How to make a good espresso at home

Here is a typical home espresso machine, it features a pressurized basket. We just need any one you can find in electronics store, not brand specific here.

Here is the Hario Ceramic Hand Grinder. This is the lowest budget usable grinder. Do not use blade grinder as it would create uneven grinds and heat up coffee beans.

We will tight up the grinder screw all the way, and then release 4 clicks from there. That's the reasonable grind that won't take you forever to finish...

And pressurized basket requires slightly coarser grind then a professional, unpressurized basket.

Here is a typical pressurized coffee basket.

Pressurized basket from bottom, notice there are only 2 holes for coffee to come out. The pressure of the basket is trapped until it excess the designated threshold.

Now we will put some beans into the grinder. You will need slightly more than the basket can fill to properly fill up the basket, here is about 20g.

Now we start the hard work. Grind the beans manually.

In 2 minutes your coffee is grinded in the coffee collection bottle underneath.

Now we fill up the basket as much as we could. Do not tamp your coffee, there is absolutely no need to tamp your coffee with a pressurized basket.

Once you fill up the basket, scrap off excessive coffee, then knock the basket lightly on the table to pre-collapse your coffee. Well filled basket is key for your home espresso quality.

Now we fill up more to make sure all the gaps are filled.

Scrap again, notice the coffee fills fat top on the basket. Again, absolute no tamping.

After scraping, the coffee basket is ready.

Now, preheat your cup with some hot boiled water.

Plug in the basket, pull your shot. Take your cup away in 18-20ml. We need to keep the shot small for the best part of espresso.

Enjoy your espresso! ;)

When you open the basket, notice coffee should have a well pressed surface by the group head (no gap between group head and coffee), that's shows the quality of your filling work.

The most important part of a good espresso is: fresh and good quality beans. Beans roasted within a month and opened within a week is usually at best shape.

If you have money, before upgrade your espresso machine, consider upgrade your grinder first. A good grinder (Mazzer, Gaggia, Rocky to name a few brands) is way much more important.