what is the exact measurement of coffee ground for espresso, I bought a new machine, I don't use coffee pods just coffee grounds.
3 Answers
Your basket has a size that suits a certain amount of coffee. This can range anywhere between 8-10g to 22g. Check if there are any indicators of this. Failing that, overfill the basket and then sweep your finger across the excess over the top and see how much coffee that is, that's a ballpark figure for how much the basket can comfortably take.
You didn't mention if your machine uses a pressurised portafilter (the handle) or not. You can usually tell as it has a single hole at the bottom and is a little deeper than a standard portafilter. These tend to be more forgiving to mistakes in dosing and pressure.
Learn to tamp your coffee evenly and consistently. There are plenty of videos online on how to do this.
Try to figure out a recipe that works, using the weight of the coffee you put in, how much coffee comes out, and how long it takes for that coffee to come out. The standard recipe that is currently in trend is 18g in, 36g out (we use grams instead of ml for simplicity) in about 28 seconds. This is presuming a basket size of 18g though.
Perfect changes per machine and per user. You will have to experiment. (What a horror! Think about all the coffee)
Pack the coffee; adjust the pressure and give it a go. Be methodical. Change one thing at time. If you're methodical you'll write down your results as you go along.
Have fun.
It's an art not a science. I personally don't hit my perfect very often. There are just too many variables: coffee freshness, coffee 'stickyness' aka how well it will compact, size of the grind, how much pressure used to compact into the portafilter, the temperature of the water, the pressure of the water, the length of time to pull the shot etc. I suggest checking out some videos online, finding a starting set up, that is a way to make a decent shot, then experiment from there while trying to adjust one of the variables at a time while keeping the rest the same. Changing more than one will make it too hard to tell what caused the result. Have fun, each shot is a shot of espresso to drink so in my book, it's all good :)
