Everything I Wish I Knew as a New Home Barista

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
0:45 Fresh Coffee is Everything
1:36 A Good Grinder
2:33 Is Tamping Pressure Crucial?
3:07 Use a Scale
3:39 Puck Prep Can Be Serious
4:27 Latte Art is Hard
5:05 Your Taste is King

[PaulLemars]

Please keep making these videos. They always bring a smile to my face. I'm also not a coffee nerd and please ignore the three grinders on my coffee bar, the Technivorm Moccamaster, the wonderful ultra reliable Lucca A53 and my own custom designed tamping station. It's all perfectly normal and reasonable and to reiterate I'm not a coffee nerd.

The three grinders are a Eureka Mignon Filtro, A Ceado E37S and a Ceado E5SD.

I'm now off to pull a latte.

[TrueMill]

Wonderful video! Full of good ideas with a little humor, your best yet:)

[MB-euty]

A am a coffee ignoramous hoping to join the coffee elite. This this video was just the medicine (or espresso shot) I needed.

New member 😊 ☕️ 🎉

[stevemoseley]

Great video. I started about 4 months ago. I brewed my first really good shot of espresso on the second day after getting the equipment (beginner's luck) and my second really good shot about 3 frustrating weeks later. I agree with most of what you said. One disagreement is with the idea that tamper pressure doesn't matter. As long as it is not too light and not too heavy, you are right. But I was occasionally going too heavy to the point of choking the espresso machine. A cheap calibrated tamper was a big help for me. The biggest thing for me which you forgot to mention is the importance of breaking in the grinder. Maybe some grinders are fine out of the box, but the Baratza Sette 270 you sold me needed about 4 pounds through it before it settled down and got consistent. Once I figured this out, my shots quickly got better. My number one advice to someone starting out with new equipment is to medium-coarse grind a few pounds of Costco's Cheapest and throw it out before you do anything else. My additional advice to the frustrated beginner is don't give up, rather consider all the money that you are pouring down the drain in the form of bad shots as tuition - an investment for the future. After almost 4 months at it I can now pretty reliably pull a really good shot almost every time. I'm even to the point of guessing pretty good when trying a new coffee for the first time. Of course weird stuff still happens occasionally which keeps it interesting.

[JD-kpdp]

How to manage the grind size for different coffee beans. IME different beans from different roasters require changing the grinder settings. Can take multiple shots to dial in the grinder which wastes so much beans. Does every coffee bean need different settings on the grinder?

[annw-fitz]

Video and it’s pretty much everything I’ve learned or have come to conditions about. That said, you talked about grind from what I’ve read and please give advice or correct me once you turn the water on the espresso should start coming out between eight and 11 seconds? If it comes out too fast and if it comes out slower, the grind is too fine. Also, how long should it take for the water to leave the puck when you pull it off the machine sometimes I have a puddle in there sometimes not…? Thanks for the video you were amongst my favorites for Coffee

[SeereAgaar]

Espresso, is it coffee or is it science? Coffience?? What a wonderful and complex thing the cherry seed is!

[niklas]

2 months will absolutely not ruin your espresso lol, it's perfectly fine. Fresher is better yes but don't throw it away after just 2 months

[IMNOTABARISTA]

NOT A BARISTA is paying close attention.

[gordanbabic]

Coffee does not have to be within one month from roasting. Stop spreading this snobist lie. Espresso was invented in Italy and italian caffes (and in the rest of europe) normally use coffee roasted several months ago and you still get good taste and decent crema.