# Espresso grinding on the Smart Grinder Pro



## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

Hi all, ball park what sort of number are people grinding on for espresso? I'm struggling to get something decent. Last attempt was number 12 and got 60g out of 16g in 30 seconds lol. Realise I need to coarser but on grind 8 - and beans and amounts it's choaked.

Try 10 I hear you cry, tried that and it flew out!


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

Number 10 works fine for me, double basket with 15g (or 8'ish g for single)


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## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

DaveP said:


> Number 10 works fine for me, double basket with 15g (or 8'ish g for single)


thanks. I'll try it again. What weight are you aiming to get out with that setting?


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

Weight in x2, although that's not cast in stone so 15 in 30 out (time being the least on the scale of importance.... so anywhere from 20 - 30 'ish)

But once your in the ball park area, then fine tune for taste and ignore anything else, lol


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## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

Thanks got some rave signature blend ready to go so I'll spend some time with it tomorrow and see what I get


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

GingerBen said:


> Thanks got some rave signature blend ready to go so I'll spend some time with it tomorrow and see what I get


My secret recipe .. 3 parts Rave Italian Job + 1 part of signature blend, mix well










Its either like Italian job but with the edge taken off, or its like signature blend with a bit of added extra


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## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

DaveP said:


> My secret recipe .. 3 parts Rave Italian Job + 1 part of signature blend, mix well
> 
> 
> 
> ...


i have both, I may experiment thanks


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

> I may experiment


The nice part of the experiment is the cost of the Italian Job in kilos,


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## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

So I pulled a shot of 16/32 in 30 seconds. This is with grinder setting 10 so that does look to be the base line for espresso on this machine, well my machine any way. Taste wise I'd venture it was a bit sour so perhaps I need to try number 9 to see if that slows it down a touch and hits a better extraction?

I suppose taste wise I'm looking for something amazing in the glass, there is of course a chance I might just not like straight espresso so I could be chasing rainbows. Either way I did it again and turned it in to something resembling a flat white (first time trying to make one of these!) and it was alright. Too much milk probably as tasted pretty weak but it worked and I discovered that texturing milk is a lot easier than I thought it would be. But the mess!! I need to work on my prep so there isn't so much stuff on the counter next time. It's also hard not having the drip tray in place but there doesn't seem to be any other way at the moment. I'm going on the hunt for a suitably shallow but wide receptacle later today that might fit better.

On another note I noticed the volume of the 32g of espresso was very small. On a lot of youtube videos they use volume to measure their shots. I realise there is an inaccuracy with ounces but the volume of a 2oz shot is huge compared to my 32g shot - surely that makes a huge difference in the taste of the overall espresso?

Also 16g coffee in my portafilter didn't look like enough, it hardly reached the edges. Maybe I need to try 18g?


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## DaveP (Jul 14, 2017)

> I suppose taste wise I'm looking for something amazing in the glass


Yeah...



> so I could be chasing rainbows.


Yep... it would seem that 'cupping' is the method to find the notes, once milk is sploshed into an espresso then the details are muted or even lost.



> On another note I noticed the volume of the 32g of espresso was very small.


Its not the small that matters.... its what you do with it (pick a smaller cup size, lol)



> Also 16g coffee in my portafilter didn't look like enough, it hardly reached the edges. Maybe I need to try 18g?


Dont worry about the look, adjust grind and amount to tune the taste (some where to get less acidic but never bitter)


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## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

Thanks DaveP useful info there. Back to my machine!


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

GingerBen said:


> So I pulled a shot of 16/32 in 30 seconds. This is with grinder setting 10 so that does look to be the base line for espresso on this machine, well my machine any way. Taste wise I'd venture it was a bit sour so perhaps I need to try number 9 to see if that slows it down a touch and hits a better extraction?
> 
> I suppose taste wise I'm looking for something amazing in the glass, there is of course a chance I might just not like straight espresso so I could be chasing rainbows. Either way I did it again and turned it in to something resembling a flat white (first time trying to make one of these!) and it was alright. Too much milk probably as tasted pretty weak but it worked and I discovered that texturing milk is a lot easier than I thought it would be. But the mess!! I need to work on my prep so there isn't so much stuff on the counter next time. It's also hard not having the drip tray in place but there doesn't seem to be any other way at the moment. I'm going on the hunt for a suitably shallow but wide receptacle later today that might fit better.
> 
> ...


If you are not sure that you want a shot as strong as 1:2 & you want to avoid sourness, try keeping everything the same & pull a 1:3 shot, maybe even a 1:4 shot. If these taste better, you are sorted. If they taste good but are too weak, grind finer & pull at a shorter ratio.

There is nothing magic, nor a specific taste that accompanies 1:2 shot, just a strength, which may be too intense, even when right, whilst you are finding your way.

Don't worry too much about sticking to 30sec...as you have experienced yourself, a 1:2 shot in 30sec can still be sour, so even though the parameters might be deemed to be ideal, they are not because the taste of the coffee is not ideal.


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

an espresso drink made to a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio? be like drinking gnatts piss! An espresso is a sort sharp drink which gets diluted down with milk or water but there is a difference between diluting and pulling a larger amount through the puck. No doubt you will not agree Mark!


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## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

MWJB said:


> If you are not sure that you want a shot as strong as 1:2 & you want to avoid sourness, try keeping everything the same & pull a 1:3 shot, maybe even a 1:4 shot. If these taste better, you are sorted. If they taste good but are too weak, grind finer & pull at a shorter ratio.
> 
> There is nothing magic, nor a specific taste that accompanies 1:2 shot, just a strength, which may be too intense, even when right, whilst you are finding your way.
> 
> Don't worry too much about sticking to 30sec...as you have experienced yourself, a 1:2 shot in 30sec can still be sour, so even though the parameters might be deemed to be ideal, they are not because the taste of the coffee is not ideal.


thanks. I'll give the 1:3 shot a go and see how it tastes and go from there.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

dfk41 said:


> an espresso drink made to a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio? be like drinking gnatts piss! An espresso is a sort sharp drink which gets diluted down with milk or water but there is a difference between diluting and pulling a larger amount through the puck. No doubt you will not agree Mark!


If you dilute then it's not short, nor as strong, so why beat yourself up by making a very short, sour drink that doesn't taste good. Make the drink you want to drink. If it's sharp, you did it wrong.

It's not what I agree, or disagree with, it's what decades of espresso has been - a broad range of brew ratios. 1:4 is still 3x stronger than even strong brewed coffee.

I'll take your word for it on the gnat's piss, do you have especially small cups for that, or very big gnats...beware, if they can fill a normal cup, they're probably seagulls.


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## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

Made a 1:3 shot which on its own was edging towards bitter but with some milk has made a perfectly drinkable coffee. I'll try 1:2.5 next and see what that's like overall though progress today with the grind setting has been good and I'm definitely in the right ballpark now whereas I'm not sure I was even playing the right sport yesterday...


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

The advice I received on too sour that works for me is first reduce the coffee. If that doesn't work set a slightly coarser grind. Or both. This will mess up your shot times though but the aim is to get a drink that you like not follow rules.

A lot of the taste comes out is down to the infusion time. It is possible to mess with the tamping pressure to change that. The man who gave me the excellent advice above said that I shouldn't do that. I should tamp it until it doesn't compress any more. Notice shouldn't - doesn't mean don't. Following his advice I now lean on it more or less as hard as I can. Comes out over 15kg but at least it's consistent.

Coffee cupping. I came across how that is done a long time before I had an espresso machine. Compared with tasting an espresso shot directly it's interesting. There is more on the wiki.

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/cupping.htm

John

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