1. Start with coffee beans that are roasted to a profile that suits your taste. The easiest way to ensure a match is to buy beans from a cafe where you enjoy drinking the coffee they serve.
2. Grind fresh and ideally weigh the ground coffee so each cup is consistent. How much ground coffee you put into the portafilter – the main handle on the machine – depends on the basket size.
3. Put the freshly ground coffee into the portafilter basket, even out the bed of coffee and tamp evenly.
4. Put the portafilter in the machine and start the brew.
5. Weigh the coffee coming out to make sure the consistency is right. Start by brewing twice the weight of the coffee that went in (e.g. 18g of ground coffee in, 36g of brewed coffee out).
6. For a milk coffee, start with cold, fresh milk in a jug. Have the steam coming in so that you create a whirlpool. Introduce air to stretch the milk, until the jug is warm to touch, then continue the whirlpool until the milk hits the temperature you enjoy.
7. Pour the milk into the espresso straight away.
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