im a huge believer in the age old 80/20 rule, that is to say in almost every aspect of life you can get 80% of maximum with 20% of the effort – you may know it as the law of diminishing returns
get back to basics if you are having trouble:
- weigh the amount of coffee you put in the portafilter basket (8g for a single, 16g for a double)
- time your shots (27 seconds from the moment the coffee leaves the portafilter) and pull the cup out before it goes blond
- use a proper espresso cup that holds about 80mL maximum, pre-heat it with hot water for 10s then empty it, and when your 27 seconds are up the top of the crema should be about 10mm down from the rim of the cup
you can argue about whether it should be 8g or 7g or 10g, or whether it should be 27s, 25s, 30s or some other number. it doesn’t matter, the values we have suggested above will put you in the zone for an espresso that you can be proud to serve
i am tempted to add a 4th step, which is always throw out the first shot – i don’t know of any machine (not just espresso machine) that makes the very first component within tolerance. I know this from running CNC lathes & machining centres as a part time job when at university – at 05:30 in the morning the machines were turned on and left to cycle with no product in the chuck for half an hour while the machine warmed up and came into tolerance – the machine operators turned the machines on as they entered the factory, then went and had their breakfast and got changed into overalls. I still remember asking why it was done and being surprised. Its basically true for all things mechanical.
The rules above apply equally to DeLonghi bean to cup machines, but few people seem to bother and then wonder why the results are ho-hum
So while you can’t weigh the coffee you can set it to ‘extra-strong’ – as an aside i think this is a daft dumbing down, and hope the DeLonghi machines of the future allow you to specify the dose in grams, perhaps having a ‘Pro’ mode to switch the machine into if DeLonghi think it will be a bit too much for the average owner. Its isn’t just DeLonghi that take this high/medium/low approach, they all seem to do it
Time your shot, just as above, although you might have to settle on something more like 22/23s, as bean to cups seem to go from 20s extraction to over 30s (drip, drip, drip) very easily, especially if the roast is too fresh
An espresso cup is just as important on a bean to cup machine, as is pre-heating it, which you can do when the machine does its pre-shot rinse with hot water – just leave it in the cup for 20s, tip out, dry, and push the button for your shot while the internals are still nice and warm from the rinse cycle
The simplistic approach outlined above is not suggesting that additional steps won’t take your espresso from the 80th percentile upwards, its just saying that if your head is swimming with different people’s theories on the best way to make espresso, just step back and get back to our 3 step approach above. When you have become proficient in those basic steps you can then add the clever bits back on and decide what works for you