How much coffee does the espresso grind make? Correctly making espresso course

Every day the coffee shop is busy with the preparation work before opening, one of which is very important to debug espresso. Earlier, a friend asked how fine the coffee powder used in the espresso machine is.

The problem of grindability of espresso

For drip-filter coffee such as hand-made coffee and ice droplets, the ground particles will be thicker, and we can also use a sieve to identify them. But the espresso machine requires that the degree of grinding be as fine as possible, and the naked eye looks like dust.

And there are also two problems with the degree of grinding of espresso, one is that the requirements of different espresso machines are also slightly different, and the other is that the bean grinder is ground into such a fine powder, the knife head is prone to wear, and obvious wear will affect the fineness of the bean grinder.

Especially for the first reason, in the case that some guests have an Italian coffee machine but do not have a bean grinder, Qianjie can only grind according to the grinding scale used by the guests in the front street. there will be different specifications of coffee machines, resulting in grinding degrees that cannot be accurately matched at 100%. (the following will talk about the relationship between the degree of grinding and the machine.)

Why do you need to be polished frequently?

The "frequent" here is compared with hand brewing, in which the grinding scale of each coffee bean is basically fixed, while the grinding degree of Italian coffee is adjusted at least 1-2 times a day.

The reason is that under the influence of the air pressure and humidity of the day, coupled with the fineness of the bean grinder, the ground coffee powder does not seem to have changed to the naked eye, but buckle the coffee machine and press the extraction button to show whether it is thick or thin at once. So we have to debug the Italian bean grinder every day to match the "hypocritical" coffee machine (after all, it has half the say in whether espresso is good or not).

So how to adjust the grinding degree suitable for espresso

In the daily debugging of espresso, most of the parameters are only the degree of grinding, and the adjustment of grinding is often only so inconspicuous 0.1 grid.

Before grinding, we need to make clear several goals: first, why we need grinding, because the extracted espresso does not meet our preset requirements, including extraction parameters and flavor. Second, when grinding, other parameters should be kept unchanged as much as possible, such as skilled cloth powder pressing skills, the same amount of powder, otherwise your grinding will be full of uncertainties.

The structure of the Italian bean grinder is generally horizontal flat knife, and there will be a scale adjustment disc on the outside, which is engraved with a scale. The larger the value, the thicker the grinding. For example, the Pegasus bean grinder used in the former street hovered between 1.5 and 2.5 in Italian style.

In the daily debugging, we will abide by the principle of an extraction formula, that is, the amount of powder, extraction coffee liquid and extraction time. The amount of powder and coffee liquid form a powder-to-liquid ratio relationship, usually at 1:2, and the extraction time is between 20-30 seconds.

For example, Qianjie used 20 grams of powder to extract 40 grams of coffee liquid in an extraction, which took 18 seconds, which is obviously fast, that is, the coffee powder is thicker, so it needs to be adjusted fine, and because the difference between 18 seconds and 20-30 seconds is not very big, so the adjustment can be adjusted 0.1-0.2 bars. Qianjie fine-tuned 0.2 frames, the extraction time is 23 seconds, which is in line with the extraction formula, but it is not necessarily good, so we have to taste, find out deficiencies, and then fine-tune.

For example, Qianjie used 20 grams of powder to extract 40 grams of coffee liquid in an extraction, which took 48 seconds, and the first drop of coffee liquid did not appear until 15 seconds later. Under the condition that there is no problem in determining the amount of powder and pressing powder, it is determined that the coffee powder is too fine, and the resistance of the coffee powder is so great that the water cannot penetrate the powder layer. Therefore, it needs to be thickened, and because the distance from 20-30 seconds is too far away, you can first thicken 0.5 lattice to observe the extraction time, slowly adjust it, generally need 2-3 times of extraction to determine.

Suggestions on the extraction of household Italian machines

Many players are equipped with espresso machines and bean grinders at home, but the amount of taste is relatively small, about 1-2 cups a day, so it is obviously a waste of money and money to concentrate 2-3 times a day for such 1-2 cups. Just give me a few suggestions on the previous street.

1. The powder load is the maximum recommended powder capacity of the powder bowl. For example, the reasonable capacity of the powder bowl used in Qianjie is 18-20g, and the powder load of 20g will be more stable.

two。 Due to the small amount of products usually produced, the impact on the wear problem of the mill will not be too great, so just adjust the degree of grinding and record it when it is used for the first time. Usually extract one cup or two cups according to that grinding scale, the ratio of powder to liquid at 1:2, and the time is controlled in 20-30 seconds.

Some people will ask, the difference between 20 and 30 seconds is 10 seconds. If one cup is extracted for 20 seconds and the other for 30 seconds, is there a big difference between them? First of all, it is certain that there is a difference, but it is basically within the scope of qualified concentrated extraction. If you do not drink espresso alone, but need to add milk to make latte, or add water to make American coffee, the difference will be greatly narrowed. If it is not for academic research, there will not be much negative feelings in the taste of flavor.