Tip #7,348 • 1 person found helpful The quality of water can result in a strange taste in your espresso. Make sure the water is fresh and clean. Use a water test kit to check if need to. Always use a good water filter to remove the unwanted substances such as magnesium traces, chlorine etc from your water. Food & Drink coffee + espresso + espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,350 • 1 person found helpful Make sure the coffee beans are ground finely to the size of table salt. This will allow the coffee to be packed more tightly when you tamp on the coffee. Tightly packed coffee puck can yield a more aromatic espresso Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,351 • 1 person found helpful When tamping, make sure you exert an appropriate pressure. The optimal pressure is 30 pounds. Loose coffee puck will result in water flowing in certain paths only. Thus yielding poor tasting espresso. Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,352 • 1 person found helpful Use sufficient ground coffee. If too little, the coffee puck will not provide sufficient resistance to the water. Thus, it will result in a poor extraction of the coffee oils. Food & Drink espresso + espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,353 • 1 person found helpful Monitor the brewing temperature. Make sure it stays around 190 Fahrenheit. Any higher, you get a bitter, burnt taste. Any lower, you get an acidic flavours. Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,354 • 1 person found helpful Monitor the brewing pressure. Make sure it stays 9 bars. Else, you won't get the crema layer. Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,355 • 1 person found helpful The time to extract an espresso can greatly influence the espresso taste. Ideally, extraction should stop before the thick dark crema changes to a light color. After this time, the espresso will have a bitter and burnt taste. The optimal time for extraction is 25-30 seconds. Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,356 • 1 person found helpful Only a good espresso maker with solid components can ensure the stability of brew temperature and pressure to make good espresso. With a good machine, you have won half the battle. Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,357 • 1 person found helpful The best grinder to use will be a burr caconical grinder. They are able to grind the coffee beans gently and finely in a consistent manner, generating lesser heat in the process. With lesser heat, less of the flavours in the coffee beans will be destroyed. Avoid a blade grinder Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,358 • 1 person found helpful The cleanliness of your espresso making machine can destroy your espresso. Espresso made from a dirty machine will have a bitter and burnt taste. Make sure to clean the inners of the brew head and portafilter before every brew. Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send
Tip #7,359 • 1 person found helpful Maintain your espresso maker regularly so that it can function optimally. Also change water filter regularly to ensure clean water. Food & Drink espresso making + Helpful... Share Share Tweet Send