and time are related.

To bring out a good one espresso so they usually say that for every gram of ground coffee you should get 2 grams espresso. What does this mean in practice? We recommend that you grind about 18g of beans into a double shot beaker. Then you aim to get about 36g espresso from 18g ground coffee.

Why time is so important!

The time to brew 36g espresso should take about 20 to 30 seconds. Then comes the question, why would one need to know this? The reason is that if it took less than 20 seconds for the machine to brew 36g espresso then the machine would not have time to extract all the aromas from the coffee and thus you would get a very watery and sour one espresso. Should the machine brew over 30 seconds for 36g espresso so would yours espresso taste very burnt with a strong bitter aftertaste. Therefore, the golden rule of espresso is that it should take between 20 and 30 seconds for 36g espresso.

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

To start with reliable values, we will weigh 18g of beans for each individual test until we get what we are looking for: 36g espresso in the time between 20-30 seconds. In this setup guide, we're using a single-wall double shot cup that comes with your espresso machine.

#1 Start!

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

#2 Press the puck

Press the puck using the tool called "Tamper". Then put the portefilter with the pressed coffee in the machine.

#3 Prepare for testing

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

#4 Start Brewing!

Now we get to the interesting part! Bring out your phone's timer. Start by pressing the "Program" button on the machine. After you press, it will flash. The next step is to press the double shot button. When you feel ready, press the button while starting your timer. When you see that the scale shows 36g espresso then you must stop brewing by pressing the button again.

#5 Analyze and test again!

As we said before the goal is to produce 36g in 20 to 30 seconds. If your timer shows a time under 20 seconds, you should grind the beans more finely by lowering the grind level on the grinder. 1 on the grinder's scale means finely ground and 16 means coarsely ground. So the smaller the number, the finer you will grind. If your time is higher than 30 seconds, then you should grind more coarsely.

#6 Redo until you're happy!

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

Conclusion

This guide is for you to quickly get started with getting a reasonably good one espresso. All beans are different and all have different flavors, 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 experiment further! Certain espresso is good at a time of 20 seconds while others may be good at 28 seconds brew time. The taste can also vary by changing the brewing temperature. As I said, there is a lot to experiment with.