# bitter espresso with Gaggia Classic



## hxmark (Dec 31, 2014)

Hi. I've only had my Gaggia Classic a couple of days so been doing loads of reading on this forum and elsewhere. Somewhat overwhelmed!

I dont have a grinder yet so I been trying to use pre ground Lavazza espresso and also some Illy ESE pods. Also been using the pressurised basket that came with the machine.

Followed instructions found on this forum and you tube etc but the espresso always comes out tasting bitter when I use both types of coffee. I only drink milk based coffee so once milk and sugar is added it tastes pretty good but I believe the espresso should not have this bitter taste?

I don't really know how a good espresso should taste so I guess my question is should the espresso have any bitterness? If not is there anything I should be doing using my existing gear to stop the bitterness?

Espresso normally takes about 15 secs to pull with both coffees and not the 25secs Ive read so much about.

Any advice is aprreciated

Thanks

Mark


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

With pre-ground (read stale) coffee that's roasted very dark - you're going to get rather bitter shots, I'm afraid. Buying fresh roasted beans and grinding as you need will make a big difference.


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Hi Mark

In addition to the above advice you will need a Tamper.

You should also swap out the pressurised basket for a standard one (about £5 online)

Combined with fresh beans (and even a Rhino hand grinder if funds are tight), for about £60 you will have transformed your coffee experience


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## NJD1977 (Dec 16, 2014)

I initially tried pre-ground supermarket stuff and even supermarket beans ground myself and I'm afraid they just produce really bad results in the Gaggia - my shots were incredibly bitter and nasty tasting with weak thin crema. When I use fresh beans from my local roaster, and grind/dose/tamp correctly I get lovely rich espresso with a tiny hint of bitterness but balanced with sweetness, nuttiness and chocolate and bags of crema. You should generally have some bitterness to your espressos but you shouldn't be able to taste it as such (if that makes sense).........you should be able to taste if the bitterness is absent rather than the bitterness when it is present. Also, your brew temperature will make a big difference to shot taste - if you've not got a handle on that (which is hard to do without a PID) you'll quite often get bitterness in your shots.


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