The Rosso Coffee Grind Guide

When you first start making espresso at home, you might want to do some research on how you can get your espresso to taste like it does at a cafe. We've all been there... on Google, down a rabbit hole at the early hours of the morning, gawping at how detailed some of the advice is about measuring your coffee to the nearest nanogram. Well, we're here to settle the noise slightly and really just say what's most important...

Below are our top four tips on grinding coffee for maximum taste when making espresso with an espresso machine:

1. If you can, use a burr grinder rather than a blade grinder. Burr grinder produce more uniform grinds whereas blade grinders can cause some larger shards of beans that will impact the taste of your espresso due to the inconsistency.

2. If you’re grinding for espresso, aim for a granulated sugar consistency, which means grinding on the finer side.

3. Don’t tamp too hard! Tamping is important as it keeps the coffee surface level. However, tamping too hard will cause your espresso to be overextracted. Aim for a gentle pressure of around 15kg, ensuring it’s level.

4. Trial and error (as always). Sometimes, with some beans, you’ll just need to adjust the grind size based on taste. A bitter taste usually means it’s overextracted and this means you’ll need to increase the granulation size and coarsen up the grind. A watery espresso taste means you’re likely underextracting the espresso, and you’ll need to decrease the grind size and grind more finely. So in the end, it’s just a process of tasting and modifying until you find what works best.