Six ways to improve your Espresso Coffee from your coffee machine

A Coffee Bean Shop customer asked me today how they can improve the quality of the espresso in the cup. I thought this information might be helpful to someone else, so i would like to share it with you.
The question asked:

I own a breville espresso machine with a non pressurised basket. The coffee espresso drips out over 30mls in fifteen seconds or less. I use the small plastic tamp that came with my machine.The problem is that I don't get good quality crema in espresso.

And the reply is;

Hi,

The lack of crema in your espresso can be for varied reasons;

• coffee beans purchased from the supermarket and other stale coffee beans will lack crema - it can be very difficult to obtain fresh roasted coffee beans from any shopfront or cafe.
• the grind setting you select plays a large part. You might find that a finer grind is what is needed. 
  
• a better tamp feels better in your hand, and can give you a better distribution of coffee in the basket, but the main thing is that you are using one - even the one that came with your machine is fine.

Consistency is your friend with the following;

• you will need 14 grams of ground coffee in the basket. You dont have to measure it, aim for a heaped hump sitting ontop of the basket. usually any extra will naturally fall off the sides of the basket anyway.
  
• tamp with around fifteen kilograms of pressure. If you have bathroom scales at your place, try practicing ontop of the scales to get an idea of what 15kg of pressure feels like
• aim for 30 seconds of espresso pour in the cup.
  

Iif you do all of these things, then the only thing you then need to adjust is your grind. If you get too much coffee in the cup over 30 seconds, your grind is too coarse. if you dont get enough coffee, your coffee is too fine. You are then able to repeat knowing that most everything else is consistent.


I hope that helps. let me know how you get on.