Category Archives: Tutorials

Minor updates to this article: January 19, 2005

Okay so you are one of hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions of people with a basic pump espresso machine like the Barista or Estro Vapore or Estro Profi that seems to have become separated from the manual after purchase. Here is the skinny on this popular little machine. Although not on a par with the Gaggia Classic or the Rancilio Silvia, the Barista, and Estro Profi,  are capable of brewing espresso from most any fresh coffee bean. Here is the good news: They are easy to use and almost impossible to screw up.

This tutorial covers and any and all pump machines by Gaggia, Saeco, Krups, Braun, Pavoni, Delonghi and Starbucks. They really are all the same other than a different plastic or steel skin. All the same rules apply. These machines have some pretty basic features so I will highlight them here and now:

• A powerswitch. (has to be plugged in and on to work!)
• A brew switch that has to be pushed to brew espresso.
• The steam switch.
• The portafilter handle and filter.
• The steam wand.
• The steam knob.

Rule number one. The unit must be plugged into a functional 110 Volt A.C. socket to work, preferably in the kitchen and not too far from the sink.

Fill The Reservoir!

Before using the Barista espresso machine, pull out the water reservoir. After filling the reservoir with water, slide it into place while making sure that the water intake tube is inside the tank. Failure to do so will result in an unhappy and humming machine.

Turn it on and warm it up!

The button on the left  (identified with a [1]ONE) turns on the machine. Depress the button, and the button turns red. Wait for approximately 15 minutes for the machine to warm up. The water temperature has been achieved when the green light on the right side of the machine is illuminated. That said, the unit should have warmed up, and I mean, the whole unit! Superior espresso will be achieved when everything in the unit is comfortably warm and toasty. This is called seasoning the machine. Trust me. Better espresso will be acheived with a warmed up machine as well as warmed cups and saucers. More on that later!

Foam the milk first!

If you are going to make Latte or Cappuccino, you will want to prepare or foam your milk first.
Frothing milk is the fundamental component in Cappuccino, Latte and other espresso based drinks. The pump powered espresso maker is more than capable of producing great foamed milk for drinks so start practicing. Before you start burning litre after litre of 2% milk, invest in one of those great TAYLOR Cappuccino thermometers. It will save you money and a scalded tongue too! Get a stainless steel frothing pitcher. Glass does not work well. Pour milk into the frothing pitcher. Wait! Half-way only! If you fill it up, it will overflow!

Steaming the milk.

Depress the steam button on the Barista (marked as (3) on the photo upper-right). The green light will turn off. Wait a few seconds and the light will illuminate again. With the steam button depressed and the green light on, place the steaming wand just below the surface of the milk and then turn the knob on the left side of the machine. This will allow steam to come out of the wand. It may be loud so watch your ears. Trained baristi (professional coffee makers) can tell a lot about the sound of the milk being steamed.

The early stages of heating the milk are critical. It is during this time that you can control the density of the froth. The best froth is dense with tiny bubbles. When the milk reaches around the 80∫F mark, slip the steaming wand down the side of the metal pitcher, deep into the milk. The milk should start swirling around the wand. Continue heating the milk into the 140∫F – 155∫ mark. If you heat the milk any higher than 160 ∫F, it will scald and be worthy of nothing.

Brewing the espresso!

When you are finished foaming your milk( and it is always important to do the milk first! ), switch OFF the Steaming Switch (3) and press the brew switch to flush some hot water through the empty portafilter and brew head. Some people call this practice Temperature surfing. I call it keeping everything warm and toasty, an important thing in espresso making. Okay. That is enough water through the brew group and portafilter!

Of course you have coffee ground appropriately for espresso making and your coffee is fresh isn’t it? Do not expect good results with stale coffee, because coffee is a food product. You wouldn’t make a salad with wilted lettuce now would you? Hey, while we are at it, let’s identify the two major types of coffee; arabica coffee and robusta coffee. 100% Arabica coffee is generally used in all gourmet blends. Robusta, the cheap stuff, is used in most bad-assed instant coffees and bagged-binned and tinned stuff that you buy in the superstore for $1.99. This stuff will simply NOT make good coffee, so forget about it. Remember, fresh coffee is good coffee and Arabica coffee is the ONLY coffee!

Okay, so you have ground your coffee or had someone grind it to spec for you. I will not go into the issues of ground coffee here. I will assume that it has been ground appropriately for your machine. Spoon the espresso coffee into the portafilter as shown in the photo above left. Before you tamp it down, it should be more or less level with the top of the coffee portafilter. You can tamp it with a variety of gidgets or gadgets. I like the hand-made Reg Barber tamper, but whether this unit is right for you is beyond this basic discussion. Use the device that comes with the unit and if you do not have one, us the bottom of a shot glass or some suitably flat surface.

As shown in the next illustration on the right, the custom Reg Barber tamper compresses the coffee to restrict the flow of water through the coffee and create a consistent and even layer of resistance to the flow of hot water. I will not go into why this is important here. The bottom line is; you do not want the flow of coffee(espresso) to be so quick nor do you want it to be too slow. In a perfect brew cycle, you want to draw 1 to 3 fluid ounces of espresso coffee from the machine into your espresso cup within about 25 seconds after pressing the brew switch on. If 3 fluid ounces of espresso coffee blasts into your cup in 3 seconds then the coffee is either too coarse or it is not tamped hard enough. The coffee, if ground and tamped the right amount, should stream out of the portafilter into the espresso cup much like honey dripping from a spoon. It should at least look intense and slightly syrupy. Nice analogy, huh?

The Barista, and machines like it, have a slight variation in the design and operation of the portafilter. It is fully adjustable during the brew phase. The flow of espresso can be constricted by adjusting the portafilter handle to the left or right. In this way, some pretty fancy shots of cremalicious espresso can be pulled on the fly. Once again, this technique can be something like squeezing the throttle on an old British Motorcycle…Okay maybe that is not a good analogy!

As I have said, this is not the best machine on the block but it is capable of brewing a shot of espresso with a rich head of crema and it is more than capable of foaming milk to perfection. In summary, your Starbucks Barista or Estro Vapore, Estro profi machine is very capable of brewing great shots of espresso provided you given a turn or two to this simple guide. Ask questions or e-mail if I have missed something or some aspect of this tutorial is not clear. There is a steep learning curve in the world of better coffee and espresso. Do not expect to be brewing perfect lattes, cappuccinos or espressos within the first few hours. Practice, practice and more practice makes for a better experience. Golden rule: Better beans means better coffee! Do not scrimp on the main component. Good coffee and fresh cold water, 2% milk is pretty much all you need. Good luck.

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Chapter Four – pump up the volume to better espresso.

In three chapters we have covered some of the basics; boilers, brew groups, portafilters, thermostats, pressure, and temperature. Our next topic is pumps and the mechanisms of moving the water through the ground coffee.

In the photo at right, I pulled out a boiler from Gaggia espresso machine.

Before I do that, let me touch very briefly on where the water comes from and where it is stored. The water, here in the Northwest, is remarkably soft and pleasant tasting. It is very low in added chlorine. Mineral content is low as well, probably as low as most commercial filtered water. The incentive to use bottled water, for me, is the ability to fill up the machine and not worry about the effects of the chlorine on the espresso machine components. To get around chlorine content in the water, let the water sit on the kitchen counter for ten minutes. The chlorine quickly leaves the water for the surrounding air.

Okay, I know you are impatient for the answer to this question. Where do you put the water? Do not laugh. I get this a lot. Truth is, the water is either in a reservoir or your machine is connected directly to a water supply. This direct connection is called ‘being plumbed in’. 

Chances are your machine has a reservoir and guess what, this kind of machine is called the pour-over. The plumbed in machine is generally of the semi-commercial category or restaurant variety. The advantage of the pour-over is that it can be anywhere in the home or office provided that there is running water and electricity nearby.

I digress. Let us talk about what moves our precious water around. In almost every case, your home espresso machine is going to be powered by a vibration pump. I do mean in almost every case. In fact, the pump in your machine is most likely an ULKA pump. They are everywhere. They are well designed. They are simple and almost indestructible. They have a line in, a line out and a connection for electricity. The pump is usually placed between the water supply and the boiler. The pump, in effect, pushes the water through the mechanism and, of course, provides the necessary pressure to brew the espresso coffee.

As we move up the food chain of coffee machines, the types of pumps start to vary a little. In many higher end machines the common pump is a volumetric one. I will not go into too many extra details on the properties of the volumetric pump. Suffice to say, it is a workhorse but, unlike the vibration pump, it is sensitive to being run dry. I will talk more about this later.

Finally, there is one system that I would like to identify. It is the hydraulic brewing system. Hydraulic brewing has a significant role in the history of espresso brewing but I will cover that in another article.

We find hydraulics in two distinct areas. One is the lever powered espresso machine and the other is the power assisted hydraulic espresso machine. The former is found in many homes under the name of Pavoni.

This unit is, quite literally, powered by muscle and the power of water pushed by the piston in the hydraulic mechanism. There are two types of lever units; Armstrong method and spring assist. I bet you can guess how the Armstrong unit works! The lever of the espresso machine is raised pulling water from the boiler into a cylinder.

Pushing the lever down drives the water through the brew group and portafilter. The beauty of this system is that it is whisper quiet. There is no pump. The only sound is the barista (you) straining to push the lever down as you meet resistance! In the spring assist machine, the action of raising the lever also engages a heavy steel spring. When the lever is pulled down to brew, the spring is released, assisting you in the brew cycle.

All things considered, once you are familiar with getting the grind right and the other oddities of these units, using the lever powered hydraulic espresso maker can be quite sexy.

In the industrial world of the working cafe, the powered hydraulic espresso machine can be just the thing for pumping out 400 cappuccinos per hour, but, hey, that is the beyond the scope of this discussion.

We now have the water. We have the machine. What do we have left? Electricity! Chapter Five!

Chapter Three– Let’s illustrate the bits and pieces that make up a machine. In the last couple of chapters we have tried to make it clear that water temperature and brewing time are two critical areas where espresso coffee is concerned. Water has to be 195 degrees, give or take a few degrees. When it comes to keeping the water temperature stable it often helps to look at the physics: Whichever components are not heating the water, or insulating the water from the outside world are taking heat from the water. This is a very important concept to remember so read it over a few times.

Okay, so let’s start at the head end of the process by going through the bits and pieces one at a time and explain their importance. The chassis or frame of the espresso machine: is it plastic or metal and does it matter? Well, think about heat retention or transmission. Is it going to protect the internal components from temperature variation and still look good? Do you want or need to heat cups on the top of the machine? You might be asking yourself: Why would I want that?
Good question. Think about it. If you want to heat the environment around the machine then you are wasting energy and adding a level of destabilization to the whole process of maintaining a constant temperature.

Truth be told, many machines do have metal shells and a place on top to place cups. It is not that these units get that hot because there isnít really that much power involved. Additionally, it is not the desire of the engineer to heat your kitchen with an espresso machine. Moral of the story: If you see a plastic thermal shell unit, like the Gaggia Baby, and you like the look, buy it.

Let us talk about what heats the water. Generally, a boiler heats the water. What is a boiler, you ask? A boiler is a vessel that has a cold water line going in and a hot water supply coming out. In the world of espresso machines, the boiler is heated by an electrical element that is either embedded in or wrapped around the boiler.

A boiler can be made of many materials. Some common materials are steel, aluminum and brass. What we are looking for in a boiler is the ability to heat up fast and retain the heat once the boiler and its contents (water) have come up to temperature.

Now, when you think about this for a moment, the ability of a full boiler to come up to temperature quickly implies that it is a good conductor of heat. The ability of the boiler to retain the heat effectively indicates the properties of an insulator. Do you know what the conundrum is? That is right, folks! You cannot have it both ways. In a perfect world you cannot be an insulator and a conductor.

The desire is to have a system that retains heat. This desire generally takes precedence over the ability for the machine to heat quickly.

Now it would be nice if everyone used a marine brass boiler in every machine because that would be the best choice. It is slow to heat up. It resists corrosion. It is slow to cool off. There is a downside. Aluminum and steel is cheaper and in the marketplace, the savings on the production line make for a cheaper machine for the consumer. Aluminum is quick to heat up. It is corrosion resistant and it is cheap. Stainless steel is a good choice too.

Okay, you ask. What is the boiler doing? The boiler is providing water, at 195 degrees, to brew coffee and steam for heating milk. How can this be? How can you provide steam from a boiler full of water that is cooler than boiled water? Well, in most machines there is a ingenious arrangement of switches and thermostats to provide the functions of power, brewing and steaming. There is a minimum of two thermostats required to do the job right. What is a thermostat? A thermostat is an electrical device that opens or closes a switch contact when a specific temperature is achieved. In the average espresso machine there is a thermostat that cuts the power to the boiler when the temperature of 195 degrees is achieved and a thermostat that cuts the power when a temperature of 220 degrees is achieved. How do we get steam from an espresso machine?
There are a variety of neat methods and I will not cover them all. Besides, this is a guide for dummies, right? The guide for rocket scientists has not been written yet.

The quickest way of drawing steam off of a boiler is tapping the boiler with a pipe and feeding this line through to the steam wand. In an up and down world it would make sense to draw steam off of the boiler from the top of the boiler but this is not really necessary. When water exceeds the boiling point, in the boiler, it is ready and willing to take the path of least resistance to the outside world. So, with this in mind, we can tap into the boiler anywhere that is convenient.

Ultimately, we want to brew coffee with the water that we have gone to all the trouble of heating and stabilizing. We need to move the water from the boiler to a place where the coffee is. We do not want the water to lose too much heat on the way to the coffee so it makes sense to have it as close to the boiler as possible. The brew group is what we call the components that bring the coffee in contact with the water.

The brew group should be made of the same material as the boiler but it is not always the case. The best material for the brew group is brass. The brew groupís job is to move the hot water to the ground coffee and the shorter the trip for the hot water, the better. Think of the brew group as a sealed bath shower. Think of the shower arrangement in your bathroom that could wash your hair without getting the rest of you wet. Good analogy? No? Well, okay.

Something has to hold the ground espresso coffee during the brew cycle. This something also has to double as a filter. The first misconception that many people have about all espresso machines is: Where is the paper filter? There is no paper filter. It is actually a basket that attaches to something we call the portafilter.

This basket can be made out of stainless steel. It can come in a variety of sizes and shapes that serve a couple of purposes. Obviously, as water passes through the espresso coffee, we need to keep the fluid (the espresso coffee) and the spent coffee grounds separate. This is what the filter basket is for. Again, the filter basket can come in several sizes depending on how much espresso coffee we wish to brew.

We have identified the portafilter. Perhaps you have seen one in a cafe. It looks like an ice-cream scoop. It has an insulated handle and a scoop that holds the filter basket. Perhaps you have guessed that the portafilter is made out of brass or some heavy-duty heat retaining material. You are correct. On to Chapter Four.

Chapter 5 – Your espresso machine is sitting on the counter in your kitchen. Now what? Chances are your machine runs on 110 volts AC or standard house power.

Bigger machines have more work to do and as a result, they use 220 Volts AC. Needless to say, your machine is going to be within a few feet of a power outlet. It is going to be pretty close to a sink and some running water too. There is one thing that espresso preparation is not: it is not neat and tidy. As you get up to speed on the physical aspects of espresso making, you are going to generate messes and plenty of them!

Take heart. It will not always be this way. In my little kitchen I can prep my Saturday morning beverages with little more than a few dry coffee grounds left to wipe off of the countertop. Take note: this kind of cleanliness is achieved after much practice and patience of kitchen mates! What are the other ingredients that need to be handy in maintaining a reasonably clean coffee area?

Your machine should be on a dry and stable surface. It does get hot so keep it clear of flammable materials and children. It is powered by electricity, so keep it away from sinks filled with water. A roll of paper towel, a chopping board (I will explain that later!), and some light-duty spray cleaner usually round out the complement of accessories.

Espresso coffee is ground prior to brewing. I know that this is an obvious statement but it deserves some advanced discussion. I will be spending a lot of time talking about the grinding of the coffee, but not in this chapter. I am going to assume that you have the espresso coffee ground to the suitable specifications.
At this point I will state that the finished product; espresso, cappuccino or latte, depends entirely upon the quality of the main ingredient.
That ingredient is the coffee of course! Espresso coffee is brewed when water, below the boiling point, is passed through finely ground coffee. This coffee is in the portafilter. This espresso coffee has been packed into the portafilter in such a way as to create pressure that restricts the flow of water through the coffee. The pressure is created because the coffee is finely ground and the water is not free to flow quickly through the coffee.

This is where I reintroduce the term BAR pressure. In order for hot water to be pushed through the ground coffee, the pump has to be able to generate serious pressure to overcome the resistance created by the packed coffee. In the world of the coffee barista, or bartender, the term tamp is most commonly used.
The coffee is tamped into the portafilter with a downward force of up to thirty pounds of pressure. This seems like a lot, doesnít it? Well, it does not always have to be that high. In fact, we can reduce the tamp pressure by using a more finely ground coffee.
These two factors are always hand in hand. The coarser your espresso coffee is ground, the more the coffee has to be tamped in the filter basket.
The finer the grind, the lighter the tamp pressure. Now do not get me wrong. There is not going to be a very wide margin or range of grinds with any one given machine. In fact, if your grinder has calibrations or settings from 0 to 100, you might find that the functional range for your machine is 75 to 85.
What does this mean for me, the average home consumer? The short answer is: If you are new to home espresso, find a local coffee roaster who is capable of grinding your coffee to your exact specifications and buy a few days supply at a time.

Coffee fact: ground coffee is only fresh for a few hours if left in the open air. If you select this option, buy a steel canister with a latching top. It is will be fairly airtight and coffee will keep for about three days. Oxygen is coffees enemy.
Whole bean coffee is at its best three to five days after leaving the roaster. If you decide to go down the road of grinding your own coffee, you will achieve a new level of coffee sophistication. This relationship comes at a price. While an inexpensive coffee grinder might be just the thing for your drip pot, the rotary or blade grinder is not cut out for the precise nature of espresso coffee milling.
The next step in grinding technology is called the burr grinder. Unlike the cheap rotary, that uses a blade that macerates or cuts, the burr grinder uses tearing surfaces to rip the beans apart without raising the temperature of the beans too significantly.

Okay, at what price? A basic burr grinder, like the Braun KMM-30, will lighten your wallet by about sixty dollars. The Braun is great for quality drip brewing and French press applications. An espresso ready grinder, like the Solis Maestro, will set you back about one hundred and thirty dollars. If you wish to spare no expense, there are a myriad of choices in the price range of three hundred to five hundred dollars. We are now talking about cafe grade grinding that would not be out of place in the corner java joint. Final Chapter Six!

Chapter six: The espresso-cappuccino experience is 50% preparation and 50% speculation.

Truth be told, you really never know what kind of espresso shot you are going to get until the liquid is streaming out of the machine into your shot glass or mug.

There is something about this mysterious process, I suppose, that makes it so interesting for so many aficionados. I guess that is why I never get that excited about making a piece of toast. There is nothing to it, right? Okay, I suppose I will get some e-mail now!

In a previous section, I pointed out that heat is crucial. Of course you have let your machine warm up for fifteen minutes or so, yes? Have you boiled a kettle of water? You will need that to warm up your cups. Pull down your breadboard. I told you this would come up. The board is a support for your portafilter. When you are tamping coffee at thirty pounds pressure, you will want something that will withstand the abuse.

Get your coffee handy. As a last check, flip the brew switch on your machine. Make sure that there is a waste cup under the machine to collect the hot water. I have gotten into the habit of doing a boiler flush every ten minutes or so if I am in an extended brewing session. Why do this? I like fresh hot water in the boiler. The coffee tastes better. A fresh boiler, of water, is less likely to pick up off flavors from the boiler wall.

If you are going to be steaming milk, for cappuccino and latte, get ready to do it now. It is standard practice, in the cafe world that it is your kitchen, to steam milk first and then brew espresso. It takes a couple of minutes to steam milk to the right temperature and this is too long for espresso coffee to be sitting. There is a separate article on milk steaming on this web site so go have a look now.

In summary, you should use the same milk each time. 2% milk is the best milk for producing the fluffy topping for your cappuccinos and thick micro foam for your latte art! Always steam milk in a stainless steel carafe. Never heat the milk beyond 165 degrees Fahrenheit because at 175 degrees, the milk is scalded. It is ruined for consumption at this point.

Did I mention that espresso coffee does not like to sit on the counter very long? Black coffee is exactly the same. Oxygen goes to work on coffee and espresso the moment that it is brewed. A person with average taste buds can perceive the deterioration within about 1 minute. I am not kidding. If you have ever wondered why every Starbucks has a minute timer on their machines, this is why. If there was ever a reason for not ordering an espresso coffee, for dessert, in a restaurant, this is it!

Okay, so time is of the essence. You are thinking, What do I look like anyway, a quarterback? ì You will get up to speed on all of this with practice. When I am in the kitchen cafe in the morning, I am not just coordinating the preparation of a cup of espresso. I am making tea, Cafe Americano, toast or assorted breakfast items all at the same time for my wife and I. Time coordination is key and practice is the secret. It took me about six months to master the task of boiling water, preparing espresso, making toast and tea in a fashion that would have it all ready within seconds of each other. One day I might just open a real cafe!

In case you were wondering: So, Colin, when I am going to be really good at this?

Fact is, you will keep getting better and better at making a great cup of coffee. You will hear from some of your friends: What is the big deal? It is only coffee!

Well taste this folks. One of the greatest pleasures of gourmet coffee is in the sharing. Like love, coffee is an experience best served for two. There is little that is more satisfying than hearing from a friend or colleague: Dude, I have been on vacation for two weeks. Man, do I miss your java.

These are some of the sentiments that I get in the lab and office. I make daily java for a lab full of techs every morning at ten at morning. They get the best of the best.

There are no corners cut. I do not scrimp on the technique and quality of ingredients when brewing up that critical first pot of the day. Ah, drip coffee. That is another chapter. Let’s get back to the espresso.

Review; you have heated up your machinery. You have your ground coffee at the ready. Your cups have been filled with hot water or they are sitting in a saucepan of hot water on the stove. Tamper in hand. Steamed milk, if any, is at the ready. Any rituals or good luck trinkets have been stowed somewhere near your workspace. Letís make espresso!

Unlock the portafilter from the espresso machine. Place it on a stable surface. This is where the breadboard comes in. Dose ground espresso into the portafilter until the coffee is level with the top level of the portafilter basket. With your left hand (if you are right handed), hold the tamper down steady. With a tamper in your right hand, pack the coffee down into the portafilter with all your strength. I use a technique called NSEW when packing espresso.

What does this mean? It means North, South, East and West. This technique is rather difficult to describe in writing so I will not dwell on it if it is not obvious. Simply, I rock the tamper in these four directions applying a bit more pressure on the corners. Does it make a difference? I donít know!

Okay folks, lock and load. Remember, time is of the essence. Every second that the portafilter is out of the machine is a second that it is cooling off.

Lock the portafilter into the brew group. You do not need to use excessive locking pressure if your group gasket is in good shape. What is the gasket, Colin?

The brew group gasket is a large rubber washer that seals the portafilter and the brew group together that water does not fly all over the place when you hit the brew switch. This gasket should last about 3 to 5 years depending how often you put your machine through its paces.

Moment of truth! Press the brew switch. If your machine is like mine, it tends to rumble like a cement mixer. You would be amazed how many people return their machines, as broken, when they hear the pump running for the first time.

Some manufacturers even put a sticker on the front or the back stating: If I am loud, I am okay.

After two or three seconds, one of three things will take place. There could be a flood of muddy looking water into your cup. The coffee was either ground to coarse or you did not tamp it hard enough.

In the event that nothing comes out of the portafilter and the unit starts to sound somewhat ìdifferentî, this is because you have ground the coffee too fine or tamped too hard.

If the espresso coffee streams out of the portafilter spouts like honey from a jar, my friend, you have achieved coffee nirvana in short order! What are the chances of this happening in the first attempt? Well, if you have played around with your grinder and your coffee is fresh or if you have had your local roaster grind it for you, you might just score on the first breakaway. Success is measured in a variety of ways with the espresso shot.

Double or single shots take the same amount of time. Time, what kind of time, you ask? The ideal brew time for espresso is 20 to 24 seconds. Yes, you should have a watch or timer with a second hand or digital display.

Success is measured with the appearance of crema. Crema is the frothy topping that appears on the espresso shot as it is being brewed. Several things can be said of crema.

Crema can hold up a teaspoon of sugar for 10 to 15 seconds, sometimes more. Crema is only produced when the coffee is fresh. It cannot be produced with a steam powered espresso maker, a stovetop espresso maker or any kind of drip coffee brewer.

Some people tend to deconstruct the crema on the coffee to the point of tossing the shots if the crema does not look like tiger tail flecked butterscotch topping. Colin thinks this is b.s.

A lot of work goes into getting the coffee from the farmer to the cup. Waste is never excusable.

As the shot is happening, you may be reminded of several things. Gosh Colin, this stream of espresso looks like a mouse tail! Hey, I have heard that. If you are brewing into a shot glass it can look like a pour of Guinness Beer. You know, where the bubbles are going down instead of up? If you have never been in an English Pub and seen Guinness Beer being drawn, well, that is a life experience you have missed. Read all about that on some other webpage!

I am done! Thanks for reading.

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This is chapter one of the beginners guide to the pump powered espresso maker.

Renaissance, revival and romance: these three things seem to be key elements in the cafe culture phenomenon today. Taken collectively or individually, they contribute to some or all of the coffeehouse experience we enjoy today. Whether it is the first and highly anticipated date with a new friend, a solitary repast in the middle of an autumn afternoon or the regular Saturday morning ritual taken with your partner, the coffee is often the signature beverage that anchors the experience.

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Most every kitchen in the western world has a coffee pot or brewer of some sort gracing the counter top. The most common item, without question, is the plastic shelled drip coffee brewer.

The majority of these tend to have a burner or warming element built in. The thing that is critical here, with the drip brewer, and an important consideration in finding the right espresso machine, is the ability of the machine or brewer to heat water to the correct temperature.

Now I am not going to get into the classic argument of what is or what is not the ideal temperature, but let us agree, for a moment, that it is 195-200 degrees Fahrenheit.

You may be surprised to find that the hot coffee that you have been drinking lately is not really that hot at all. Not that this should bother you much, but you may be encouraged to achieve a better brew temperature if you realize that the rate of extraction and resulting quality of brew is temperature dependant.

This rule also applies in espresso, but more on that issue later.

The average brew basket temperature in most consumer coffee brewers is probably less than 175 degrees Fahrenheit. Good news is, industry has tuned into the benefits of hot coffee and ideal extraction times and temperatures. Yes, folks, extraction time is critical in drip brewers and it is super-critical in espresso preparation.

What have we established so far? We know that temperature is critical in achieving a successful brew interval in virtually any style of brew method. With espresso, and espresso-based beverages, like the cappuccino, the beverage is consumed right away or prepared, if you would, for immediate consumption. There is no consideration for warming, re-heating or otherwise storing the beverage for later consumption, so donít even think about it!

Gravity and pressure: At least one of these two factors is present in all styles of coffee preparation. Whether a cup or pot of coffee is being prepared with a drip pot, a press pot, a filter flask, thermal carafe or an air-pot, the common physical property is gravity and normal atmospheric pressure, nothing more. The process of brewing espresso requires a critical brewing temperature, a specific rate of extraction or brewing period and pressure, lots of pressure.

In the world of espresso brewing, the term bar or bar pressure is a measure of machine performance and capability. Simply, one bar equals one atmosphere or unit of air pressure at sea level. Pump driven espresso machines deliver anywhere from 9 to 20 bar, depending on the type of pump and its configuration within the brew group.

It is important that we do not get hung up on pump pressure because virtually all machines have the same pump, at least most of the home consumer and semi-professional models anyway.

On to chapter three!

You have to grind to believe – By Adam Tindale

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