Want to make consistent café-quality coffee with your Breville Barista Express? The key isn't constantly changing your settings. It's following the same process every time.
Here's the simple espresso routine I use.
1. Start with fresh coffee beans
Use freshly roasted coffee beans, ideally within around four weeks of the roast date.
Keep your beans stored in an airtight container and only add what you need to the hopper when making coffee.
2. Use the double single-wall basket
For this recipe, use the double cup single-wall filter basket.
We're going to dose 18 grams of ground coffee and aim for approximately 36 grams of espresso out — a simple 1:2 espresso ratio.
3. Preheat your group handle and cup
Temperature matters.
Lock your group handle into the machine and run hot water through it into your cup. This helps preheat both before you make your espresso.
Discard the water, then make sure your group handle and basket are completely dry before adding your ground coffee.
4. Weigh your coffee dose
Place your group handle on your scales and zero them.
Grind your coffee using the double filter setting, then weigh your dose. For this recipe we're using:
18 g coffee in → 36 g espresso out
Adjust the amount until you've reached your 18 g target.
5. Distribute and tamp your coffee
Settle the coffee evenly in the basket with a gentle tap, then give it a firm, level tamp.
Consistency matters more than trying to tamp harder every time.
6. Weigh your espresso as it extracts
Lock the group handle into the machine, position your preheated cup on your scales and zero them.
On the Breville Barista Express, you can manually control the shot by pressing and holding the double-shot button to begin the pre-infusion, then releasing it to continue the extraction.
For this recipe, stop the shot when your scales reach approximately 36 g of espresso.
7. Keep your process consistent
Once you've finished, knock out the coffee puck, wipe the basket clean and return the group handle to the machine so it stays warm.
If you're finished making coffee for the day, remove your remaining beans from the hopper and store them in an airtight container.
The secret to consistently good espresso isn't guessing.
18 g in. 36 g out. Fresh coffee. Hot equipment. Repeatable process.
Once you've established that baseline, you can start adjusting your grinder to dial in the extraction.
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