I have a Delonghi Stilosa machine with the steam wand outer piece removed so only the actual wand is present, I have tried doing techniques based on videos but no matter what I try the result is always extra foamy. I'm sure it's probably due to the wand itself but it's there anything else I can try to reduce the amount of foam?

One of the local shoppes has an arcade style room in the back, perfect for a family day. The adults get their coffee, beit espresso or brew, and the children get their blended chocolate milks or whatnots.

I got my regular, espresso macchiato, and it was delicious! This shoppe seriously knows how to 'pull' it off (get it? Pull? Like a shot). I'll let myself out...

Hi all! Happy to find this community!

Just wondering if some might be willing to help with some confusion I've had.

I was talking to someone here (Masto actually) about the best forms of coffee, and espresso hadn't been mentioned. So I said, how about just espresso ... clearly the best form of coffee.

They responded with "I don't like dark roasts". And I said it sounds like you just haven't had good espresso and that you don't need to have use dark roasts with espresso, as it can be quite light, floral and fruity. They didn't seem to like what I said and didn't respond.

This person comes from Canada, and I come from Melbourne Aus. From what I know, we have different coffee culture from Canada, or at least used compared to the US. For instance, I'd never really seen espresso be tightly bound with the "dark roasts".

Naturally, being a snob, my impression was that this person and their coffee culture don't know what good espresso can be, but I truly don't know what's going on over there.

Any insights?!

EDIT: This conversation was much more polite than this ... I was just trying to summarise it and the feeling I had that they didn't quite appreciate that I thought there was more to explore in espresso than what they knew.

Otherwise ... thanks to those who answered and more or less confirmed my suspicion that some think espresso must be made from dark-roasts but it's not true and one's understanding is probably due to what they've been exposed to.

First pull of Archetype Brazil beans. Very sweet tasting shot. 20g in, 42.5g out in 32 seconds. Not bad for first try, but definitely some room for improvement.

About a year ago I bought a quickmill carola https://www.quickmill.it/en/products/lever-group/carola-mod-0960/.

In general it's not a bad machine; I like the E61 system, I'm happy with the PID and it's compact and looks ok. I absolutely hate the vibration pump, though. It takes 10-15 seconds from activating the pump to get to max pressure which is a significant of my shot time. I havn't found a great way to deal with it and I'm close to get a different machine just because of the pump.

Does anyone have a vibration pump and is happy with it? Is there some technique you're using with the E61 to get around it maybe?

I was prepping an Americano, and the Peet's Major Dickason had a stick in it. I have never seen this before on a national brand like Peet's.

I'm still dialing it in, but at 11.36g in / 41.73g out, it was pretty good. Still not there, but closer than I thought on the first pull. I vaguely taste a fruit (apple maybe?) and some cacao. Not so much milk chocolate, as stated on the bag, and it's a bit more acidic that I would expect from this roaster, but both of those points could be just it not being dialed in yet.

Following another user's advice, I pulled this shot longer than the standard, to 41.45g (11.36g in).

This is the same super acidic Blue Blottle Bright from earlier, but this was so much less acidity. I can't say it was a great shot, as I must just not be a fan of Blue Blottle (or, at least, this blend), but it much much better. I wouldn't mind having this one again.

To get more into espresso i finally got a used gaggia classic and upgraded it with a replacement controller running the open source gaggiuino project.

Fully with loadcell scales, pressure sensor, pid temperature control and a hand soldered all in one pcb.

You can also use standard arduino style modules for most components but the pcb makes it much more compact and reliable.

In this case the modifications are fully reversible in case a future owner wants to revert it back to stock.

Works great and automates a lot of steps to be more consistent. Now i just need to practice the manual parts of making espresso ;)

Note: this is not my project, i just documented the build process on my machine. Maybe it helps someone to get an overview what goes into such a conversion and inspires more users to attempt it.

The community is already pretty big and many also adapted the project for other machines.

*Seems like the post was synchronized only after editing multiple times

Traditional macchiato and giant (approximately 21cm / 8in diameter) chocolate chip cookie from a local bakery.

Can we make this a thing? I would love to see your setups ;)

Also, I didn't realize how grungy the underside of my espresso machine looked! Going to have to do something about that.

I don't have a proper shot scale, so I had to make due with the $2 Blaze scale that I found at some thrift store a while back. It's propped up on the dosing funnel to help mitigate splashing and further cooling of the liquid.

This little red metal mug was not where the espresso stayed, as the heat would dissipate before I had time to enjoy the drink. That scale has a maximum weight of less than my glass cups, as small as they are.

This was... not ideal. I am now saving for a proper scale.

Title - I'm using lactose free milk right now, but I'm wondering if there are any good milk-free alternatives? I tried using Silk's barista almond milk, but it's sour after being frothed?

Edit: I guess I'll have to try some oat-based alternatives, maybe the problem is with the almond milk.

#Links Google Sheets List of Espresso Machines

Espresso Aficionados - Discord

Espresso Aficionados - Wiki (as of May 2023, this is the most up-to-date resource for machine recommendations and it has a bunch of detailed guides for how to dial in espresso, puck prep & troubleshooting, and more advanced techniques!)

#Espresso 101 Espresso starts with the coffee bean. Fresher is better. As u/Beans_McGhee says, "The beans really need to be roasted within the month you use them for perfect espresso." Store-bought beans are fine, really—but part of the "fun" of espresso is trying different beans.

You grind your coffee beans using a grinder. This sub has lots of opinions on grinders.

The amount of ground coffee you use is called the dose. So when u/SingularLattice says, "Make sure you have the right dose for your basket", that's what he means.

A basket is the little metal cup that goes in your portafilter—that's the metal thing with a handle on it. Espresso machines often come with 4 baskets: a single and a double in both unpressurized and pressurized. Doubles are the larger ones; pressurized variants are a different shape and may say "dual wall" on the bottom.

You would use dual-wall if you are using pre-ground coffee. Almost everyone will make ("pull") double shots—when you get into weights and times, it's all based on a double. So you should likely use the unpressurized (single wall) double basket.

Advanced practitioners will dose by weight. Typically, you'd want ~7g for a single shot and ~18g for a double shot. Automatic grinders may dose by time: this will get you "close enough". Thus, the "single" dose will be around 7g and the "double" will be around 18g. (You can fine-tune these amounts—more on that later.)

Coffee grounds are light and fluffy, but you want them to be compact for espresso, so you tamp them (with your tamper). Advanced practitioners will calibrate their tamping pressure (e.g., with spring-loaded tampers)—don't worry about that. Just give it a reasonable amount of force. If you're putting your whole body weight on your tamper, that's too much.

You will get a feel for the right amount of force. You can also look at the level of the grounds in the basket. Use shape of your tamper or other tool to estimate how much space should be between your (tamped) grounds and the top of the basket.

As u/SingularLattice says, "You need to tamp FLAT, not hard. So long as it’s firm, you’re good."

At the advanced level, preparing espresso is all about ratios, namely weight and time. Generally, you want a 2:1 ratio in about 30 seconds. The 2:1 ratio means the ratio of your dose (i.e., ~18g) to the resulting espresso (i.e., ~36g). The process of brewing espresso is called extraction.

Many espresso machines will do this for you! When you press the double shot button, it will dispense enough water to make the "right" amount of espresso... presuming you're using the right basket and the right dose! With such machines (e.g., the Breville Barista Express, or BBE), what you should do is watch the pressure gauge. It should be in the "espresso range". (Advanced practitioners will measure pressure in bars—you want ~9 bars in an ideal world.)

If the pressure is low, you either need more grounds (higher dose)—which you can get by adjusting the grind amount—or a finer grind—which you can get by adjusting grind size. You may also need to tamp harder, but typically this isn't the problem.

(If your pressure is too high, the inverse is true... but this doesn't happen very often.)

Every bean is different, and so needs different settings to produce a good result—in your case, to keep that pressure dial where you want it. The process of adjusting these different settings is called dialing in.

Your goal here is a well-extracted shot. That's all about how it tastes! Espresso should be sweet and balanced. If it's sour, it's under-extracted (to which you would grind more and/or finer); if it's bitter or astringent, it's over-extracted (to which you would do the opposite).

Everyone here is adjusting all these variables (bean, pressure, grind size, dose, ratio, extraction time, and more) in search of the perfect shot!

(Derived from this post by u/basseq.)

****What espresso machine should I buy? Great question, and a very common one. Generally, there are two key inputs:

****How much do you want to “tinker” with your espresso? Do you want to play with different variables, or just wake up to a good coffee?

****How much do you want to spend?

Espresso can be a very expensive hobby, so the answer to the second question can you get to the best bang for your buck.

Remember that espresso is not just the machine. The other notable expense is the grinder, which can be as much as—if not more expensive—than the machine itself. There’s also some key accessories (notably a scale) and the cost of good coffee itself ($15+/lb).

#Recommendations by Budget ##<$500 – Bare Bones

If you’re looking to step up from a Nespresso or just drink less Starbucks, start here. There are really two ways to go:

Manual ($250–$300) – Flair Neo ($125) + 1Zpresso JX ($130).

Automatic ($450–$500) – Breville Bambino ($350) + Baratza Encore ($170).

The DeLonghi Dedica ($350) is also a solid choice. For grinders, you can also check out the Breville Dose Control ($150), or upgrade to the 1Zpresso J-Max ($230). The Sette 30 ($300) and Mignon Notte ($320) grinders are solid, but may put you above $500.

If you’re really looking to do espresso on the cheap, forego the grinder and work with pressurized portafilters on the Neo or Bambino. Many of us started with things like the DeLonghi EC155 ($100), but it’s hard to recommend.

Keep in mind that the espresso you get in a cafe was ground on a grinder that cost around $2000 and brewed on a machine that cost at least $15,000. You can't shrink all of that into a sub $300 setup without a huge loss of quality. –u/MyCatsNameIsBernie

##$500–900 – Entry Level

If you think you’re “serious” about espresso, this may be a better entry point than above, which you might outgrow sooner than later. There are two common choices here:

All-In-One – Breville Barista Express ($750) or Pro ($850). While the community sees the built-in grinder as the weak spot (no upgrade path), and long-term reliability can be spotty, it an easy and popular entry point into the prosumer market.

Separate Setup ($800–900) – Gaggia Classic Pro ($500) + Baratza Sette 270 ($400) – The Gaggia is a classic and time-tested, with lots of options in the used market.

Something like a Bambino Plus ($500) or Lelit Anna ($570) might also work. There are a lot of good grinders in this range: the DF64 ($400), Eureka Mignon Silenzio ($470), Baratza Vario ($480), and Rancilio Rocky ($430) are all well-regarded.

If you’re strapped for cash, the r/espresso guidance is to prioritize the grinder. Better to run a cheaper machine (Bambino/Dedica) with a nicer grinder than the other way around.

##$900–$1,500 – The Standard

The endgame for many people, this range is probably the “sweet spot” for great espresso without going over the deep-end.

The r/espresso Standard – Rancilio Silvia ($850) + Niche Zero ($680) – The Silvia is a classic, moddable, and can be found used. For this price range, the alternate choice might be something like a Lelit Glenda ($900), or pairing a Gaggia with a nicer grinder. For grinders, ECM and Profitec both have offerings ($550), Baratza Vario W+ ($600), Eureka Mignon Specialita ($700), or any of the ones in the previous category. You can start mixing and matching machines and features and specs.

##$1,500–3,000 – Prosumer

We’re getting heavily into the “prosumer” market now, and there are less common machine+grinder pairings, so we’ll start looking at them separately.

Machines – Profitec Pro ($1,800), ECM Classika ($1,600), Lelit Elizabeth ($1,700), Rocket Appartamento ($1,700). The land of shiny chrome and lots of knobs. The Breville Dual Boiler ($1,600) is in this range too.

Grinders – Mazzer Mini ($800), Mahlkonig X54 ($750), Eureka Oro ($800).

##$3,000+ – Dream Machines

From here, it’s dream machine land and the art of the possible. If you’re asking, “What should I buy,” you probably shouldn’t start here.

Machines – Lelit Bianca ($2,900), ECM Synchronika ($3,200), Decent DE1 ($3,500), plus some offerings from Isomac, Rocket, Elektra, or Nuova Simonelli. You get into true “endgame” machines like La Marzocco Linea Mini ($5,900) or Slayer Single Group ($10,000).

Grinders – Eureka Atom 75 ($1,400), Mahlkonig E65S ($2,300), KafaTek Monolith Flat ($2,500), Weber EG-1 ($3,700).##