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The Coffee 100 · make it at home

Espresso at home: the Roman shot, dialled in by weight

10 min including warm-up · 1 double shot

The shot every Roman and Neapolitan bar on the chart lives by. A home machine can pull a very good one once you measure what goes in and what comes out.

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The real one

You need

• 18 g espresso-roast beans (medium to medium-dark), roasted 7 to 30 days ago
• Filtered water in the machine's tank
• A home espresso machine with a 58 mm basket, a burr grinder that grinds fine, a tamper and a scale

How to make it

1. Warm up (15 to 20 min): Switch the machine on with the portafilter locked in, so the metal is as hot as the water. Put the cup on top or fill it with hot water.
2. Dose (1 min): Grind 18 g into the dry basket, fine like flour with a little grit. Tap the side to settle it, level it with a finger or a distribution tool, then tamp straight down, firmly, once. Wipe stray grounds off the rim.
3. Flush and lock (10 sec): Run 2 seconds of water through the group head to steady its temperature, then lock in the portafilter and start the shot straight away.
4. Pull (25 to 30 sec): Put the cup on the scale and zero it. Aim for 36 g of espresso in 25 to 30 seconds from pressing the button. It should start dark and slow, like warm honey, turn hazelnut brown, and you stop it as it goes pale blonde.
5. Taste and adjust: Sour, thin and fast means grind finer. Bitter, harsh and slow means grind coarser. Stir the shot before you sip so the crema and the coffee mix.

Tips

• In Rome and Naples it's often drunk with sugar stirred in, and standing at the bar, in two or three sips. Have a glass of water first, not after.
• Keep the ratio (18 g in, 36 g out) and move only the grind until it tastes right. Then write the setting down.
• Backflush the machine with plain water weekly and with cleaner monthly. Stale oil in the group head is the most common reason home espresso tastes bitter.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any café's recipe.