Making espresso at home

Mutters the “It’s been a long time coming.” Taylor Swift lyric. If you know, you know.

A few weeks ago, a friend showed me their espresso machine on a Zoom call. I was curious. I have not explored espresso to a great extent (besides the odd, failed experiment with the Flair Neo manual machine). I started to dream about the idea of being able to make a cappuccino at home.

Last week, I purchased a home espresso machine: the Sage (a.k.a. Breville) Bambino. Coming with a small form factor and all the features you need to make espresso and milky coffee drinks at home – this author says mmm cappuccinos, in the voice of Homer Simpson as he writes this sentence – the machine was highly recommended as a home espresso machine.

This purchase comes after spending the last few years making filter coffee at home. During this time, I have had many adventures. I developed a greater appreciation for the complexity of flavours in coffee. I learned about extraction and how different variables – temperature, brew time, grind size – impact brewing. Brewing coffee was an outlet for me to be curious that was far away from technology. I learned to appreciate more flavours. I learned that, as with all things made well, good coffee cannot be rushed.

My learning of coffee over the years set a good foundation for my exploration of espresso. I knew some theory – which I have dabbled throughout this post, mentioning terms like “extraction” and referring to the right grind sizes to use – but had no hands-on skills. Indeed, coffee-making is a hands-on skill. A delightful challenge was afoot.

Brewing with an espresso machine has been a refreshing reminder of how vast the world of coffee is, and how many skills you can develop. When you watch a few baristas making espressos and cappuccinos on YouTube, it is easy to get caught up in how so many treat coffee: as a craft. Their skills, acquired through extensive practice, make intricate tasks – steaming milk, getting an espresso just right – look almost natural. But to get to that level of skill, one must learn.

The first coffee I made with my new machine was… a mess. I decided to make a cappuccino. Brewing the espresso part owentay, although the coffee was ground more coarsely than I should have. I started at ~25-30 on the Niche Zero grinder, then learned that a finer setting was more appropriate. I now use ~20-25 for espressos. I knew the grind size was off because the shot “pulled” (the water fell through the coffee and into the cup) faster than it should have. I was excited about learning! Next step: steam the milk for my coffee.

I learned a few valuable lessons:

1. Purge your steam wand before use. This involves activating the steam wand over your drip tray to remove any moisture.
2. Put the steam wand into the milk before starting to steam. I put the jug into the steam wand after turning it on. This was a big mistake. Milk went everywhere. Your wand should never be far away from the surface of the milk, lest the steam pushes the milk out and everywhere.
3. Do not pull a steam wand away from a jug until the steam wand has deactivated.
4. Always wipe your steam wand with a wet microfilter rag as soon as you have steamed your milk. This will ensure crusty milk does not built up on your steam wand. As with all cooking, baking, and coffee brewing: clean as you go.

After making a mess of steaming the milk, I ended up with a drink that was tasty. The milk was, in hindsight, too foamy, but I was proud: I made a milk drink with espresso and a steam wand.

Over the last few days, I have brewed several coffees. I am getting incrementally better at steaming milk and making espresso. I have found almost the right grind setting for my coffee. My coffees taste okay, but sometimes the taste is uneven (i.e. bitter or subtle sour notes). This could be a sign of poor puck preparation, where the water is finding “channels” through the puck during brewing. In this scenario, a lot of the coffee is not properly extracted, leading to a taste that is slightly more bitter or sour than is expected.

My shots take ~20 seconds to pull. Ideally, an espresso should take ~25-30 seconds to pull. This is a sign of “good extraction” if I recall correctly. Extraction refers to how many of the flavours you want out of the coffee have flowed through into the resulting coffee. My grind size is too coarse, I think. More testing will be needed. (With that said, one time, I set the grind size too fine. The espresso “choked”. This is when water cannot push through the puck of coffee. In this situation, I stopped the water flowing, removed the (muddy) puck of coffee, and had to grind coffee for a new shot.)

I am getting incrementally better. I steamed some milk today that had the right amount of foam for a flat white: fine foam, not as much as you would need for a cappuccino or a latte (which both take a lot of foam). The shot of espresso still was not quite right, though. I still have a lot to learn! I am having fun learning, practicing, and refining. I look forward to documenting my journey as I continue learning.