If your Barista Express shots run fast, taste sour, or the pressure needle barely moves, the grind is the first thing to check. Here's where to start and how to move from there, one step at a time.
Where to start
The Barista Express grinder has 16 settings. 1 is the finest, 16 is the coarsest. For espresso in the single-wall double basket, start at 5 and let the shot tell you which way to go. Most owners end up in the lower half of the dial with fresh beans.
What you're aiming for
- Dose: about 18g of ground coffee in the double single-wall basket.
- Yield: about 36g of espresso in the cup (a 1:2 ratio). No scale? Roughly 2 oz.
- Time: 25 to 30 seconds from pressing the button.
- Pressure: the needle sitting inside the "Espresso Range" zone on the gauge while the shot runs.
No scale yet? Use the Razor tool that came with the machine to trim the dose level after tamping. It's not as precise as weighing, but it gets you consistent.
Which way to turn the dial
- Under 20 seconds, sour, thin, needle low: grind 1 to 2 settings finer.
- Over 35 seconds, bitter, dripping slowly, needle maxed out: grind 1 to 2 settings coarser.
- 25 to 30 seconds but still sour: leave the grind and let a little more espresso run into the cup.
Change one thing at a time. After you move the dial, grind a couple of seconds into the knock box first, because the coffee sitting in the chute was ground at the old setting.
Using the dual-wall (pressurised) basket?
The dual-wall baskets that come with the machine hide grind mistakes. They make a crema-looking shot at almost any setting, so you can't really dial in with them. Switch to the single-wall basket (it's in the box) if you want the grind setting to mean anything. Here's how to tell which basket you have.
At setting 1 and still running fast?
Check the beans first. Coffee without a roast date, or roasted more than about a month ago, often can't be ground fine enough to slow the shot down. Fresh beans from a local roaster fix this more often than anything else.
If the beans are fresh, the Barista Express has a second, inner burr adjustment under the hopper. It ships on 6. Moving it a step or two finer shifts the whole dial finer. Empty the hopper, follow the steps in your manual, and move one step at a time.
Once the grind is close
If the time is right but the shot still spurts, tastes sour and bitter at once, or leaves a wet puck with a pinhole, the grind isn't the problem any more. The puck is. Read why your Barista Express shot channels and the 60-second puck prep routine that fixes it.
Everything we sell that fits the Barista Express is on one page: Everything for your Barista Express.