Espresso recipes are important in cafés in terms of consistency and flavour. How and why are the espresso recipes made and what are the things you should consider when making a recipe for espresso? Let’s dig deeper into the world of espresso!

WHAT TO CHANGE OR MEASURE? 

There three main things that we want to (at least) measure when making espresso; dose, yield and brew time. Those three measurements you should as a barista check daily and some baristas might even go so crazy that they check those for every espresso that they make. 
It might be worth mentioning that from here on I will talking only about double espressos. In my opinion you should always make a double and never even touch the single spouted portafilter. But that’s another conversation, let’s concentrate on the recipes this time.

DOSE 

Dose means the amount of dry coffee that you are using.

Usually dose is measured in grams and it is widely seen that for double espresso you should use something between 14 and 24 grams of coffee. 14 grams used to be truth back in the days when coffees used in espresso where roasted darker but during last 10 years the doses have increased as lighter and lighter roasts have been used in espresso.

YIELD

Yield means the amount of liquid (coffee) you have in the cup.

Traditionally yield was, and this is measured in millilitres (ml) but also during last 10 years more and more baristas have started to use scales and measure yield in grams. The advantage of measuring in grams is accuracy as your volume isn’t dependent on freshness of the roast as it is when measuring in ml. 

BREW TIME

Brew time means the time it takes to brew the espresso. From the push of the button until you have reached desired yield in the cup.

Often it is considered that brew time for espresso should be between 20-35 seconds. Darker roasts shine with shorter brew times and lighter roasts with longer brew times. It’s because darker roasts are less dense (shallower) and hence it’s easier to extract flavour from them. On the other hand, lighter roasts are “tighter packages” (denser) and you will more time to extract the same amount of flavour from them. I suggest that with darker roasts it’s better to start brew times between 20-25sec and lighter roasts 25-30sec. Every coffee has a “sweet spot” in terms of brew time and it’s the barista’s job to find that spot with changing of the grind size.