Making your home espresso machine perform better

If you are one of those that think that your home espresso machine is pales in comparison to its commercial cousins, you are not alone. I can assure you that many people come to me with the same question "where to find commercial espresso machine?"

Of course, the easy answer would be to purchase it, but the folks that asked this question wanted something at an affordable pricing. Nobody wants to spend thousands over dollars on an espresso maker.

The good news which I am going to share via this article is this: your home espresso machine and the commercial machine is actually more similar than you can imagine. Other than the higher turn around that the latter is able to do, there is actually not much difference.

But, why would there be such a contrast in quality if the machines are so similar? Well, I do not mean to push any negative remarks forward but it has to do with the person using it. Well, that would be you folks.

You should not blame yourself, because the marketing materials states that you do not need to know anything to operate those home espresso machine but the fact is, you do need to know some things in order to operate it properly.

One of the things which are very critical to good espresso is the brew temperature. It is not so easy to get the optimum brewing temperature in the machines because of another important element that you need to heat up which is the milk.

The steaming of milk is essential for the delivery of the cappuccino, latte and some other gourmet coffee drinks. And since milk is frothed at a higher temperature than espresso, you need to know the transitions between these two.

The fact is while this might sounds terribly complicated, most of us actually would not have to worry about it. It would depend on the type of boiler that your espresso maker comes with.

If you have a single boiler, there is nothing much to monitor, it comes with a single button to alternate between the brew and steam temperature so all you need to do is to wait.

And if your machine comes with a double boiler, it is even easier; all you need to do is to enjoy the drinks! This is because you have a dedicated boiler for the espresso and the milk.

The folks that would need to worry about the alternating temperature are those that have boilers with heat exchanger. They would need to know a little about cooling flush in order to get the optimum brewing temperature for your espresso.

It is basically a trial and error session to assess the right amount of water to cool the temperature. One would need to do things such as listening to the steam and water fluttering inside the machine, then tasting the espresso shot.

A sour espresso would point to the fact that flushing is done too much while a bitter espresso would require you to do more flushing.

Trust me, if you can get this optimum brewing temperature right, the quality of your espresso would be not that different from cafe standard assuming all other variables are being met.