New category

Am I starting to take this too seriously already, when I've just barely started? From now on my Espresso experiments will be in their own category, aptly named "Espresso".

Yesterday evening and this morning I achieved several horrible things from the espressomachine, and two reasonably drinkable cappuccinos. When I got home I thought I'd give a try and make a new attempt at finding the right tamping and grinding. I ground a bit of beans, they looked okay, and it was time to put them to the test. I'm still very inconsistent with the tamping power, and the double shot came thru in 10 seconds. Terrible. I cleaned the filter and group head, let things heat up a bit, and tried again. Tamping harder, much harder, and a full cup in 15 seconds. It still tasted terrible and undrinkable.

I switched to a preground coffee, Hacendado Espresso Natural. Clean up, 2 measures of coffee into filter, tamp, brew, half a cup of black ooze in 30 seconds. Oops, tamped too much. Try again with a lighter, more controlled tamp. Press the switch, buzzing sound, nothing comes out for a few moments, just like the previous cup of tar. A black drop. A narrow stream quickly turning to dark amber. 25 seconds after the first drop the crema is 5mm below the rim, meaning 75ml, good loking crema, pleasant scent.



Definitely an improvement from the morning brews, and the best espresso I've made so far.