New coffee, new grinder, new espresso machine… all those parameters can be overwhelming, but your first good shot will come from one principle: balance. The espresso machine doesn’t work by pressing the button and hoping for the best. The coffee is ground, the coffee is tamped, the water flows through. Start with this in mind. Watch as your shot pours, watch for the timing, watch the aroma.
The more attention you pay, the more you learn. Grind a portion of coffee, put it in the machine, pull a shot without adjusting any settings. Observe the stream. If it is very fast and the coffee looks weak, your grind might be too coarse. If it is too slow and it seems the shot isn’t happening, your grind may be too fine. Drink the shot, even if it tastes bad. Bitter, sour, watery, burnt. It all tells you something about the grind.
You are not aiming for the best shot possible here, but for an understanding of the grind setting. Failing to tamp evenly is one of the most common mistakes. If the coffee isn’t level, or if one half of the bed is denser than the other, the water will flow through the weaker part of the bed and neglect the rest. This will lead to channeling, and a confusing shot. Take your time. Pour the grounds into the basket, level it out, tamp, then compress. If the surface is flat and even, the water will flow through it evenly.
Try this 15-minute routine every day: pull three shots. Keep the same amount of coffee each time, but adjust the grind after tasting each shot. The first shot is a baseline, the second shot is an adjustment, and the third shot is a confirmation of whether your adjustment improved the shot. You can keep a journal of notes to help identify patterns you didn’t notice. Eventually, you will see patterns emerge and understand the effects of your actions.
The grinder will seem less daunting, the espresso machine less mysterious, and the shot less confusing. Eventually, dialing in will become a meditation between actions and their results. What seemed mysterious will become deliberate, and every shot you make will contain a little more understanding of coffee.
