A perfect Espresso is really hard to come by.

Making a good Espresso (espresso espresso) is one of the most challenging "activities" for both coffee lovers at home and a veteran Barista in a cafe. A perfect espresso can be called a combination of art (the craftsmanship of the producer) and technology (the design of the coffee machine) like a well-recorded record. I often tell my customers that extracting a perfect Espresso is like playing the piano. With an expensive coffee machine (piano), it takes someone who knows coffee (music) to extract (play) the perfect coffee (the melody that touches the heart).

Dr. Dr.A. Illy in his book (Espresso Coffee: The Chemistry of Quality, publisher: Academic Press (October 1995) ISBN: 012370670X) once said that after many experiments, * he * defined making a good Espresso as: using 7g freshly ground coffee powder, using water at a temperature of about 91C under the pressure of 9Bar, a cup of coffee drink about 30ml should be extracted for about 25 seconds, and the surface of the coffee should be covered with a layer of reddish brown foam (Crema). His "indicators" have now been basically recognized by everyone. It sounds like quantified conditions and no special requirements, but it's not easy to achieve. This is because, excluding machine and human factors, the coffee bean itself is also a natural product, each variety, every batch of harvest, the best performance of each kind of mixed grinding, the requirements of water temperature and filling pressure are not necessarily the same as those mentioned in Dr. Erie's book or any of the indicators. It also needs the experience of the producer and constant experiments to get it. However, the domestic coffee materials are very limited, and the culture of coffee bar practitioners, especially their foreign language proficiency, is generally poor, so it is difficult to read excellent foreign materials, and the coffee knowledge and level of all domestic baristas are also quite mixed.

1. To extract a perfect Espresso, you need to meet at least the following hard conditions

Fresh coffee beans: fresh is the last word, famous beans are famous, but stale famous beans lose their fragrance impolitely. As far as Espresso is concerned, the coffee extracted from stale coffee beans, the consistency of coffee, the thickness of Cream, the color will be seriously affected, and its taste will be greatly reduced. Our experience is that coffee roasters are required to pack small quantities of coffee beans, strictly seal open coffee beans and keep them away from light and low temperature. Never use coffee beans that have been opened for more than seven days to ensure the perfection of every cup of coffee.

Strictly freshly ground coffee powder: Espresso requires strict fineness of the ground powder, and once the coffee is ground, the flavor can only be preserved for no more than an hour. So, if you go to a cafe and don't hear the sound of grinding beans after ordering coffee, chances are you'll get an imperfect cup of coffee.

Accurate and flat filling and pressing: use the standard amount of coffee powder. In the international industry experience, it is generally believed that when extracting Espresso, the quality of two cups extracted at the same time is more perfect than that of one cup alone. Filling coffee powder needs to be flat, smooth and the power of pressing powder should always be (at 30-50 pounds), and the methods and techniques of pressing powder should be obtained.

Unfortunately, in the recent Chengdu coffee competition, the vast majority of baristas made low-level mistakes in mastering the key skill of packing. I have seen that many baristas press the coffee powder when the coffee powder is not even. Regardless of whether his power of pressing the powder is correct or not, the direction and flatness of the pressing powder alone cannot be guaranteed. Why is smooth and accurate power so important? Because the extraction process of espresso is subjected to the water pressure of 9Bar pressure, a smooth, smooth and uniform pressing powder is the premise of extracting a perfect cup of Espresso. In the extraction of modern espresso, many key stages can be accomplished by expensive coffee machines, so the biggest test of the skill requirements of today's baristas lies in powder loading and packing. However, it is a pity that many baristas are very rough. There are also many popular genres and innovations in the world, and I personally prefer and use George Sabados's Dosing up technique.

Strict extraction time and quantity: the beauty of concentration. When it comes to Espresso, many people may mistakenly think that the more the better, in fact, it is not. I've seen a lot of bar staff pick up Espresso with large 4-ounce cups (sometimes larger cups) and don't stop extracting until the cup is full. The correct amount of extraction should be between 1 and 1.25 ounces. In addition, if you do not want to do Double or Ristretto, please use an ounce cup to measure the correct amount of extraction.

The most basic time to cook a Single Espresso should be between 20 and 30 seconds (I try to think that about an ounce in 25 seconds is the best performance).

A standard double espresso is made of 14,17g coffee, using 88-95 ℃ of pure water, at 9-10 atmospheric pressure, and 47-62.5 milliliters (1.5-2 ounces) is extracted in 22-28 seconds. Espresso flows out of the filter mouth like warm honey, it has an ochre red color, of which crema accounts for 1030% of all ingredients.

two。 Perfect Espresso discrimination point

Look: the standard amount of a cup of perfect Single Espresso is to extract an ounce of coffee essence in 25 seconds.

Look at the appearance of Crema: a perfect Italian coffee espresso, the surface is always thick, brown red Krima crema, Krima crema is the protein, oil and other aromatic components extracted from the coffee under high pressure, is the essence of coffee concentrate. Perfect espresso, perfect Krima crema must be at least as thick as 4mm, and can't be broken by blowing gently. In the case of correct operation, if it becomes golden or even white, it means that the coffee has been kept for too long and expired; if you can repeat the duration of drinking after baking, it is a week of good preservation. The Krima crema floating on the surface can also judge the espresso operation, if the color is a little yellowish or white, the amount is very small, and the coffee flows out too fast, which indicates that the extraction pressure is too small and the extraction is insufficient, which requires finer grinding, tighter and more uniform filling pressure to increase the resistance of the coffee cake. If the color is too dark, the outflow is not coherent, or even drips out, which indicates that the extraction resistance is too high and the pressure is too high for the extraction transition, but for the whole cake, it is not enough extraction, which is caused by too fine powder, too tight powder and too much powder.

Smell: the perfect espresso should have a pleasant aroma and should never have a charred taste. If there is a charred taste, it is a pity that what you drink is a cup of over-extracted espresso.

Product: the perfect espresso should be thick, the taste will not be simply bitter, it may have a bitter taste but a combination of aromatic or sour taste, which is mainly related to the blending of coffee beans.

3. How to taste a cup of Espresso

Espresso is the most fragrant coffee in the world. You need to drink a cup of water and embellish your mouth before tasting it. The basic tasting method is to smell first, espresso has a strong and charming aroma and should be well immersed, and then there is a variety of styles of Espresso, which can be determined according to personal preferences. Basically, there are two kinds, one is to drink it in one sip, the other is to drink it a little first, and then drink it in one sip. There is a difference in the way and feeling of each taste. Basically, you can taste the comprehensive taste of espresso in one mouthful, while the layered taste of espresso can be tasted in different times. If you drink a perfect cup of espresso, you can easily feel the obvious and flamboyant difference between it and any other coffee you've had. The perfect espresso allows you to return to your mouth for 20-30 minutes after drinking.

4. The most fragrant coffee that does not affect sleep.

It may be the influence of friendship long-term instant coffee and the development of domestic coffee culture. Many people think that coffee is extremely harmful to sleep. So here I would like to use the words of international authorities to state the caffeine content of espresso.

The amount of caffeine in espresso is not higher than that of other coffee because it tastes strong. Caffeine is a tasteless, water-soluble white powder that has a certain excitatory effect. According to coffeeresearch.org 's research, caffeine is not addictive. The content of caffeine in espresso is the lowest of all coffee practices. Because in the production process, coffee and water contact time is the shortest. The caffeine content of Espresso is about 1 × 4 of the caffeine content of ordinary coffee and 8-1 10 of the caffeine content of instant coffee.

When we have a perfect cup of espresso, we can make all kinds of coffee that are popular all over the world like Cappuccino,Moka and Latte on the basis of espresso.

The last point is:

The machine is not a good espresso the most important key! The person who operates the machine is! We call the expert who operates the espresso machine barista.

What's the secret of being a good barista? The answer is: pay attention to the relationship between parameter and coffee in your mouth, and try to control all the details and try to get the best results.