You might be reading this because you love coffee and want to learn how to make it even better. Or perhaps you have been drinking coffee for years and are ready to take your espresso game to the next level. No matter why you’re here, you will almost certainly have heard about the importance of good beans. This is the first fundamental step of a great espresso. After all, what sort of person would spend hours searching online for the best coffee beans for their espresso?

Fortunately for us, it turns out that there is more to great espresso than just buying a high-quality bean. In fact, if you follow these steps below, you’ll surely upgrade your shot of espresso. In this guide, we’ll outline everything you need to know about making great espresso. First though, let’s take a look at what makes an excellent shot of espresso in general so that we can get an idea of where we’re headed before we begin our journey.

What Makes an Excellent Espresso?

As you probably realized, bad shots of espresso start with bad coffee beans. After all, you can’t extract anything from bad beans. If you can’t remove the flavor, how can you make coffee out of it? To make great espresso, you need high-quality coffee beans. Once you got the beans right, you’ll need to find the best way to brew the coffee to achieve a perfect balance of sweetness, acidity, and bitterness. All of this can’t happen without a decent espresso machine that can deliver on both the water temperature and pressure. Properly maintaining your espresso machine will allow you to constantly get good results.

Step 1: Great Coffee Beans

There are countless types of coffee beans for sale. While it’s important to mention that, at the end of the day, it is a question of personal taste, there are some ground rules you should keep. First, buy a high-quality whole bean coffee that has a roast date printed on the back. In most cases, the roaster will present the roasting month, which is alright. Ideally, the roaster will detail the exact date the beans were roasted. Espresso fanatics will look for coffee beans that were roasted a week before. However, the same premium quality will remain for up to a month following roasting. Pass that, the beans will begin to deteriorate but not in a noticeable way for most coffee lovers. Once bought, make sure to grind the needed amount of coffee right before you brew it. If you have some grounded coffee left, make sure to store it properly.

More about buying coffee beans for espresso can be found here.

Step 2: Coffee Extraction

The main job of the extraction process is to take the flavor and sweetness from the beans and then extract the caffeine out of them. To do this, the beans are roasted and then ground up into a fine powder. This powder is then placed in a basket inside a portafilter and inserted into an espresso machine. Then, hot water at a high pressure squeezes the flavor out of the beans and into the water. When done right, the extraction process is what gives our espresso the flavor we enjoy so much. If the extraction process is not done properly, we get a terrible, bitter shot of espresso. Perfect extraction will be at the sweet spot that balances all the flavor of the coffee beans. To reach this spot you’ll have to adjust the ratio between ground coffee and boiling water, the brew ratio. In addition, You’ll need to achieve that in a defined extraction time. A good starting point for a double espresso will be 20g of ground coffee, 40g of liquid espresso, and 25 sec. of extraction time.

Step 3: Cleaning Your Espresso Machine

Getting the 2 first steps right will sure scale up your espresso. But in order to keep it that way, you’ll need to keep your machine clean. Some may think that running water through the group head and wiping the portafilter is all it takes, In reality, coffee tends to stick to other parts in your machine and leave a residue that will harm the flavors of each shot you make. Try to properly wash the portafilter, basket, head, and any other part that is touching the ground coffee every 1-2 weeks, depending on your usage.

Conclusion

Espresso is a beverage that is made by forcing hot water through finely-ground coffee beans. When done correctly, espresso can be one of the most flavorful drinks in the world. By following these fundamental steps of beans, extraction, and cleaning you can be confident your shot will taste better. With these three steps in mind, you can make an excellent shot of espresso every time. From there, you can decide if you want to continue experimenting with different blends, equipment, and techniques to create your own unique version of this delicious beverage.