How to Make Espresso

Espresso is coffee brewed fast and under pressure: hot water forced through a tightly packed puck of finely ground coffee in about half a minute. The result is a small, intense, syrupy shot with a layer of crema on top, and it’s the base of every latte, cappuccino and flat white. It has a reputation for being hard, but good espresso at home comes down to three numbers and one habit: dose, yield and time, and changing one thing at a time.

The shot timer at the top of this page shows your dose and target weight for three styles of shot, and times the pull for you.

What makes it espresso

Pressure is what separates espresso from every other brew. A pump pushes water through the coffee at about 9 bar, nine times the air pressure around us. It pulls out flavour and oils so fast that a shot is done in under a minute, and it emulsifies the oils and CO₂ into crema. A moka pot (1–2 bar) and an AeroPress (well under 1 bar) make strong coffee, but not espresso.

For a benchmark, the Italian National Espresso Institute certifies a traditional single espresso as about 7 g of coffee, water at 88 °C and 9 bar, about 25 seconds, and 25 ml in the cup. Most specialty cafés and home baristas today brew a bigger, sweeter double instead: around 18 g in a double basket, weighed in grams rather than measured in millilitres. That’s what this guide uses.

Dose, yield and time: the espresso recipe

• Dose: the dry coffee in the basket. Use what your basket is made for. Most double baskets take 16–20 g, so 18 g is a safe default. Then keep it fixed.
• Yield: the espresso in the cup, weighed on a scale under the cup. The ratio of dose to yield sets the strength.
• Time: from pressing the button to stopping the shot. It tells you whether the grind is right.

Shot	Ratio · time	From 18 g	Tastes
Ristretto	1:1–1:1.5 · 20–25 s	18–27 g	Thick, intense, sweet
Normale	1:2 · 25–30 s	36 g	Balanced: the classic
Lungo	1:2.5–1:3 · 30–40 s	45–54 g	Lighter, clearer; suits light roasts

Darker roasts often taste best shorter (1:1.5–1:2). Light roasts usually need longer (1:2.5) and hotter water (94–96 °C) to taste sweet rather than sour. For how espresso compares with other methods, see our coffee-to-water ratio guide.

What you need

• An espresso machine that can hold about 9 bar and a steady temperature. A manual lever press like the Flair works too.
• An espresso-capable burr grinder. This matters as much as the machine: you need fine, small adjustments. Pre-ground coffee can’t be adjusted, so you can’t dial it in. See our grinder guide.
• A scale that reads 0.1 g and fits under the cup, ideally with a built-in timer.
• A tamper that fits your basket snugly. A distribution tool (a few thin needles to break up clumps, called WDT) is a cheap, worthwhile extra.
• Fresh coffee: roasted 1–4 weeks ago. Very fresh beans (under about 5 days) are gassy and pull unevenly.

How to make espresso, step by step

Here’s the Classic 1:2 recipe from our timer: 18 g in, 36 g out, 25–30 seconds.

1. Heat up the machine fully

Turn the machine on with the portafilter locked in, so it heats up too. Give it 15–30 minutes, depending on the machine: a light that says “ready” usually means the boiler is hot, not the metal group head. Just before brewing, run a couple of seconds of water through the group to flush old grounds and settle the temperature.

2. Dose and grind

Weigh 18 g of beans and grind them straight into a clean, dry basket. Check the weight: grinders hold back and spit out a little.

3. Distribute and tamp

Break up any clumps and spread the coffee evenly. Stir it with a WDT tool, or at least tap the side of the portafilter to level it. Then tamp firmly and dead level, just until the coffee stops compressing. How hard you press matters much less than pressing flat. A tilted or uneven puck lets water find a fast path through one side, which is called channelling. That’s the most common cause of a shot that’s sour and bitter at the same time.

4. Pull the shot by weight

Wipe the rim, lock the portafilter in, put the cup on the scale and tare it. Start the shot and the timer together. The first drops should appear after about 5–10 seconds, then come as a steady, honey-like stream. Stop at 36 g, whatever the clock says. The time is information for next time; the weight is the rule.

5. Stir, taste and adjust

Stir the crema into the shot, because it’s bitter on its own, and taste. Then adjust the grind using the guide below, knock out the puck, rinse the basket, and flush the group again.

How to dial in espresso

“Dialing in” means adjusting the grind until a new coffee tastes right. Keep the dose and the target weight fixed, and change only the grind, one small step at a time:

Your shot	What’s happening	Change this
Fast (under ~22 s), sour, thin, salty	Under-extracted: water rushes through	Grind finer
Slow (over ~35 s), bitter, harsh, drying	Over-extracted, or the puck is choking the flow	Grind coarser
Right time, but sour and bitter at once	Channelling: uneven extraction	Improve distribution (WDT), tamp level, check the dose
Balanced, but too intense	Good extraction, just strong	Pull a longer ratio (1:2.2–1:2.5)
Balanced, but thin or watery	Good extraction, just weak	Pull a shorter ratio (1:1.7–1:1.8)
Gushes, pale, no crema	Grind far too coarse, or stale coffee	Grind much finer. Use fresher beans.

Don’t chase the finest grind your machine can choke on. A 2020 study in the journal Matter combined mathematical modelling with café tests. It found that very fine grinds make water flow unevenly through the puck, so extraction actually drops and shots become unpredictable. The researchers got more consistent shots, using less coffee, by grinding coarser and lowering the dose. If your shots vary wildly at a very fine setting, go a step or two coarser and shorten the ratio a little.

Which coffee to use for espresso

Any coffee can be espresso. “Espresso roast” is a style, not a bean. Medium and medium-dark roasts are the easiest to dial in: chocolatey, nutty and forgiving, and great with milk. Light roasts make bright, fruity shots, but they need a finer grind, hotter water and a longer ratio. A blend with some Brazil is a good start. Most espresso tastes best between about 7 and 30 days after roasting.

From espresso to milk drinks

All the classic café drinks are espresso plus milk (or water) in different amounts:

Drink	Build
Americano	Espresso topped with 120–180 ml of hot water
Macchiato	Espresso with a spoon of milk foam
Cortado	Espresso and about the same amount of steamed milk
Flat white	A double (or ristretto) with 100–120 ml of silky, thin-foamed milk
Cappuccino	Espresso with about 120–150 ml of milk and a thick layer of foam
Latte	Espresso with 200–250 ml of steamed milk and a thin layer of foam

For steamed milk, start with cold milk in a cold jug. Let a little air in at first, until the milk is about body temperature, then sink the wand and swirl until the jug is too hot to hold, about 60–65 °C. Try our iced flat white and other coffee recipes.

Keep the machine clean

• After every shot: knock out the puck, rinse the basket, and flush the group. Wipe the steam wand straight away, and purge it.
• Weekly: backflush with water, or with espresso machine cleaner if your machine allows it. Soak the basket and portafilter to remove oils, which go rancid and taste bitter.
• Regularly: descale as your manual says, or use filtered, softened water to prevent scale. Scale is the number-one killer of home espresso machines.

Espresso FAQ

Sources

• Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano, Certified Italian Espresso (traditional espresso parameters).
• Cameron M.I., Hendon C.H. et al., Systematically Improving Espresso: Insights from Mathematical Modeling and Experiment, Matter (2020).
• Specialty Coffee Association, Coffee Standards.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central (caffeine in brewed espresso).

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Published October 2, 2026