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.
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.