This s%&t is seriously complicated!

[Adam2670]

Okay so I've been bombarding people with questions, looking things up, watching youtube videos and everything else I can think of to master the art of making an espresso. The more answers I find, the more questions I come up with. So now I have yet another question with multiple parts and most likely multiple more complicated questions lol...

Using a crappy little mr. coffee manual espresso maker (I WILL be upgrading) it came with both the I guess "single" and "double" double wall cups, to get the equivalent of 4 shots of espresso, am I using the single cup 4x or the double cup twice? and if I use the double cup do I still use the same shot times? If I'm using the same shot time how does more liquid come out in the same amount of time? I've seen varied does sizes and shot times ranging from 16-21g and 17-26 sec. What is my best bet for the 4 shots? Which cup? How much espresso? for how long?

lol, thanks for bearing with me =)
-Adam

 

[shadow745]

Since you do intend to upgrade soon I wouldn't worry so much about the details with the machine you currently have. With that being said I will try to explain a bit.

21 grams is overkill IMO. Also I highly doubt the pump in that machine would push water through that much coffee to give decent extraction. I'd recommend using the double basket and maybe 14-15 grams of coffee and do that twice. It's not all about overstuffing the baskets as more doesn't always relate to better. Some coffees do respond better in higher doses, but that is a subject all its own.

Timing can be the same for single vs double... even though the single basket holds half as much ground coffee as the double basket, there are less holes in the single and it slows the flow down considerably. Usually there will grind variations between using single and double baskets because of less holes, basket shape, etc. For example, I can run 2 oz of water through 16 grams in a double basket for 26-28 seconds OR I can run 1 oz of water through 8 grams in a single basket for that same 26-28 seconds.

 

[Adam2670]

Okay that was great info, thanks!

The machine by the way puts out 15 bars of pressure according to its manual.

Today I played around a bit and used 16g twice for 23 secs using Metropolis Redline espresso, mixed them with both 2 tablespoons of Big Train Mocha powder and 1 tablespoon of Ghirardelli Black Label chocolate sauce and then tried it with 4 tablespoons of the BT mocha and no Ghirardelli and both with 5oz whole milk over 6 ice cubes in a 16oz glass. I liked the 2/1 mix better than the 4/0, as soon as my caffeine high wears off I'm going to go all Ghirardelli and see how that works out.

 

[Adam2670]

Well I just tried 2 tablespoons of the ghirardelli with 4 shots, much less bitter but it has an odd taste from just the mocha. Also I notice an odd almost sour taste from the Redline so I just tried it again with starbucks espresso, sourness all gone but still something missing. I also feel like Im going to have a heart attack from the 16 shots of espresso I've had, I need a taste tester!