Barry barista wrote:
Single shot of coffee should equal 7grams of coffee - if I put that amount of coffee into my basket it is not enough to tamp down. How does the 25 to 30 seconds it should take to extract 30 Mls of coffee equate to the preinfusion etc.
Welcome Barry. It all comes down to what's in your cup. If you like it you should be happy. 🙂 What grinder are you using? I would personally pull doubles (the single basket is in the cupboard because it's much more difficult to get a consistant shot out of it), so I grind a bit finer and pull a ristretto which produces 40-50ml. I've run shots past 30 seconds and into the 40s and they were great, so as far as I'm concerned, aim for 25-30 secs but don't pour it down the sink if it's 30.3secs if you know what I mean. Taste it, see what YOU like. Count prefusion or don't don't, it's only a few secs anyway. When I used my lever machine I didn't count it. I rarely use a timer now that I'm used to the machine. Keep an eye on the pour more than the time, you can spot it about to blond before it happens and that's when I pull it usually. Start a new thread under Espresso machines if you want. I'm sure plenty of others will have advice for you.
