The first thing you should know is that espresso is fickle, tedious and often doesn't do what you want. But don't let that get you down - it’s also incredibly rewarding, fascinating and even a little exciting. Let's begin with a quick introduction to your kit.
Easy, done!
Except that's not all. The secret to good coffee is consistency and repeatability, so you also really also need:
First off, just spend some time playing around with your new kit. Read the instructions, press all the buttons and spin the dials so you can understand what they do. Once you’re comfortable with the settings, it’s time to make some coffee.
Grind is the most important part of making quality espresso. If you don’t have the correct grind size you’re not going to be able to make espresso. So, spin your dial to fine, throw some beans in the grinder and take a guess where the correct grind is. This is going to involve a little trial and error. We’d recommend picking up 1kg of cheap coffee you can use to run through the grinder, giving yourself an afternoon to have a play around getting a good feel for how the grinder and espresso machine behave.
When you’re ready to take the plunge, grind a little coffee into a cup and rub it between your fingers. It should feel like soft sand. If not, go finer on the grinder. If it feels like sugar powder you're probably too fine. But, at the end of the day you're just going to have to pull a shot of espresso and try.
If you have scales, grind 17g into your basket and distribute the coffee evenly across the basket, using your hand to tap the front of the portafilter to encourage the coffee in the right direction. If you don’t have scales, fill the basket loosely - though if you want to perfect or even follow a recipe, you’re going to need some scales (so put that on the shopping list!). Once you’re happy that the coffee is evenly distributed in the basket, run your finger over the top to gently level out your coffee. Even distribution is crucial for even extraction (and therefore, tasty coffee).
It’s time to tamp. Place the portafilter flat on the counter (ideally onto a tamp mat to protect your surfaces), gently lower the tamper in. Keeping your wrist straight and with a 90deg bend in your elbow, tamp down by leaning into the portafilter. You want a good deal of pressure, around 10kg.
Now you’ve got your nice tamped puck of coffee you'll want to get that in the machine and start brewing. Insert your portafilter, ready your timer and set some scales underneath the cup. Press the continuous / manual brew button, start the timer and then stop the shot once the scales read 34g. This is a 1:2 ratio, widely considered the standard in speciality and is a good beginning point for any coffee. Note the time your shot took.
You're looking for a shot to run in anywhere from 28-35 seconds. Once you’re in that range it's all about fine tuning for the optimum espresso. Taste and explore all the flavours espresso has to offer.
Here’s some tips for what to do if your shot doesn’t go to plan:
Too strong: Increase the final yield of espresso, i.e. 34g → 38g
Too weak: Decrease the final yield of espresso, i.e. 34g → 32g
Tastes sour: Grind finer and try again
Tastes bitter: Grind coarser and try again
Tastes sour and bitter: Make sure your coffee is distributed equally, and try again
Grinds in cup: Make sure your portafilter is securely in the machine and keep your kit clean
It’s going to seem like espresso is the biggest pain the first time you set up your machine, but after you’ve battled with your first dial-in it soon becomes second nature.
Take your time, keep your kit clean and brew some tasty coffees.
Ready to take your espresso game a step further? Check out our Edinburgh-based 1-2-1 Coffee Training Courses, including Beginner Barista and Advanced Barista
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GUIDE 6: Make the perfect Iced Pour Over.
]]>GUIDE 5: Make the perfect Aeropress.
]]>The Aeropress is an odd looking brewer from the man behind the Aerobie: the frisbee that looks like a bagel and frequently gets stuck in trees or stolen by dogs at the park.
Invented in 2005 by Alan Adler, the Aeropress is a plastic brewer that looks alarmingly like a big syringe. It consists of three main parts:
When the basket is screwed on and the plunger is placed inside the chamber, the Aeropress becomes a vacuum, and therefore requires pressure to squeeze the coffee through the filter.
Just like every other coffee brewing product, there are a million and one recipes and methods for brewing with the Aeropress. On that note, we would suggest avoiding the original method from creator Alan Adler. Everybody has their preferences, and we mean no disrespect, but we would rather avoid putting our filter coffee and some cold milk in the microwave to make a ‘latte’, but each to their own!
After its invention, folk in coffee latched on to this strange new brewing technique, gave it a whirl, and completely remodelled how to brew with it. It was such a massive hit among the coffee community that in 2008 the first World Aeropress Championship took place in Oslo. You can read about the progression of the WAC here - it’s come a long way!
Our method yields a coffee more similar to a full-immersion filter coffee as opposed to an espresso-style, and is suitable for a single cup. We use the inverted method here, which consists of having the brewer ‘upside down’ and placing the filter and basket on last, as opposed to first.
At the bottom of the guide we have a few brewing tips, plus some World Aeropress Championship brewing methods if you fancy playing around. Brewing coffee at home is a great opportunity to play around with quantities and techniques, don’t be afraid to try something new!
TIPS:
If you fancy playing around with some other methods, you can check out the recipes used by the winners and runners up of the World Aeropress Championships here.
GUIDE 4: Make the perfect Kalita Wave.
]]>Pour-over coffee consists of brewing coffee through a filter paper using a slow, steady stream of water, and letting gravity do the work. The water passes through the coffee, drips into the vessel below, and gives you an incredibly smooth and tasty cup of coffee.
In this method, we will be guiding you through making a single cup, but please refer to the tips section at the bottom if you would like to adjust the method to make two cups.
1. Rinse the filter with boiling water. This will heat up the brewer and your vessel. Discard the water.
2. Grind 15g coffee for a single cup. Place in the filter and shake until the grounds are flat.
3. Start the timer (0.00) and pour 30g of water over the grounds. Aim to cover all of the coffee quickly and carefully. This is called the bloom*. Swirl the brewer once you have reached 30g.
4. At 0.30, top-up to 100g. Gently stir the slurry with a spoon.
5. At 1.00, add 50g every 20 seconds until you reach a total brew weight of 250g. With the addition of the final 50g, gently swirl the brewer again, and leave to finish dripping through.
6. Total brew time will be around 2.30.
7. Discard the filter, and drink up!
* The ‘bloom’ stage is where the coffee degasses and releases CO2. You may see fresh coffee expand and bubble a little, and this is the gas being released. This is arguably the point in the brew where the sweeter notes are extracted from the coffee.
* When pouring, use a slow and gentle spiral motion, working from the middle of the filter to the outer edges, and back in again. Avoid pouring down the side of the filter paper. A gooseneck kettle comes in handy here for precision pouring, but if you only have a regular kitchen kettle to hand, try to pour as slowly and as carefully as you can.
* When stirring the slurry, do so in a way that is as repeatable as possible, to ensure consistency, i.e. clockwise twice, or back and forth twice.
* Maintain the same ratios when brewing one cup or two cups. Coffee to water is 60g per 1000g and bloom is 1:2. With this in mind, brewing a two cup would be 30g coffee, 500g water, and a 60g bloom.
* If your coffee is super fresh (brewing within 7 days of roasting), extend your bloom for another 10-20 seconds. This helps to bring a bit more viscosity and sweetness to a freshly roasted batch.
* Brew time is subject to grind and taste. If coffee is tasting bitter and dry and takes a long time to brew, try grinding coarser. If coffee is sour and thin and brews very quickly, try grinding finer.
Moka Pots, stove tops, espresso machines, metal thing, Italian coffee maker? Call it what you will, but millions of people use them, and they make a very unique style of coffee that is loved by some and loathed by others.
Check out our Machina Method for getting the most out of your moka pot at home.
]]>We’re not judgey here.
Sure, they are a pretty old school way of making coffee, but you like what you like right? So, to hell with them, if they don’t like it.
What started in Italy with early Italian coffee culture, is now common across the globe, as it is a cheap, accessible and relatively easy way of making ‘espresso-style’ coffee.
Named after the Yemeni city of Mocha, it was invented by an Italian engineer named Alfonso Bialetti in 1933. They work by the simple mechanism of passing boiling water pressurised by steam over the ground coffee. Simple, but effective.
Since Alfonso created this little piece of coffee history, there have been various other brands to produce stove tops including Alessi, Jocca, Gator, La Cafetiere, Bonvivo & Pezzetti. Some good, some bad and some are just unnecessarily expensive.
Is it really espresso?
By definition, no. As espresso requires a set pressure (7-10 bars) and temperature (90-96c) to result in proper espresso, in the same format you find from actual espresso machines. Moka Pots can only produce 1-2 bars of actual pressure. That said, many consider this style of coffee to be espresso, and who are we to argue?
Moka Pot / Stove Top coffee is usually very strong, viscous and often a little harsh, but that is just the nature of how it is prepared and the (lack of) control that the device provides over both pressure and temperature.
What can you do to make it better?
There are actually loads of tricks that you can use to make your Moka Pot coffee better, and thankfully none of it is rocket science. Here are our top tips for improving:
How should I clean my Moka Pot?
There is mixed opinion about how you should maintain your moka pot. Some claim that you should not use soap at all as it removes the oils that contribute towards the overall taste, while others suggest you can clean them really well without any form of cleaning agent. We suggest not using any form of soap but do clean them well to remove all residue. Do put them through the dishwasher, as this helps remove all the build-up of residue.
Good coffee tastes much better when it comes from a clean vessel and Moka Pots are no different.
Here's the second installment of our BREW AT HOME BLOG GUIDES designed to help you brew up great tasting coffee on a range of basic home coffee equipment. We've designed these guides to be as useful and uncomplicated as possible to help fill the coffee shop sized hole in all our lives.
GUIDE 2: Make the Perfect V60.
]]>Background:
A staple in any coffee fan’s cupboard, the Hario V60 is named after its V-shaped conical design and the 60º angle of the sides. The V60 delivers clarity and aroma, and the ribbed sides provide appropriate air-flow to prevent the stalling.
If you are new to brewing with the V60, it can be a daunting new process, but we have laid out the steps below, and don’t be afraid to make a few errors along the way!
In this method we’ll chat you through making a single-cup V60 pour-over. This is how we like to brew it at Machina, but feel free to adjust and adapt to your own tastes and preferences. We have noted down some key points and information after the method, if you’re looking for some more details on the brew.
What you’ll need:
Method:
1. Weigh out 15g of your coffee beans and grind.
2. Boil the kettle, pop the paper filter in the V60 brewer, place the brewer on top of your brewing vessel, and rinse the paper filter. Discard this water from your vessel.
3. Place your 15g of ground coffee into the filter, and give it a little shake to distribute the grounds evenly at the bottom of the filter.
4. Begin your timer (0:00), and pour 45g of water over the grounds with the aim of saturating all of the coffee quickly. This is the ‘bloom’ stage*.
5. When your timer reads 0:30, begin a pour of 105g to bring you to a total of 150g.
6. When your timer reads 1:10, begin the final pour of 100g to bring you to a total of 250g. Once you have finished this pour, give your brewer a very small 'swirl'.
7. The brew should finish at around 2:15-2:45 leaving a flat bed of coffee in the paper.
8. Discard the filter paper, and stir your brewed coffee.
9. Sit down, and drink up!
Extended information:
We hope you enjoy brewing with the Hario V60! If you have any questions at all, feel free to send us a message, we’d love to help you out. Happy brewing!
]]>GUIDE 1: Make the Perfect Cafetiere.
]]>So it seems life has been turned upside down for the foreseeable future and everyday norms seem to have disappeared quite literally overnight. Business as usual currently looks very different for Machina too, however we wanted to find a way to bring a bit of joy to this new normal and coffee seems to be one of those things that is helping get folk through. Stripping aside all the complexities of the world of speciality coffee in which we normally live, coffee is offering something much more simple to people right now. It is providing comfort and familiarity. It is helping millions of people through the day right now, helping them stick to a daily ritual that brings pleasure, taste and that oh so necessary hit caffeine to help see us through this new normal.
However, not all of us are natural-born baristas and with the majority of us missing our favourite coffee shop, now is a great opportunity to step up and improve our home coffee game, by making sure we can brew up in the best way possible, whatever home equipment is lurking in the cupboard..
In this new series of blog posts our Machina Roastery and Cafe Team will give you our fail-safe methods for making incredible tasting coffee at home with a variety of different pieces of basic home brew equipment. Don’t worry, there won’t be any pretentious barista talk or overly complex methods, just an easy to follow process, to ensure you can enjoy awesome coffee from the safety of your own home.
Our Method for the Perfect Cafetiere.
So the good news is that this method is super simple.
The cafetiere is definitely the easiest way to make a large volume of coffee with as little effort as possible. Most people have one lurking in their cupboard somewhere and it’s most likely how you are served coffee when you go round to someone's house.
1. The Theory:
In essence, the cafetiere method is all about steeping grounds of coffee and then separating the water from the coffee sludge using a plunger.
Except our method doesn’t recommend a plunger - I know that’s the first curveball! But we’ll come to that.
Also What is Steeping Coffee I hear you cry?
Steeping provides the simplest way of making coffee, and it entails leaving ground coffee in water for a period of time, depending on temperature, coffee preference and grind size. In this time the water extracts the coffee and the flavour from the coffee grounds accordingly.
Equipment Needed:
Cafetiere
Ground coffee
Kettle
Spoon
Mug
Optional:
Scales
Grinder
Ratios:
65g coffee to 1 litre of hot water is our recommendation
Stick to this ratio depending on how much you require - so. 65g to 1000ml, 32g to 500ml, 48g to 750ml and so forth.
(TIP: We appreciate a lot of you won’t have specialist coffee scales, but kitchen scales will do a perfectly fine job. If you don’t want to be that specific then try and work with 1/3rd of a cup or 4 egg cups worth of coffee)
Coffee Grind:
We would recommend a Medium Grind... so think Sea Salt consistency
Immersion Time:
That said time isn’t too critical in this brew though because we're letting the coffee grounds settle naturally at the bottom of the cafetiere. The only time the coffee is really extracting is when the grounds are moving. This happens when we first brew because there is lots of agitation pouring the water and when we break the crust in but as the brewing process settles down extraction slows, almost to a stop.
Machina Coffee to try with this Method:
1. Clockwork V5 - Machina House Espresso Blend
Made of 2 seasonal lots, this coffee is a great all rounder - flavour notes of Milk Chocolate, Honeycomb and Malted Biscuit.
2. Grota Funda (Natural) Espresso
A sweet and complex cup from Brazil - flavour notes of Milk Chocolate, Rum, and Sweet Spice, with a descriptor of Smooth.
Huye Mountain #337 (Washed) Espresso
A complex and vibrant Rwandan coffee with flavour notes of Blood Orange, Lime, Dark Chocolate plus a descriptor of Silky
Maura Ochoa (Washed) Filter
A beautiful El Salvador micro-lot called Maura Ochoa, named after the amazing woman who owns the farm and heads up her family in the municipality of La Palma. Flavour notes of Pear, Brown Sugar and Sultana with a descriptor of Sweet
METHOD:
1. Place the coffee in the cafetiere.
2. Add the hot water from the kettle into the cafetiere. Make it as hot as possible! Straight off the boil preferably as it’s really hard to burn coffee.3. Wait 4 mins - do not put the plunger in
4. Use a spoon to “break the crust of coffee” on top of the cafetiere. Break the crust means pressing gently down with the back of a spoon causing a minimal amount of stirring, which will release the gases from brewing.
5. Wait 4 mins again - I know it sounds fussy, but it will be worth it.
6. Rest the plunger on the surface of the coffee. Do not plunge down- this will agitate the coffee which will increase the extraction unnecessarily and unpredictably.
7. Pour the coffee out gently. You should aim to leave the sediment at the bottom as undisturbed as possible.
8. Enjoy your brew!
Troubleshooting Common Problems:
“My Coffee is too weak” - use less water or use more coffee or use a finer grind size
“My Coffee is too strong” - more water or less coffee or use a coarser grind
“My Coffee is too bitter” - over-extracted, use a coarser grind
“My Coffee is too sour” - under-extracted, use a finer grind
Other Tips:
- Always only change one thing at a time and experiment using this basic method to find a version that suits your taste.
- We would always recommend grinding your own coffee if possible, as it always provides a much fresher taste than pre-ground. However that is a whole other post for another day.
That’s it!
Enjoy brewing up at home and let us know how you get on?
Any questions just leave a comment at the bottom and we’ll get back to you.
]]>The problem is, where do you begin? Simply choosing the right brew method can be a trying experience! Now you’re looking at a range of coffee gadgetry to improve your brewing, with prices ranging from very accessible, to not-so-affordable. But what kit is going to give you the biggest improvement in your brewing?
Every time a customer purchasing retail coffee asks us for their beans to be ground at our cafes, our collective coffee geek hearts sink just a little. Grinding your coffee fresh for each brew will make the biggest improvement to your coffee. But why? When you grind coffee, it starts to oxidise at a faster rate, leading to the loss of aromas of the coffee, which detrimentally impacts the taste of the coffee.
Additionally, grinding your coffee at home will allow you to properly control the grind size. If we grind your coffee, we need to grind it to a preset generalised grind setting based on what brew method you are using. However, all coffees need different brew recipes, requiring different grind sizes. Grinding at home will allow you to control your grind size, allowing you to tweak your brew until it is exactly how you like it.
So what kind of grinder should you use? This really depends on how you’re brewing and how far down the coffee rabbit hole you are. The grinder we most frequently recommend is probably the Knock Feldgrind, as it is simply amazing. Each time we restock these bad boys, they’re sold out before you can blink an eye. If a hand grinder seems like too much effort, the Wilfa Svart may be more your speed. It’s a little cheaper than the Feldgrind but still has a great grind profile for filter coffee, as well as being quite compact and easy on the eyes.
Being consistent and precise can make an enormous difference in the quality of your coffee. For a long time, coffee brewing was based on a lot of estimation, but with the increasing prominence of scales in coffee brewing, you can remove the guesswork.
To really get the best (and most consistent) results out of your filter coffee, follow a brew recipe. Precise amounts of coffee, water and extraction time are the three important variables. While a grinder allows you to control the extraction time (based on the grind size of the coffee), scales allow you to be precise with your amounts of water and coffee. This leads to a consistency with your brews, as well as the very valuable ability to adjust your brew recipe to optimise your brew. This fine tuning will lead to much tastier coffees.
While there are top-of-the-line scales, such as the Acaia Lunar or Ohaus Navigator scales that are incredibly accurate, a more budget friendly pair such as the On Balance Envy scales will work almost as nicely for at-home use.
As mentioned above, one of the variables in a brew recipe is extraction time. Unless you’re really good at accurately counting in your head, a timer will allow you to be precise with your timing. Knowing your extraction time and the resulting taste of your coffee will allow you to adjust your grind size and/or dose to improve upon your brew recipe.
The best thing about a timer is it’s free! If you have a smartphone with a stopwatch app, that is.
For pour over filter coffee methods, such as Chemex, V60, or Kalita Wave, a pour over kettle can greatly improve your brewing. By restricting the pouring flow of water, pour over kettles allow you to have a more even distribution of water during your pour, as well as giving you greater control and accuracy of the volume of water being poured, making it much easier to follow your brew recipe with precision.
We stock a range of pour over kettles such as the Bonavita or Tiamo kettles, as well as the Electric Bonavita Kettle (which has the added bonus of temperature control).
If you have any questions about filter coffee brewing equipment or would like some advice on how to improve your coffee brewing at home, send us an email at info@machina-espresso.co.uk or drop by one of our cafes for a chat.
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