Why does high test coffee follow the 14g, 50ml, 25-second espresso baseline?

The classic baseline is 14 grams of coffee grounds, plus or minus one, yielding 50 milliliters of espresso, plus or minus five, in 25 seconds, plus or minus five. Few shops actually follow it, because past cups extracted this way tasted weak, so many raised the dose to chase a stronger flavor.

That baseline is not arbitrary. Extracting 50 milliliters from 14 grams pulls out most of the flavor compounds in the coffee and lands on a balanced cup, which makes it useful for judging a bean's character. Grind setting and tamping pressure are the two variables that decide the result; a higher dose can then be tried for a more concentrated, front-loaded cup.

The extraction of espresso may seem simple, but in reality it hides quite a few intricacies. Many coffee enthusiasts, when learning to make Espresso, come across a set of classic parameters: 14 grams of coffee grounds, extraction of 50 milliliters, in 25 seconds. However, in actual practice, very few people actually extract according to this standard, often because of poor past experiences, getting into the habit of increasing the dose to achieve a stronger flavor. In fact, extracting 50 milliliters from 14 grams is precisely an ideal baseline for testing the flavor performance of coffee beans, capable of extracting a relatively complete and balanced taste from the coffee. On this foundation, increasing the dose and adjusting the concentration according to personal taste is the more scientific approach. This article will focus on key aspects such as grind setting, tamping pressure, and extraction observation, breaking down in detail the essentials of making espresso, to help you produce a cup of Espresso with balanced flavor.

Detailed Steps for Espresso Extraction: Common Knowledge About Espresso

14 grams of coffee grounds (±1), extract 50ml (±5), 25 seconds (±5)...

These key numbers should be familiar to anyone who has come into contact with espresso.

However, shops that actually stick to this standard in daily production are in fact very few and far between.

The reason is mostly that espresso extracted with this set of parameters in the past was not ideal, so a habit of increasing the dose developed, using a stronger coffee-to-water ratio to get a familiar taste.

And the key factors affecting the extraction result often lie in the two variables of grind setting and tamping pressure.

Generally speaking, extracting 50ml of liquid from 14 grams of grounds is a standard very suitable for judging the flavor performance of coffee beans.

This ratio can bring out almost most of the flavor substances in the beans, ultimately yielding a cup of espresso with very high balance.

On this foundation, you can gradually increase the dose according to personal preference to adjust the concentration.

The more grounds, the more prominent the front-end flavors, and correspondingly the back-end flavors will be weakened.

There are several details worth noting during the extraction process.

It is recommended to first adjust the grinder's grind setting to the state of "extracting 50ml from 14 grams of grounds in about 18 seconds."

This way, when the dose is increased later, the extraction time will not be dragged out too long.

Tamping pressure is equally critical.

When the dose is larger, it is usually necessary to increase tamping pressure, so that the puck has enough resistance to counter the water pressure during extraction.

But when the dose is on the smaller side, besides distributing the grounds evenly, even more attention must be paid to not tamping too hard.

Because excessive pressure will cause the air inside the puck to be expelled prematurely, easily leading to over-extraction and a bitter taste.

The ideal state is to continuously see crema being produced from the start of extraction to the end, rather than it becoming thin and pale halfway through.

In the early stage of extraction, you can judge whether the tamping pressure is appropriate by the flow rate.

If the tamping is too heavy, the middle stage will show whitening and an obvious watery quality.

After extraction ends, you can also observe the fineness of the bubbles on the surface of the coffee liquid.

Do these things, and you can basically get a cup of espresso with decent balance.

Next, you can use this as a baseline and gradually increase the amount of coffee grounds to adjust the distribution of flavor and mouthfeel.

As the dose increases, the flavor intensity naturally rises, and at the same time it can to some extent smooth over undesirable flavors in the back end.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.