Foggy Morning 2: Espresso Time
Have you ever woken up and needed a little something to help you kickstart the day? There are multiple ways of brewing the morning cup of coffee that eventually gets you to the point where you are ready to face the day. Today we are going to take the basic dive into espresso, the gear you need, and the beans that will help extract the best cup of coffee possible. We are going to explore the basics to dialing in your brew, and what you can do to avoid overly bitter and sour notes when tasting your brew.
Lets first take a look at my personal setup, and the pros and cons of the gear that I have collected thus far;
Gaggia Classic Pro - This is a manual espresso machine where you have to grind your own beans, tamp, and extract. It boasts a 15 bar pump, single boiler, upgraded commercial steam wand, and a 58mm portafilter basket that holds 14-16 grams of ground coffee. This machine costs $425-$460 USD from different distributors and has been known as the best entry level espresso machine. You are given a single 7g portafilter basket, a double 14g basket, and a pressurized basket for those who don’t want to invest in an expensive grinder right away, since you don’t have to have a perfect grind setting to use this basket.
Cons- There are only a couple of small cons when it comes to this machine. The first con when considering the Gaggia is that the temperature of the brew water can be a bit too high, and there is nothing you can do to control it on the stock machine. One option is temperature surfing, which can be achieved by letting the machine come up to temperature and toggling the power off for a few seconds then brewing once you turn it back on, or purchasing a P.I.D. kit for the machine so that you can control the brew temperature, which would be much more reliable than temperature surfing.
-The second “con” is the lack of pressure gauge on this machine. This could give you a better idea as to how well your coffee is extracting, and pressure gauges are available online as an upgrade for this machine.
Overall, the Gaggia Classic Pro is a wonderful machine to own, and comes in at a lower price than other readily available espresso machine options. In order to get the most out of this machine and many others is definately upgrading your grinder, because as nice as it is having a pressurized basket, you will be able to extract a better cup of espresso with a traditional espresso basket.
Timemore Chestnut C3 Max Grinder - I purchased this grinder in order to grind a better, more uniform coffee than my old Mr. Coffee grinder. This manual grinder has a 20g max capacity, conical burrs, has grind settings from a fine espresso(almost Turkish coffee grind) all the way to a coarse pour over to French press grind, and very little retention while grinding. dialing in the grind size for my machine was an easy task, and at a price of $89 USD on amazon meant that I saved some money over an expensive electric grinder.
Cons - The only con I have for this one so far is that it is a manual grinder. Grinding beans with this little beast is going to take more time than an electric grinder, but the ease of grind does make the experience more pleasurable than most hand grinders I have tried in the past.
58mm Bottomless Portafilter $50 USD- I did purchase a bottomless portafilter to have an aesthetically pleasing handle and brew. There wasn’t much more to this.
Stainless Steel Milk Frothing Pitcher - I have had this for years since I purchased my old espresso machine. There are plenty of different pitchers at different price points, so choose the one you want.
Timemore Mirror Scale - This scale ships with a silicone cover so that you don’t scratch the top surface of the scale and acts as a non stick pad for measuring without anything sliding around. At $65 USD this scale measures in grams, and has a timer, and flow rate measurement on it that can guarantee a consistent measurement and brew.
Pusee WDT $30 USD - A WDT is a distribution tool with needles used for distributing coffee grounds in your portafilter. There is not much to say about this, but it does come with a stand that it attaches to via magnets. This WDT works well and ensures that your grounds are distributed better than wedge type distribution tools, which helps eliminate channeling and uneven brews.
Pusee Tamp $43 USD - This is a 58mm tamp to match the basket size on the Gaggia, and works perfectly fine. The spring in the tamp makes tamping evenly easy, and leaves a circular pattern in the espresso puck to evenly spread the water across the puck during extraction.
Knock box ~$20 - I’ll be completely honest and say that this wasn’t a high priority for my setup, but is nice to have. A knock box is a little espresso trash can that you knock your spent espresso puck into when you are done brewing your coffee.
Micro Fiber Towel - This is an essential when it comes to cleanup. You can use a micro fiber towel to wipe your portafilter basket after you knock the puck out, wiping off the group head on the machine, and cleaning the steam wand after steaming milk.
I should also mention that I do own the Delonghi Icona 310 espresso machine, with a 51mm portafilter basket, which ships with a single and a double pressurized basket. The price on this machine is ~$250 USD at the point of posting this. I also have a moka pot, which can be used for stove top espresso that I plan on making a separate journal entry for. This journal post is going to be focused on traditional espresso.
I am now going to outline how I grind and brew espresso in the morning;
1) I power on my machine, measure out and grind 15g of medium roasted coffee with the chestnut c3 grinder.
2) I then empty the grinds into my 58mm bottomless portafilter, giving the portafilter a few taps to knock down the grounds into the basket a little bit.
3) I use the WDT tool and put the needles down to the bottom of the basket and make little circles to break up clumps of coffee, and distribute the coffee evenly.
4) Using the tamp, I evenly tamp the coffee down, hard enough that I don’t feel the puck compressing any more. Most traditional recipes tell you to tamp to 30lbs of pressure, but just tamp until you don’t feel the puck sponge back. I twist the tamp slightly to break the surface tension of the ground coffee and make sure the coffee doesn’t stick to the tamp(I don’t “polish” the puck, since that can actually lead to channeling when brewing)
5) I mount the portafilter in the machine, which the scale and cup under the portafilter. I am ready to hit brew.
6) I have been turning the machine off for 5-10 seconds, and then turning it back on and hitting the brew rocker to “temperature surf” and extract the coffee at the temperature I prefer. I aim to have 15g of ground coffee in, 30g of extracted coffee coming out in 25-30 seconds. This is achieved with proper grind size, distribution and proper tamping.
7) I usually give my espresso a little stir to fully mix the complex flavors, and try the pulled shot. Enjoy.
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-Nobrega's Kitchen LLC est. 2022-
