If you want to know how long an espresso should brew, read these tips for making a tasty espresso.
You probably know the saying "measuring is knowing".
This certainly applies when preparing coffee . To know how long an espresso should brew (how much water does an espresso need to taste good), we need to understand what more or less water does to your ground coffee!
Suppose you make a delicious chocolate milk. You use the same amount of chocolate each time, but you use different amounts of fresh, whole milk for each cup you make. Would you be surprised that sometimes your chocolate milk is fuller and deeper in flavor than other times? Oh no?!
This principle also works when preparing espresso .
To guarantee a consistent espresso taste, the amount of water must be constant.
In the coffee world, the standard quantity for 1 espresso is 30 ml and for a double espresso (doppio) 60 ml . People sometimes deviate from this, but in general this standard amount ensures a nice epsresso extraction.
Another advantage of this standard amount is you get control over your espresso extraction.
There are several factors you need to keep under control, but we now focus on water use. Tips for controlling other factors can be found on the Baristashop YouTube channel and the Coffee Blogs .
Control over your water quantity is very important. As we saw in the chocolate milk example, more or less water causes more or less extraction (addition of coffee to the water), and therefore more or less taste.
In addition, an extraction that is too long or short produces too many bitter or too sour notes. As a result, your espresso tastes too sour or too bitter, it is too watery or too intense.
It goes like this:
When the water hits the ground coffee in your portafilter, the extraction begins. You can divide the extraction into three phases:
- The first part: here mainly the outer part of the ground coffee grains is released into the water. These are mainly sour notes. Don't be alarmed: that's how it should be. An espresso can have a nice acidity.
- The middle part: In this phase, fewer acids and more aromas and notes of the ground coffee bean are released into the water. As a result, in addition to acidic notes, aromas and tones are also added to the espresso.
- The last part: Towards the end of the extraction, bitters are added to the espresso. These bitters have grown in the bean, and these bitters should not be confused with the bitters released during an over-extraction (espresso that has been run for too long.)
Therefore, make sure you use the same amount of water each time you make one or two espressos. This gives you control over the taste of your espresso.
In addition to water quantity, there are other factors you need to control for a nice, balanced espresso. Read about this in the other coffee blogs on the Baristashop.
How do you get the water quantity under control?
Many espresso machines today allow you to pre-program the water buttons.
You can pre-program this so that every time you prepare an espresso or doppio espresso , you get the same amount of water every time.
Don't have programmable water buttons on your espresso machine? Then you can also use snot glasses , which often indicate a standard of 30 ml.
NB:
When adjusting your water controls, place a full filter holder in your group and stop when there is water. 30ml or 60ml has run into your cup. The amount of water you have programmed will always be more than the amount of espresso in your cup. After all; the coffee in your filter holder also retains some water !
In summary, a constant amount of water ensures a consistently tasty espresso.
