# What have I made?



## Dee88 (Oct 11, 2020)

Morning Guys,

So I bought the Sage Barista Express a couple months ago and I've used to its functionality etc. Recently I started reading up on brew ratios, timings, weight of coffee etc.

Theory

From my understanding, espresso should be between 1:1 - 1:2 weight ratio of ground coffee to weight of coffee that comes out for an espresso. I drink flatewhites so I've been told it's a 1:2 ratio of coffee to milk. And conventionally a double espresso is 2 ounces. So....

Practice:

I'm using my double shot double wall (pressurised basket) to pour out 2 ounces (I've programmed it to pour out this much) and put 4 ounces of steamed milk into it... And for a while I thought this was good.

Problems:

But then..... I read up a little more and looked into the weight of the coffee in the cup. To my surprise I only had 14grams of coffee in the 54mm portafilter.... So according to the theory I should have 1:2ratio so 28 grams..... But when I weighed it... It came out at 64grams!....so my question is... With a ratio of about 1:4instead of 1:2.....what have I made? Is this still a flat white? Have I made something else? Am I burning out my coffee? Any help?


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## TomHughes (Dec 16, 2019)

More importantly, if you have a built in grinder and relatively freshly roasted beans then why are you using the pressurised basket?


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Dee88 said:


> Have I made something else? Am I burning out my coffee? Any help?


 You made a coffee. You can call it a "lungo" if you want. Or call it Jeff. If you add milk, call it a a white coffee or call it Bob. It really doesn't matter!

Have you burnt your coffee? unlikely, specially on your machine. The water operates on the "cooler" side of things. What you are potentially doing is over-extracting.

But.. How did it taste?


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

You programmed the volumetric buttons to produce 2 ounces and were shocked to see the drink weighed just over two ounces...

When you say for a while you thought it was good, do you now think it is bad and if so why?

Whatever works for you. I would drop the pressurised basket. Espresso is a lot of things if you ignore the Italian definition, which pretty much everyone does.

You have roughly a 1:4.5 ratio, which is on the long side but fine (assuming it tastes fine). A 1:2 wouldn't necessarily be better.

Perhaps an easier way of looking at things, instead of an ounces and ratios. A flat white would be a small milk based drink (about 3 parts milk) with a shot of espresso made with a 14-20g dose. Exact ratios will vary depending on the coffee used, but the milk should probably be about 2-3 parts of the whole. What's important you distinguish it from other drinks is the way it's steamed.


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