One of the biggest misconceptions about espresso is that you need to follow the same recipe and profile for every shot. However, as Frank La, the US Barista Champion for 2024, puts it, each coffee tells a different story, and it’s our job, as home baristas, to listen.
The goal of dialing in your espresso is simple: to ensure your coffee tastes great to you. To do that, there are a few tips and tricks to help you get to your perfect espresso fastest. One of the biggest is the difference in dialing in for an espresso blend vs a single-origin coffee.
While both of these coffee types can produce incredible espresso, the approach to drawing the best out of these distinct styles of coffee differs.
Brewing with a Manual Espresso Machine
Before we get into the dial-in process, we should briefly discuss the benefits of using a direct-lever espresso machine, like the Flair 58 Plus 2, when dialing in your espresso, regardless of the blend, origin, or roast level. Unlike most semi-automatic espresso machines, a manual espresso maker like the Flair 58 Plus 2 gives you full control over all the brew variables, so you can easily adjust your brew ratio, pressure and flow profiles, and extraction duration.
What is an Espresso Blend
In general, an espresso blend is a mix of coffees from different origins, and often different processing methods or roast profiles, combined specifically to work well when brewed as espresso. This allows for balancing acidity, body, sweetness, and crema in a way a single-origin coffee often cannot on its own.
All espresso blends differ slightly, but they tend to be developed a bit more during the roasting process, resulting in a medium-dark to dark appearance. They feature more traditional and comforting tasting notes like chocolate and nuttiness, and also pair exceptionally well with milk for milk-based drinks like cappuccinos and lattes.
What is a Single Origin Coffee
On the other hand, a single-origin coffee is any coffee roasted from a single batch of green coffee beans. Single origins can come from anywhere coffee is grown in the world, but they tend to be roasted to a lighter degree, and as a result are more dense. While the tasting notes vary, single-origin coffees tend to feature more floral and fruit notes that express the specific region and processing method.
Differences in Dial-in Approach
In general, there are two different recipes and profiles that should be considered as a baseline when trying to dial-in espresso blends vs single origin coffees.
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Espresso Blend Approach - Espresso blends tend to benefit from what’s called a straight 9 BAR profile with an extraction length of 25 seconds and a ratio of 2:1. This has been a standard extraction profile in espresso for many years, and it’s one of the ways that roasters test if their blend is well balanced. So, if you find an espresso blend in a store, you should always dial in targeting a 9 BAR extraction for 25 seconds, ensuring that the espresso in your cup weighs twice your original dose. The high pressure ensures you can emulsify all the fats, oils, and CO2 that make a shot of espresso delicious, resulting in deep crema in your cup. Because this is an espresso blend, you can be confident that using this profile is exactly what the roaster used when determining their blend.
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Single Origin Approach - Single origins, on the other hand, typically do not need such a high-pressure extraction, as this tends to draw out the bitter notes and overwhelm the delicate fruit and florals present in your lightly roasted coffee. In addition, because single origins tend to be more lightly roasted, the beans are more dense and brittle, meaning that a longer pre-infusion, or saturation, is needed to extract the flavors. So, a good starting point for any single origin is a 5-6BAR extraction, with a 10-second pre-infusion. You’ll also aim for a 1:2.5 or 1:3 ratio, over a longer extraction time.
Tips from a Barista Champion
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Don’t chase someone else’s recipe - Only one person’s opinion matters when it comes to how your coffee should taste. Yours. Manual levers like the Flair give you the freedom to experiment with every variable, so go ahead and experiment!
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One variable at a time - The best way to get to know your coffee is by dialing in methodically, keeping everything constant and changing just one variable at a time, so you build an understanding of how the changes affect your final beverage. Changing multiple things at once will hide the impact of the changes you are making.
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Taste. Every. Shot. - When dialing in, some shots will miss your targets entirely; they may brew far too fast, or far too slowly, your ratio might be totally off, or perhaps your pressures ended up different than intended. Regardless, always taste the resulting coffee. Building a foundational understanding of how these factors impact taste is the best way to help yourself decide how to proceed with your next brew.
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The 20-second rule - Let your freshly brewed espresso settle for 20 seconds before taking a sip. This gives the coffee a bit of time to cool down, allowing the sweetness and more delicate flavors to shine through.
A Note on Be Bright Coffee
Be Bright Coffee is the brainchild of 2024 US Barista Champion Frank La. They focus on sourcing incredible coffees and roast them to preserve their unique flavor profile and character.
They are based in LA, on Melrose and have a second location set to open in Korea Town, and they ship across the US! Check them out at www.bebrightcoffee.com
