What are the most usual mistakes for a beginner Home Barista?
The journey to good espresso is not easy, especially for beginners coffee lovers!!
While a few years ago, at least in Greece, espresso was a coffee that we tended to enjoy almost exclusively in a coffee shop, in recent years the setting has changed completely. The audience that loves espresso is more crowded, much more up-to-date, while the fall in the prices of espresso home machines has made it easily accessible to more homes. There are lots of coffee lovers who are now preparing their favorite espresso at home.
Making a good espresso may seem easy for anyone who has not done it, but it is an extremely difficult process that requires full control of many variables and a lot of familiarity. Every aspiring home barista is sure to make mistakes along the way to finding the perfect homemade espresso. We gathered what we think are the most common mistakes of the beginners home baristi - in an effort to always enjoy the coffee we deserve!
What are the most usual mistakes for a beginner Home Barista?
Not using the right coffee: Beginning our steps in the world of espresso, it makes sense to be confused about choosing the right coffee, as the blends available are a lot and our taste is not yet shaped. The only solution to this is experimentation and the gradual cultivation of our personal taste.
First of all, it's right to ask ourselves what coffee we prefer to enjoy: espresso or some variation of milk that needs milk such as cappuccino or latte? Do we prefer Espresso Freddo? We prefer coffees with strong, intense flavor, or lighter and fruity, with intense acidity? First of all, in Arabica and Robusta, which we prefer and by exploring the specific features, we will soon begin to gain a more global view of the blends we find available on the market.
Of course, we always buy coffee in beans and grind it on our own and generally avoid ground coffee, while the selection of branded coffees from well-known companies guarantees stability in texture and taste, which is very basic for a beginner barista. If we also make our first steps, we do not have to go straight to expensive, delicatessen choices: gourmet blends will come along with the experience! It is important to enjoy quality coffee, stable in its flavor, which will allow us to practice the extraction techniques.
Not using a scale: There are few times when we are tempted to calculate the dose required for an espresso "by the eye", but this is something that even experienced baristi should avoid. A precision scale will solve our hands, making us confident of the raw material we use. If you think 1 gram is not a big deal, it is enough to think that one gram error causes a deviation from the rule that reaches 14 per cent, a percentage that is not at all impenetrable. The scales are an indispensable investment to enjoy the espresso we really want.
Not tamping properly: Proper tamping is critical to our espresso, and is one of the extraction processes we tend to make wrong in our first steps in the espresso area. Getting a good espresso tamper and the necessary familiarity, not only with our equipment but also with the very process of tamping, we take the necessary steps towards good espresso. A good tamper does not necessarily mean expensive, but ergonomic and, of course, the same dimension as our portafilter. It is not a bad idea to ask a presumably experienced barista to show us the secrets of tamping, since it is a process that requires particular familiarity.
Not caring about water: No matter how good is our blend and our equipment, poor quality water can ruin our extractions - espresso must not forget that it is 98% water! Before we start our espresso adventures, it's good to know how water quality affects our extractions so we can act accordingly, preventing "bad". In most cases, a simple water filter will greatly improve the quality of our water - and so of our coffee.
Not cleaning our espresso machine: The meticulous cleaning of the espresso machine is a tedious and boring process - but it is absolutely necessary. Our machine is threatened by both water salts and coffee residues such as its oils. A dirty machine will not only ruin any effort for quality espresso, but it can also endanger our health, since a machine that is not regularly cleaned favors the growth of mold and micro-organisms. Frequent desalination and regular cleaning of the espresso machine is a sine qua non for every barista, beginner or advanced.
Not paying attention to proportions: As in the case of coffee weighing, so in the coffee and water ratio, a few ml or a few grams can make a difference. Let's think about how much experience we need to bake a cake without knowing the proportion - the proportions are the same when preparing coffee. Extracting an espresso is a process with many variables (grinding, temperature, time, proportion), some of which we need to keep constant, so we can step by step experiment with the rest.
The journey to good espresso is difficult and tiring, but in the end it rewards the persistent. Arrange with patience, experiment a lot, read the tips ... after a while, you are sure to drink the coffee you deserve!
