How to make good coffee in an espresso machine

The quintessential coffee. The best option that every coffee maker will value.

Do you know how to prepare a good espresso coffee with your newly released espresso machine?

We give you a few tips to prepare espresso coffee like a barista.

A true espresso coffee is prepared with exactly 45 ml of filtered water at a temperature of 90 °C passed through about 7-10 grams of coffee.

finely ground, and at 9 atmospheres of pressure.

The water has to be in direct contact with the coffee for 25 seconds.

The definition is very clear, so preparing a good coffee should not be difficult.

And one thing! You must drink the espresso coffee freshly prepared.

What do you need to make good coffee in an espresso machine?

• You need a good espresso machine: The Best Automatic Espresso Makers and The Best Manual Espresso Makers. The coffee maker must be able to send 9 atmospheres of pressure and heat the water to 90º C
• The espresso machine has to be clean and well-maintained. We do not want the coffee maker to be dirty and its ducts poorly maintained.
• The coffee we are going to use should be 80% Arabica and 20% Robusta (but this depends on taste). Arabica coffee gives the coffee its body and Robusta its flavor and intensity.
• The coffee has to be of quality, preferably in beans.
• The water has to be of quality. Very hard water is not worth it. You may be interested in reading the following entry: Using quality water to prepare good coffee: the best-kept secret for preparing coffee at home
• The coffee beans must be ground when we go to prepare the coffee. You may need to fine-tune the amount of coffee with a good scale.
• Espresso machines need a fine grind. And the ground coffee that they usually sell us packaged is not worth it, since it is too thick for this type of coffee maker. The best thing is that we prepare the grinding of those coffee beans ourselves. You are going to need a good quality professional grinder to achieve this.
• You must correctly place the ground coffee in the filter evenly and compactly: you need a good tamper and some practice.
• Trick! When removing the grounds, they should come out compactly: at that moment you know that you have prepared the coffee well.
• You will also need a good espresso cup to enjoy your coffee: The best espresso cups (porcelain, glass): How big is a coffee cup?

All of these tips are great, but you have to keep one thing in mind:

it takes practice to make good coffee in a manual espresso machine. You have to get the hang of them. Each coffee maker is a world.

But if you have bought a super-automatic espresso machine, things are simpler.

since you basically need to buy a good coffee and grind it properly in the machine itself to get good results. It’s all much simpler.

And what if you want to make a latte? It is very important to choose the milk well: How to choose the best milk for your coffee: fresh milk, powdered milk.

Conclusion: What coffee are we going to obtain based on how we prepare it?

Preparation time, grinding and water temperature are three very important factors when preparing your coffee, and as soon as you change any of them you will get a coffee with a very different flavor.

Keep that in mind the next time you make a cup of coffee.

In the following table you will find a good guide to knowing how the coffee will turn out based on these three parameters:

coffee flavor	Preparation time	Water temperature	Grinding
Sour	Increase preparation time	minus temperature	Thinner
Bitter	Reduces preparation time	more temperature	Thicker

• If too high a coffee extraction is produced, you will get a bitter cup of coffee with a lack of flavors.
• If there is little coffee extraction, you will get a sour, acidic, and even salty cup of coffee.