make great espresso at home

I have finally achieved my goal!!! I have also realised that I can’t always make a great espresso but I can try

I have just got a new grinder so I am going to start buying beans because the are better fresh.

I just tried a new kind of beans and wow they were strong very nice but really strong!!!!!!!!! It just a classic espresso grind.

Today I had my morning espresso and it was okay but I need to get some new beans.

Making a good espresso is a case of trial and error. I have found grinding your own beans works a treat. Also get a good espresso cup I think that really tops it off.

I didn’t like coffee a little over a year ago. Then, like the nerd I am, played a certain video game, and in homage to it, began to drink coffee, though I hated it. After a few months of such silliness, I tried espresso. One time. Didn’t care for it.

Visiting my sister this summer, I had amazing jetlag… so much that the first thing I could think of, getting off the plane, was finding CAFFEINE. 3 or 4 hours, 1 lost-and-found luggage, and 10 or so Euros later, I found myself being escorted to the nearest brasserie to get a shot of espresso. It was gross, and it burned my mouth, and it was bitter, and – I wanted more.

After I came home, I realized not only would I bankrupt myself trying to get good espresso at Starbucks, but it wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, my parents got an espresso machine [they had the same idea…]. We’ve been toying with it long enough. I’m going to learn to put that sucker to good use, now. No more pre-packaged espresso grounds! I’m grinding my own! I’m tamping them myself! I’m going to pick out my own coffee!

I hope.

I just tried Peet’s Mocha-java as a coffee for espresso (on the recommendation of one of there staff). This has produced the best cup of espresso I have made so far with my Expobar. I did it by slightly over-packing the portafilter, at a slightly too-big grind setting on the Rancilo Rocky. (If you have the relevant equipment, let me know and I will give you specifics.)

The crema was thick as could be, the taste was excellent, mouthfeel wonderful, and the puck formation was perfect. If I hadn’t decided to mark this done based on what might be called average process statistics, today would have been the day.

This is an endless process of quality improvement, so it is unattainable in final form. But the stuff coming out of my Expobar is indistinguishable from what I get at most cafes, and attains the perfection of the best cafe I know periodically so I am calling it.

Fixed the screw. Just pulled the machine over the counter ledge and had my wife hold it precariously over my head and looked underneath. It was obvious where it went. Fixed in one minute.

Why did I not think of this on Monday?!!?!!??!

Back online now.

So a screw fell out of the bottom of the espresso machine and we now have to wait for the company to call us back and advise. Lovely Spanish engineering! :-|