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Espresso machines are daunting.
Getting your first at-home espresso machine is a gateway drug into the magical world of hot brown bean juice.
Some of these are thebest espresso machinesavailable today.
At Starbucks, I trained newcomers too, so Ive done my fair share of coffee troubleshooting.
Ive narrowed down the three most common mistakes some newbie baristas make.
While theres much more that coffee aficionados will warn you against, these are thefirstmistakes you shouldnt make.
Once youve mastered this, the rest will come in time trust me.
This is the espresso machine I have at home.
The La Specialista Opera also pulls a mean shot and steams a mean milk.
Ideally, you want a grind texture somewhere between baker’s sugar and powdered sugar.
You want the coffee grounds to stick to your fingers and be almost a powder.
The one I used to work at did!
Take it easy with steaming milk
Steaming milk is probably the hardest skill to master.
I’ll run you through the ideal steaming routine:
3.
Dont leave espresso shots
This is a little tip left over from my time at Starbucks.
You’re trained to use espresso shots within 10 seconds, otherwise you risk serving burnt, dull coffee.
I would aim to use espresso shots within 20 seconds after extraction.
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