Fix Bad Espresso 6 Barista Tips That Actually Work

baristas, because many of you are struggling to make good espressos at home, this simple coffee an educational video is for you because I'm going to be teaching you six barista tips that will help you master how to make a perfect shot of espresso like a professional barista These six tips will help you overcome common challenges, such as a rapid extraction of yours. a shot of espresso, a very slow extraction of your shot of espresso, and channeling of your shot of espresso, these challenges are the reasons why your espressos will taste bitter, burnt, with a high sour, watery, and weak in flavor, lacking balance—only then can you truly master how to make something good Shot of espresso—you need to know these six tips that I'm going to be talking about in this video. because this is the knowledge I have gathered over the eight years that I have worked as a Barista aiming that by the end of this video you should be able to make a good shot of espresso which is well balanced with the right flavors and you can transform that shot into espresso to make other different coffee drinks. For this video, I'm going to be using this sage. Barista Express impress — this is a simple espresso machine that you can use as a home barista. be able to make cafe-quality coffee at home, but the knowledge I'm sharing in this video is for you Use it on any other espresso machine and make a great-tasting shot of espresso and even lattes. cappuccinos and a flat white, starting with tip number one, which is using the right coffee beans if you're using old pre-ground and steel-ground coffees, those coffees have lost their flavors and you won't be able to make a good shot of espresso, a very important factor that you need to consider When buying your coffee beans, be sure to check the roast date—make sure your coffee beans have rested for 14 days since the roasting date, and when you open your coffee bag and add Pour the coffee beans into your coffee bean hopper, making sure the remaining coffee beans that are left in the bag, keep them tightly sealed with the lock on the coffee bag; if not, you can use a Airtight coffee container that will help you keep your coffee fresh for a much longer period of time Also make sure not to keep your coffee beans for more than four months from the time you bought them. because by four months those coffee beans have significantly lost a lot of their flavor And another personal preference I look for when buying coffee beans is to buy Arabica. medium-roasted coffee beans; if I'm aiming for a chocolatey and nutty flavor, I'll go for the American coffees, and if I'm looking for a fruity and a floral coffee, I'll aim for the African coffees—these are some of the tips that you can use next time when you go to buy your coffee. coffee beans After having our coffee beans ready, the second tip is going to be the water Not every type of water is suitable for making a good shot of espresso. I highly advise you, please. Please stay away from tap water because it contains too much chlorine, which will cause a bitter taste. and even some of the tap water, the pipes are rusted, so you're going to end up with a a metallic taste in your shot of espresso indicates that the ideal water for coffee should have a pH of 6 to 8 and a TDS of 90 to 150, this filtered water will ensure that you extract the right flavors after this, you need to turn on your espresso machine Wait for the espresso machine to heat the water until it has reached the ideal temperature. temperature for extracting your shot of espresso, the ideal temperature that I would recommend if You're using a medium roast coffee; it should be around 90 to 93, and here comes tip number three. Grind size is a very important tip; I can emphasize this—if you master it the grind size will allow you to fix 80 percent of the problems with your shot of espresso, and it's A very fine grind size means the particle size needed for extracting a shot of espresso. You need to grind your coffee into finer particles for a shot of espresso you're making. to be using a fine grind size, which means the small particles of your coffee, if you check on your coffee grinder, right here on this coffee grinder dial, you will see it's indicated with the smaller the number, the smaller the particle; the bigger the number, the bigger the particle the particle—if you're extracting your shot of espresso and it's flowing very fast, this means you're With large particles, there is no resistance; the water is simply flowing through your coffee, which is why it's flowing very fast, and if your espresso is taking a very long time to come out, this means Your particles are very small, so they are creating a lot of resistance; water is not able to pass through. Extract the ideal flavors into your cup of coffee—this is why you're going to use grind size to fix it. these two different common challenges: an under-extracted shot of espresso, which means the espresso is flowing too quickly, resulting in an over-extracted shot of espresso, which means the espresso is Extraction is extremely slow; these two different extractions will result in a bitter, sour, highly acidic product. espresso, and I will be explaining this later on in this video while we are going to be putting all these tips together to make our shot of espresso, and here comes tip number four, which is going to be the amount of coffee we need to extract our shot of espresso; if you use less amount of coffee inside the pot filter, you're going to end up with a very fast extraction your shot of espresso, and if you put in too much coffee into the portafilter, it's going to be very strong It's hard for you to insert this portafilter into the group head, and also when you're extracting it. Water is not going to easily pass through that coffee to make you a good shot of espresso. for you to know how much amount of coffee you need to make your shot of espresso, you're going to be checking the basket, the size of the pot filter basket is what is going to determine how You can add up to 18 grams of coffee in the basket for this basic home espresso machine. You're going to need to grind 18 grams into this basket; this is the capacity of the basket. but also let me give you a bonus tip: you can increase by one gram and also reduce by one For this 18-basket, you can use 19 grams or 17 grams, but I would recommend if it's your first time Time your pull for 18 seconds until you master your espresso routine; that's when you can increase or reduce it. About the amount of coffee, thank me later after you find out how much coffee we're talking about. now we need one essential coffee tool, which is a coffee weighing scale, so that you can measure and have the exact measurements; it's very important for you to have something mechanical that you can use every single day—this is what helps baristas make the same cup of coffee every time throughout the year because they have the same things that they do each and every day for you to measure how much coffee grounds you're going to use to extract your shot of espresso will help you Replicate the same shot of espresso every single time I start by weighing my portafilter. and then I'm going to be grinding my coffee—this Sage Barista Express is really amazing espresso machine, it comes with an automatic tamper, which I've tested over the past few days And the results were amazing—when you have this espresso machine, you don't need the distribution. The tool and the tamper do all the work for you. Our coffee is done grinding; I'll just pull it down. and it will show you here that we are within our ideal range, so you can see, even with this coffee Inside this portafilter, how it's cleaned and tamped, but I'm going to wait to make sure I have 18 grams. exactly, I have 18 grams that I've ground from this coffee grinder, and this is going to lead which is going to be the espresso brew ratio? The espresso brew ratio means how much water that I need to add 18 grams of coffee and the most basic brew ratio for espresso It's one to two, so if I'm using 18 grams, I'll multiply it by two to get 36 as our yield out. for our shot of espresso, if you don't measure and follow a good brew ratio, you're going to end up guessing when you're making your shot of espresso, and this is what is going to cause the inconsistency in taste because sometimes you'll extract more, sometimes less, and if you extract more than a shot of espresso is going to taste weak and watery because you're adding in more water, and if you cut the espresso very short with less amount of water, it's going to taste A very strong and intense brew, a ratio of one to two, is what has been tested by specialty coffee. a shot of espresso and is what most coffee shops use for their shots of espresso, any amount of coffee the amount of water you're going to need is twice what you have in your pot filter. Add this coffee to make your shot of espresso, and now it's time for us to extract our shot of espresso, and it's going to lead us to tip number six. Let's go. We start by flashing our group head. The reason I preheat my group head before I start extracting my shot of espresso is to warm up the group head so that we can maintain consistent temperature; you can touch it now—it's hot. And now I'll insert the filter into the group head. Prepare your scale—we need it. To weigh out your espresso yield, get your cup, place it below, and use tip number six. The brew time will begin the moment you start extraction—start your timer right away, very quickly. For a good shot of espresso, it should take between 20 and 30 seconds. Let's see ours. How is extracting on 34? You stop your shot of espresso so that you end up with 36. Yes, we got it. This is our shot of espresso. Look at the crema, and the key is, we have used All these tips work together to make this shot of espresso, and why is the brew time so important? The brew time is what is going to help us understand what is happening during extraction. Our shot of espresso: if your espresso finishes extracting in less than 20 seconds, that espresso we call It's an under-extracted shot of espresso, meaning that the espresso is flowing too quickly, so when your espresso flows too quickly, not allowing enough contact time to extract the ideal flavors your cup of coffee, and if you taste that under-extracted shot of espresso, it's going to taste sour with high acidity, watery, and unbalanced flavors—these are the common characteristics of An under-extracted shot of espresso, and to fix it you need to go to the coffee grinder. adjust your coffee grinder to the finer end of the grind setting so that you can make the particles small when you make the particles smaller; you create more resistance, which increases the contact time, so that you can be able to dissolve the right flavors into your shot of espresso, but for this shot of espresso that I've managed to finish extracting in 30 seconds from my experience, 30 seconds is on the edge and I feel like if you taste it, it's having that aftertaste of bitterness that I'm getting with this Shot of espresso to fix it; I'm going to be adjusting my dial after you adjust your coffee. You don't use the first coffee that you grind, so I'll be grinding. That's the reason we don't use it. This coffee that we've ground after adjusting our coffee grinder is the coffee that is Most of the time stuck in coffee shops, and this is a common mistake many beginners make. is when they adjust the grind size; using this coffee, this coffee is going to have 50 percent of the previous grind size and 50 percent of the grind size you have adjusted, which is not going to give you the accurate adjustments that you have made with your coffee grinder, I recommend the first coffee that you grind from your coffee grinder after adjusting your grind size you throw away Let's grind again so we can see the exact adjustment we've made to our coffee. grind size now I'm weighing again I need 18 grams so I put in the grind my coffee after grinding I'll just It's dumping down now that I've increased the grind size as well as the amount of coffee, so what? What I'm going to do is scoop it off until I have 18 grams, then put it back so that I can dump it. I'm good to go, and now let's extract our second shot of espresso again to clean off any Particles that might be stuck on the group head and insert into your pot filter get your weighing Scale ready—it's key. The moment you start extracting, you start the timer. Therefore, you Stop your extraction and check how long it took to extract your shot of espresso as you can See now, our shot—the adjustment we've made has given us 24 seconds. You can see on this side. This is 24 seconds we've had from this shot of espresso. Yes, I think this is going to be a really good shot of espresso with that juicy aftertaste, well balanced, it's having a good body, you can even see the crema—this shot of espresso would be really amazing, even when you're making your lattes, flat whites, cappuccinos, and even americano—and a bonus tip If your espresso machine is not disturbed by this automatic tamper, then you need these two. Coffee tools: this is called a coffee tamper—it presses down the coffee, and this is the distribution. These two tools are absolutely essential when you're pulling your shot of espresso. The distribution tool has grooves on the side, so if I grind my coffee, you can see it's not well distributed. Level the coffee grounds in the pot filter basket so I can level up my coffee in the pot filter basket I'm going to be using this distribution tool, and this is what I'm going to do—I'm putting it on top. I just moved it around; now you can see the before and after. Now my coffee is evenly distributed. I'm going to use this coffee tamper to press down the coffee and create a compact bed. because what we need is for the coffee to be compacted so that when the water comes, it's to go through all the coffee so that it evenly extracts a good shot of espresso the reason why many beginner baristas and home baristas face a challenge in channeling Channeling occurs when, occasionally, the espresso comes out from one side while the other side does not. coming, this means that the espresso is experiencing channeling, so the water may be finding a path of least resistance. Weak point on this side, and it's only passing through this part without extracting the flavors. On this side, that shot of espresso which had channeling isn't going to give you the good result. flavors because you're not extracting all the flavors, and you can easily spot channeling if You're using a bottomless portafilter because you'll see the espresso spraying everywhere. that spraying of espresso means that area of coffee you didn't tamp it down very well or you distribute it very well—this is why these two coffee tools are so important if you want to I'm sure you'll be able to extract a good shot of espresso by following these six barista tips. You have a clear understanding of what has been causing those different challenges in your shot. of espresso, and if I've missed any of the challenges you're facing, make sure to link it In the comment section below, I'll be checking out in this video, and if you want to use the same Coffee tools I've used in this video; I also have affiliate links in the description below. Whenever you purchase something using those links, I receive a small commission, and I'd be very grateful. For your support, please make sure to leave any questions or things you didn't understand in the comments. In the section below, I'll be checking it out and answering all your comments, barista. Training videos are released only weekly, so stay tuned for the next video, and if you're someone interested When making different coffee drinks using a home espresso machine, I would recommend that you Watch this video next to learn how to make 13 types of coffee using a basic home espresso machine. step by step