Espresso at Home: Tips and Recommendations
Two beautiful cappuccinos. The design on the right is supposed to be a Christmas tree, but I don't think that comes across very well.
Hello readers. Today I want to share some exciting news–I ordered a Casabrews espresso machine a few weeks ago, and it finally delivered!
In light of that, I would like to write today’s post about at-home espresso. I have done a lot of research on this topic, and my barista training has really helped me hone my ability to make espresso at home. However, I understand that not all of you have barista training, so I have a few tips to make your at-home espresso experience foolproof.
Before we begin, I am going to define some coffee-related vocabulary words:
Portafilter - holds the tamped espresso grounds and is where the espresso is extracted from.
Tamp - compresses coffee grounds into the portafilter
Selecting an Espresso Machine
To begin, you have to select the right machine for you. Many of the at-home baristas on YouTube, such as Ethan Rode, recommend the Breville Barista Express, which lets you control the size and amount of coffee grounds you’re using for each shot of espresso. It includes a grinder for your coffee beans, which is huge because not all espresso machines have a grinder. However, the barista express tends to run from $500-$700, which was not in my price range.
The machine I chose was a Casabrews CM1548. I first found out about this machine from Ryan on YouTube, so I decided to look into it. I paid $144 for this machine, which enabled me to buy a grinder, a milk pitcher, a tamp, and a food scale as well as cleaning tablets and brushes. While the Casabrews CM1548 does come with a tamp, it is made of plastic and does not guarantee even tamping.
I purchased this tamper set from Amazon because this is a spring tamp with a rim that lays on top of the portafilter, allowing for an even tamp every time. This set also came with a milk frothing pitcher, a Weiss Distribution Technique, or WDT tool to evenly distribute coffee grounds within the protafilter, and a few latte art/decoration tools as an added bonus.
Selecting a Grinder
After selecting my espresso machine, I had to select a coffee grinder. Coffee enthusiasts always say to buy a burr grinder rather than a blade grinder, and there are so many burr grinders on the market today. My main goal when looking for a grinder was to get an electric burr grinder at the lowest possible price, since I have tried manual grinders in the past and I’m much too impatient for them.
I decided on the Grosche Bremen Electric Burr Grinder, which typically goes for $60, but was on sale for $40 at the coffee shop where I work. This grinder has 20 different settings, which honestly makes no sense to me as I have never met anyone who needs that many grind sizes for at-home coffee. But I digress–setting one is the finest, and setting 20 is the coarsest. I had to discover this by grinding my coffee beans because there was no information about it in the instructions manual. I grind my coffee beans on setting 2 for espresso.
The benefit of having a coffee grinder at home as opposed to buy pre-ground coffee is that you can customize the grind size for each brew. It is typically recommended to use 18 grams of coffee per brew, but I couldn’t fit that many grounds into my portafilter without overflowing it, so I stick to 15. My tip is to measure out your coffee beans for each brew instead of pouring them all into the hopper and grinding them at once.
Storing Coffee Beans
Coffee beans are best kept in a cool, dry, dark area, as exposure to air, light, moisture, and heat take away from the wonderful flavor of coffee we all love. The National Coffee Association recommends storing coffee beans in an opaque, airtight container to help preserve freshness.
I couldn’t find the exact containers I bought to store my coffee, but they are similar to these ceramic containers at Walmart.
Now that I had all of the components, I was finally able to make my latte–this is the fun part! I measured my coffee beans, ground them up, tamped them down in the portafilter, and watched my beautiful espresso shot dispensed into my cup. I then steamed my milk and tried to make some latte art.
This was the first latte I made at home. The latte art isn't too bad!
The most fun part of making lattes at home is getting to post photos on social media to show all of your friends how cool you are.
I hope you enjoyed reading my insights into making espresso at home. Have a great day!