I’m using this recently acquired bad boy here to brew my espresso (bought it for $40 used), after having used a nespresso capsule machine for a few years.
I have a bit of a hard time brewing a consistent Espresso with it though. Often the flow is absolutely terrible, and barely any water flows through the coffee, despite using the exact same amount of beans. I measure on a scale with 0.01g accuracy, not my regular kitchen weight.
Is the grind consistency really what’s messing it up for me? I’m using one of those “blender style” grinders at the moment and it has served me just fine for French press in the past, but I know they’re terrible for controlling the fineness of the grind.
You’re going to have a really hard time with consistency using a blade grinder. It will never really allow you to grind fine enough and the distribution of the size of the grounds will be wide.
The grinder is the first piece of the puzzle that I’d address.
I completely concur. Step one is to upgrade to a burr grinder—manual will be cheaper, electric more expensive. You’ll want something for espresso, ideally with stepless adjustments.
Yeah I thought so, got any recommendations? I would probably go for a manual grinder if you say they’re cheaper.
They are cheaper, but I would hesitate on going with a manual grinder if your primary use is Espresso. As someone who has used a hand grinder for their pour overs daily for years now, I can tell you that there’s a HUGE difference between hand grinding daily for pour over vs espresso. Because you’ll need to grind much finer for espresso, it takes significantly more effort/time to hand grind a shot of espresso than it does for a pour over. And FORGET about doing it for a group of friends/family if you ever intend to host anything.
I would probably go for something like the Baratza Encore at a minimum. I know, given that you got your espresso machine for $15, the prospect of spending 100+ dollars on a grinder might seem steep… But believe me, you’ll need something that can grind fine enough for espresso with a decent particle distribution. You’ll never get there with a blade grinder.
Yeah that specific grinder is unfortunately around $200 new where I live, which is quite a bit more than I’m currently willing to spend, but I will look in to what I can find used.
As PurpleReign mentioned, a hand grinder will be taxing, but I’m also aware many people find it meditative. Buying a purpose-built espresso grinder will be easier than an all purpose or filter-built one. If you’re keeping to the budget spectrum, look at 1zpresso or Kingrinder.
I use a Kingrinder K4 which, when I bought it 4-6 months ago was the cheapest espresso capable hand grinder I could find. It only takes about a minute to grind 18g for a shot and I normally make 2-4 shots a day. They have cheaper grinders, such as the K0 but I’m not sure if they’d be consistent enough or have a sufficient granularity of adjustment to dial in an espresso.
I know you don’t want to spend too much but there’s also no point buying something that misses the mark in terms of the grind you need for the espresso you want. When I was looking at grinders for espresso I narrowed it down to the 1zspresso J-Max for a hand grinder or the Baratza Encore ESP for a machine grinder. Both are a bit more expensive than the basic options but give much more versatility for dialing in grinds.
Completely agree, no point in spending half now if I’m just replacing it with the more expensive option in a few months…damn it, this is getting expensive 😅
People have already chimed in on grinder and they’ve hit the nail on the head.
You could also try going the pressurized or flow control portafilter route.
Yup. If OP is unwilling to hundreds on a grinder the only other options are the pressurized basket or just not use the machine. OK I guess the steam wand could be used for cooking eggs…
Blade grinders make for really inconsistent distribution. I had the same problem with a very similar espresso machine and ended up throwing it in the garage and moved on to pour over after upgrading my grinder.
It made a whole world of difference once I moved from my Lidl blade grinder to a porlex mini (wouldn’t recommend for espresso). Then another world after upgrading to a 1zpresso JX (cost me about 140$ plus shipping). Other people might know better but 1zpresso also have a budget grinder that might fit your budget…
Another thing I’d recommend is buying pre-ground coffee and seeing if that works for you.
And to piggyback this post with my own related question, would I be able to brew a good cup of coffee with the machine OP posted when using coffee, ground with my JX? I don’t really have much counter space for an espresso machine but I was curious…
my instant coffee is consistent with every cup.
