All the best bartenders know this: in order to unleash the maximum taste and aroma, a good coffee must be brewed following precise guidelines and using a professional espresso machine in a perfect state of maintenance and cleaning. This procedure is fundamental in order to offer an excellent product as recommended by Città d’Italia – Caffè La Messicana Piacenza to its customers.

Coffee extraction

A perfect espresso is a balance made by different factors, so you must carefully follow all the brewing phases. Here are the main guidelines:

• Coffee must be stored in a cool and dry place.
• It is recommended to grind the suitable amount of coffee, preventing it from aging into the dosing device, it is also recommended to empty the latter at the end of the day.
• The shower has to be cleaned by flushing the brewing unit to clean out any coffee residues.
• The portafilter has to be cleaned from the coffee residues, even inside of it.
• The ideal coffee dose is 7gr and it must be pressed in a way that complies homogeneously.
• Clean the edge of the portafilter.
• The machine pressure has to be 9 BAR and the water temperature between 88°C and 92°C.
• Once we are ready to brew an espresso, the time before extraction is about 6 seconds and the extraction time is about 20-30 seconds.
• The total amount of espresso must be between 25 – 28 ml.

How to recognize a correctly extracted espresso?

An espresso is properly extracted if the shape of the stream is like a “mouse tail” and the cream is uniformed with the so-called “tiger skin” (dark hazelnut streaks on light ones). On the other hand, an espresso is over-extracted if the cream has a lighter stain with a hole, while it is underextracted if the cream is lightly and the espresso has a quick finish.