Hey, did you know that I have 56 videos on YouTube for you to peruse and point and laugh at. Most of them are original content, too.

The Boyfriend breaks down some specifics on espresso making in the comments, and I thought it was worth making a whole post about. As a coffee lover, this kind of stuff fascinates me:

[The term] “pulling” [an espresso] comes from the older machines that had a lever that you would pull down to force the water through the grounds. Most modern machines have a pump to force the water through, so instead of pulling anything, the water comes out after you push a little button.

The “best” extraction time varies depending on the beans used, but at Portland Brew, for example, we aimed for 22-30 seconds. That’s the time it takes the pump to shove 2 ounces of 200 degree water through 18 grams of compressed grounds. You can vary the extraction time by changing the amount of grounds used (more grounds take longer), by changing the pressure with which you “tamp” the grounds down into the portafilter (the thingy with a handle that comes off of the machine), or by changing the grind level (finer grounds restrict the water flow more, giving higher extraction times).

The way we trained was to get very consistent at dosing (putting the right amount of grounds in the portafilter) and tamping (cramming the grounds down into the portafilter with about 30lbs of pressure), and to then only change the grind to get the desired extraction. Too many people “set it and forget it”, which is a shame, because extraction times can vary from something as simple as the room getting warmer or more humid during your shift. Good baristas will make small adjustments often, and will taste their shots often.

On those old-school machines, the operator can vary the pressure of the water during the extraction, which takes crazy skills that only someone like this guy has. Some of the cutting-edge espresso weirdos have modified modern pump-driven machines to be able to make these adjustments.

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