Barista Tips for Expert Espresso Making
Former head judge of the World Latte Championship, Paul Meikle-Janney, shows you how to create an espresso in the first of our classic barista tips series.
As the basis for almost all popular coffee drinks, perfecting the art of crafting an espresso is a stage not to be underestimated, and has a few intricacies that need to be mastered.
With the help of an Excelsior coffee machine, Meikle-Janney explains why good quality beans are essential as the first and foremost step when making high quality espresso.
The setting of the grinder you use is of considerable importance; ground coffee cannot be too fine as not only will this result in too strong a coffee but also grind too coarse, and you’ll end up with a watery shot.
Any barista worth their salt should hope to achieve an extraction time of around 20-30 seconds with ground coffee (this time accounts for varying machine brewing times etc). To prevent oxidative damage after grinding, it’s integral that the ground coffee is used almost immediately after grinding, don’t waste time!
Using an on demand grinder allows you to portion the exact amount of coffee required with minimal wastage.
The next step is to take the filter by the handle and use the knock box to get rid of any remaining grinds as well as giving it a wipe.
Then dispense the requisite measure of coffee, giving the handle a tap to even out the contents across the filter and then tamping the coffee lightly at first, apply slightly more pressure to compact the coffee.
Next wipe the filter’s edges, flush a small amount of water through the group.
Place the handle in the group and press the espresso button, allow it to flow straight into an espresso glass, with a rich crema forming on top.
If that was too difficult to follow, main man Paul Meikle-Janney even had time to record a short video explaining the process, so you only get the guidance you need to take your espresso to the next level.