Most coffee most people are familiar with is known as brewed coffee, or drip coffee. To make this kind of coffee, you’ll most likely pile a bunch of ground coffee into a coffee maker, and water will drip through the grounds into a coffee pot. Espresso is prepared a little differently.
Ideally, you’ll want to start with whole bean coffee instead of pre-ground. You’ll need a quality burr grinder, also, to grind your coffee fresh. Make sure the grind is very fine, similar to granulated sugar. Then, you’ll need an espresso machine to brew the coffee. Take the portafilter off the machine (sometimes referred to as the brewing handle), and put 18 grams of ground coffee into the basket. With a tamper, you can apply level, even pressure to flatten and compress the ground coffee into a puck. Then, flip the brewing lever. The machine will brew under pressure (lots of pressure) to extract bold flavor compounds from the coffee bed, and form the iconic, aromatic layer of foam and soluble oils that crowns your drink, known as crema. The brewing process should take about 20 to 25 seconds and dispense about 2 ounces of espresso.
When you get a little more advanced in your knowledge, you can take advantage of brew ratios, which is a different form of recipe that’s great for getting consistent, repeatable results. A brew ratio compares the weight of the coffee grounds used (measured in grams) to the goal weight of brewed espresso (also measured in grams). In this case, a very popular brew ratio is 1:2. So, if you’re using 18 grams of ground coffee, you should be aiming for 36 grams of espresso.
