Dialing in your espresso shot is the most important skill to learn for any new home barista. To “dial in” is to set up your grinder and machine to get the perfectly timed shot. As we know, a well timed shot means that the correct amount of water is flowing through the right amount of coffee grounds at the proper temperature and flow rate for optimum extraction. In short, this means you’ll get a great shot! Today we’re going to look at one of the first pieces of the puzzle - dosing your grind.

What is Dosing?

When we say dosing what we mean is grinding the correct amount of coffee grounds. This number is important to hit because using too much coffee can lead to over-extraction, because there’s too much in the portafilter for the water to filter through. This will mean a slow shot that tastes quite bitter. For a 54mm portafilter like what you find on Breville machines, 16 grams of grounds is a good amount. For a professional 58mm portafilter, you’ll want to go with 18 grams.

How to Dose Properly

It’s very important to use a scale for this part of the espresso making process, because you will not be able to eyeball differences in dose. Even a small, half a gram discrepancy can lead to issues, and they will be impossible to diagnose if you can’t remove the volume of coffee you’re using as a variable. At the end of this dialing in process, we’ll have the correct grind size set along with your other parameters, but we have to eliminate as many variables as we can through the process. For that reason, just make sure you’re using a scale! Something with a high degree of accuracy built for espresso, such as the Acaia Lunar, will be the best option here. Of course, these specially designed scales are expensive, so it’s OK to start with something a little more affordable.

With your scale in hand you’ll be able to ensure the proper dose! We’ll take a look at our next consideration (and arguably the toughest part of the process) - grind size, next time. Check out our video below if you want more info on dosing!