• Always use the same amount of coffee. We use 19.5 grams of coffee per double shot. How do you know if you have 19.5 grams? Right! Use a scale. I’d rather have a coffee scale. These scales even weigh after the decimal point. If you use a different amount of coffee every time, you can’t expect the same quality espresso every time. So this is a very important step to make the perfect espresso.
• Grind the coffee beans and drop the ground coffee into your portafilter. If the portafilter is full, but not all the coffee is in your filter carrier yet, tap the portafilter gently against the counter so that the coffee settles. After this, you let the rest of the coffee fall into the portafilter until you have 19.5 grams.
• Distribute the coffee evenly over your filter basket. You can do this with your finger by moving over your filter basket or you can use a distribution tool. When the coffee is divided, take the tamper and press the coffee firmly. Make sure that the tamper is straight and the coffee is pressed equally hard everywhere. If you tamp at an angle, the water will not flow through evenly. The coffee will then not give off all the flavor and will not taste as it should.
• After tamping, remove the coffee grains that are on the edge of the portafilter.
• Place a cup on your scale and tare, move the scale to the drip tray of your espresso machine
• Place the portafilter in the grouphead of your espresso machine and open the water supply. At the same time, turn on a timer. The water does not come out of the portafilter yet, but it is already in contact with the coffee; pre-infusion.
• Place the (heated) cup(s) under the outlet on the scale. As soon as the coffee in your portafilter is wet enough and can no longer hold the water, espresso will run out of the portafilter.
• When the scale shows 40 grams, you can close the water supply. Some espresso drips from your portafilter. You should now have 45 ml of espresso in 25-30 sec. This is the perfect espresso for this coffee.
• If the espresso brewing time takes less than 25 seconds, you set the grind finer. This slows down the espresso brewing process.
• If the process took longer than 30 seconds, you can increase the grinding degree. This speeds up the brewing of the espresso.
• You can also influence the taste of your espresso by using slightly more or less grams of ground coffee. Your coffee will be slightly fuller and more intense in taste if you use 0.5 gram more coffee and the opposite happens if you use 0.5 gram less coffee.

When dial in the espresso, it is important that you know what type of coffee you are dealing with. That is why it is important that you can read the label of a coffee bag. A dark roast will always have more bitter notes and a lighter roast will always taste slightly more sour than a dark coffee. So know what to expect when you buy a coffee.

Once you’ve found your coffee’s settings, write them down somewhere. If you want to buy the same coffee again, you already have all the settings at hand. These variables are useful to note: the name of the roaster, the name of the coffee, grind size (which position the grinder is set to), how many grams of coffee you used, how long it took before the coffee was brewed and how many grams espresso you brewed.

You may have brewed the coffee perfectly but you don’t like the coffee very much. Then that coffee bean is not your taste. There are many different types of coffee beans that all have their own taste. Just try a coffee from another country or continent.