How to make delicious espresso on a budget: A complete guide from beginners to experts

How Beginners Can Brew Better Espresso on a Budget

If you are a novice and want to try espresso, as a merchant, here is our three years of experience. If you are interested, you can write it down, save it, leave a message or share it. I hope it can help you!

In fact, as merchants, since we opened our online store, we have found that more and more friends have become interested in espresso coffee recently. Sometimes after we receive an order, customers will ask us, I have never been exposed to specialty coffee or coffee. Espresso, what should I buy or is there any way to make my espresso taste better?

We originally thought that only a few customers would suddenly buy coffee machines, but recently we have found that there are more and more such customers on the market, so we would like to open a topic to share with you, if you want to make a cup of espresso, what accessories do you need to buy or Where to invest your resources.

We would also like to thank everyone for reading our introductory guide to brewing coffee before. We didn’t expect that so many people would read it.

Does expensive equipment mean better espresso?

Compare pour-over coffee vs espresso

Compared to the hand-brewed coffee I talked about in my last article, I think espresso is completely two extremes. In addition to the coffee beans tasting good, the actual tools used will amplify all effects. It is true that you get what you pay for.

For hand-brewed coffee, we can use different techniques to adjust the powder-water ratio and brewing method to make the coffee taste better. There are many factors that can be artificially adjusted to produce flavor, texture, smoothness, etc.

In this case, we don’t need to rely too much on the machine to easily make a delicious cup of hand-brewed coffee. Therefore, sometimes in a coffee shop, I feel that a cup of hand-brewed coffee is much more expensive than a cup of espresso, because a lot of it is controlled by human experience.

The key role of equipment in espresso quality

On the contrary, I think espresso relies more on tools, especially coffee machines, plus manual powder distribution methods to find the right grinding degree to make espresso taste good. I think the ratio of human experience and tools should be 30/70.

First of all, whether the pressure of the coffee machine can be constant so that the espresso can be brewed stably to brew a cup of Espresso during the process of pressing. Because sometimes some models can easily tell you that it can reach 9bar, but in fact it may only reach 9bar in the first 5 seconds, which will affect the extraction level of a cup of Espresso. And finding the right grind is a science in itself.

Beans from the same day, same grind, will also have an impact

When you use a large amount of espresso beans in a coffee shop, you will find that even from the same batch of beans, the size of the ground coffee powder will be different on different days due to the influence of environmental factors such as humidity. These seemingly insignificant changes actually have a decisive impact on the taste of espresso. So even with the same grind size, your coffee can taste very different from day to day.

The relationship between powder adjustment and coffee extraction success

After solving the problem of the machine, the importance of the powder spreading method became highlighted. This step accounts for more than 40% of the quality of espresso. The powder distribution method ensures that the coffee powder is evenly distributed in the filter cup, which is essential for the coffee machine to evenly pressurize each coffee powder.

Inconsistent powders can cause changes in the taste of your coffee. For example, you might find that the coffee at the same coffee shop tastes completely different on different days. This is most likely due to the different techniques and strength used by different baristas when spreading the powder.

How to extract a cup of espresso evenly

The importance of cloth powder needle

During the grinding process of Espresso beans, since the powder is very fine, it is easy to form lumps. Using a powder needle can effectively break up these clumps and ensure uniformity during the extraction process.

Choose the right powder spreader

The general powder distribution process is to use a powder distribution needle first, then push the coffee powder flat, and then compact it with a powder tamper. But we can add more steps to the process:

1. Using a metal powder spreader with four beveled edges can prevent the powder from being pressed hard, but evenly pushed into the powder bowl.
2. Using a gravity powder spreader can use the built-in gravity to gently pressurize the coffee powder, so that the extraction channel is evenly pressed, thus making the powder pressing process more uniform.

Choose a tamper with spring rebound

The tamper that comes with common espresso machines is often a simple tamping hammer that uses force to flatten the coffee grounds. However, since everyone has different pressure levels and conditions, this often results in inconsistent pressed powder. Using a tamper with spring rebound function can ensure that the intensity of the tamping is consistent every time. When you feel that you can no longer apply pressure, the tamper will automatically rebound to ensure the uniformity of the tamping.

If your budget allows, invest in an electric tamper for better results.

The importance of installing a water distribution network

After finishing the pressed powder, I will add a water distribution net at the end. This simple device ensures that water molecules are evenly distributed on the coffee pressed into a cake shape, while avoiding the problem that the coffee machine may have when the water column is too concentrated, causing the coffee powder to be scattered and the extraction to be uneven.

In addition, when cleaning, the water distribution network can also keep the brewing head of the coffee machine cleaner and reduce the use of cleaning tools. After adopting this method, I found that the effect of the coffee produced is usually very good. Friends who are interested can give it a try.