Prepare the portafilter

Remove portafilter from machine. Clean and dry the basket.

Purge the group head by allowing hot water to flow through. This clears the screen of any built-up coffee grounds.

Place the portafilter on the scale and tare the scale to zero, then place the portafilter under the grinder to receive the coffee.

Grind, dose and tamp

Grind enough coffee to fill your portafilter basket and then check the weight on the scales. We recommend using a 21g dose (if your machine will allow it) for all of our blends.

Make sure coffee is distributed evenly in the basket and use a tamp to compact the bed of coffee. Make sure that your tamp is even to ensure no channeling.

Brew

Insert the portafilter into the espresso machine.

Place scales and cup below the portafilter, tare to zero and immediately start to brew.

Stop the shot when the espresso is roughly double the weight of the ground coffee in the basket. (We recommend shooting for roughly DOUBLE the weight of the dry coffee you use. eg. for a 21g dose, we'd recommend shooting for a 42g espresso)

We are aiming to achieve this weight in roughly 30 seconds. If this is taking too long your coffee will be over extracted, bitter and astringent. To speed up the brewing process, make your grind COARSER. If you are achieving this weight in a shorter amount of time your coffee will be under extracted and acidic. To counter this, make your grind FINER.

If you would like to add milk to your espresso, we need to steam or texture.

There are two phases of heating milk for espresso, these are called stretching and heating. 

The first phase of this is stretching the milk. This is incorporating air into the milk where it will bind with the proteins and create a beautiful, thick silky texture. 

To begin stretching, start with the tip of your steam wand close to the surface of the milk and turn on your steam valve. You want to hear a light, muted hiss. If this sound is too low you likely have the tip of your wand too far into the jug. If this is the case lower the jug slowly until you hear to correct noise. If it is a loud slurp you probably have the tip too high in the jug, so lift the jug slowly until this sound stops.

The second phase is heating the milk. This is where we want to bring the textured milk up to temperature.

Once your milk has become approximately the same temperature as your hand (or feels warm to touch) lift the jug higher on the steam wand and find the correct position for the top of the milk to form a whirlpool. The correct position for this is generally with the jug held vertically and the milk wand to be at about a 65 degree angle, and slightly off centre in the jug. Continue with the jug in this position until it is JUST too hot to hold. 

Once your milk is ready, deactivate your steam wand and remove jug. Immediately wipe down the steam tip with a damp cloth.

Texturing milk is one of the most frustrating parts of making espresso at home and every machine and person is different. Experiment with your machine to acheive the best results and remember: Practice makes Perfect!

Serve

If you are drinking your coffee black, either add hot water for a Long Black or simply enjoy your perfect Espresso! If you are adding your perfectly textured milk, simply pour it over the top of the espresso and then enjoy!