Espresso Breville Barista Pro Double Shot
Eighteen grams in, thirty-six out, twenty-five to thirty seconds. Grind is the only variable, and you move it one number at a time.
- Total
- 25–30 sec
- Grinder
- Breville built-in On your grinder
- Grind setting
- 15 On your grinder
- Dose in
- 18 g
- Yield
- 36 g
- Brew temp
- 200°F / 93.3°C
- Shot time
- 25-30 sec
- Brew ratio
- 1:2.0
Dialed for a Medium-dark roast. What to change if yours is lighter or darker.
A ratio, a time, and one thing to adjust. Everything else is held still on purpose: with dose and yield fixed, a shot that runs fast is a grind that is too coarse and a shot that chokes is a grind that is too fine, and you never have to wonder which of four changes did it.
Weigh both ends. The scale under the cup is not fussiness — a shot judged by eye is a shot judged by crema, and crema lies about almost everything.
Changing more than one number at a time is how a machine ends up with six months of adjustments and no idea which one helped.
Brew process
-
Purge
Run the group for two seconds and wipe the shower screen. A cold group and yesterday's grounds both show up in the cup.
-
Dose
Grind straight into the basket and level it off at 18 g. Weigh it; the timed dose on the machine drifts as the beans age.
-
Distribute
Break up any clumps and level the bed flat. An uneven bed channels, and a channel is the one fault tamping cannot fix.
-
Tamp
Straight down, firm, level. Consistency matters more than force — the same tamp every time is what makes the grind adjustment mean something.
-
Lock in
Lock the portafilter in and start the shot immediately. Coffee sitting in a hot group starts extracting before the water arrives.
-
Extract
Pull to 36 g in the cup, counting from the moment you press the button — pre-infusion included.
-
Stop
You are aiming for 25 to 30 seconds. Faster than 25: grind finer by one number. Slower than 30: coarser by one. One number, one shot, then taste.
-
Serve
Drink it now. Espresso does not wait, and a shot judged five minutes later is a different drink.
Beans for this
These numbers were written for a Medium-dark roast. That is what the temperature and the time below assume — it is a setting, not a fact.
- Power Button Superthing Coffee Medium-dark · Blend, 50% washed Guatemala and 50% washed Ethiopia The one I use
- Espresso Blue Bottle Coffee Dark · Organic blend, Latin America and Central Africa
- La Sagrada Praxis Coffee Roasters Medium-dark · Latin America, rotating seasonally through direct-trade lots (Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala among them)
Every bag I have written up for the Breville Barista Pro
If your bag is lighter or darker than that
18 g to 36 g is about 1:2. Everything below is relative to this recipe's own numbers.
A lighter roast than this recipe
- Temperature
- Go hotter. A lighter roast is denser and gives up less at the same temperature — take it to the top of the range, or just off the boil.
- Time
- Give it longer. Another fifteen to thirty seconds of contact, whether that is a slower pour or a longer steep.
- Grind
- Grind finer, one step. Light roasts under-extract before they over-extract, and sour is the failure you will meet first.
- Dose
- Leave the dose alone at first. If it is still thin after the other three, add a gram or two.
A darker roast than this recipe
- Temperature
- Go cooler. A dark roast is brittle and gives up everything it has immediately — back off five degrees or let the kettle stand a minute.
- Time
- Cut it short. Stop the brew at the first sign of it slowing down; the last of the drawdown is where the ash comes from.
- Grind
- Grind coarser, one step. Bitter and hollow is the failure you will meet first, and coarser is the fix.
- Dose
- You can use slightly less and lose nothing. A dark roast tastes stronger than it is.
The roast it was written for
- Temperature
- The temperature on this recipe is written for exactly this roast. Start there.
- Time
- The time is the time. Change it only after you have tasted it once as written.
- Grind
- Grind is still the one thing worth moving. Everything else in the recipe is fixed so that it can be.
- Dose
- The dose below is what these numbers were dialed at.
More on what the words mean: light, medium and dark roasts.
Goes with
- A cousin of
- Where I measure, and where I don't
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