How to Grind Espresso

Series Summary

Coffee is near and dear to all of our hearts. Whether it is part of your daily ritual or just a tasty indulgence, there is no denying that most of the world has succumb to the beans of the coffee plant. Despite our modern day efforts, medical studies seem divided on the relative harm or benefit of this beverage, which seems somewhat comforting to the mid-afternoon worker. Coffee has a very long and interesting history. As legend has it, coffee was discovered by “dancing” goats in the highlands of Ethiopia. Quickly, the plant spread all over the world. Today, there are thousands of different coffee blends and drinks, and the possibilities are endless!

In this free video series, our expert barista will teach you how to make a variety of espresso drinks. You will get step by step instructions for grinding espresso, making cappuccino and making lattes. You will also learn how to make a variety of blended espresso drinks and also how to clean an espresso machine. If you love coffee, this is the video series for you!

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Natalja from the Red Brick Cafe and on behalf of expertvillage.com, we're gonna learn how to make espresso flavored drinks with care and excellence. So, let's begin with the basics. Grinding is a very important part of espresso making. The first thing you want to make sure is that you have fresh beans, because otherwise you're not going to get the optimal taste in freshness that good espresso requires. So you just want to fill it up just to how much you're gonna use it that day. Secondly, you want to make sure that your grinds are fine, but still have a bit of coarseness to them. Now to set your grind, there's usually a lever on the side of the grinder you can adjust. The last part is that you have to make sure that you fill up your porta filter above the rim. As you see, I have a little mountain here. The next thing you want to do is get rid of some of the grinds and a lot of people use their fingers, but I like to use the lid. Go straight across. Make sure there's no extra coffee that can go plug your espresso machine. And now we're ready for tapping."