When one makes a cup of drip coffee, it is easy to figure out how this machine brews the coffee. Water is pumped from a reservoir into the coffee grounds. This water is then filtered by a paper (or gold) filter and drips in to the carafe. The carafe is sat on a heated plate, which in turn heats up the coffee within the carafe and we have coffee!
Espresso on the other hand is a different beast. Being able to compact the equivalent of one cup of coffee into one shot of espresso requires a different brewing mechanism.
The Basics of Espresso
Espresso machines need the coffee to be ground much finer than the grind of drip coffee. The ground coffee should look and feel like sugar. But be careful: coffee which is grinded too fine will cause the espresso to come out slowly. This results in a bitter cup of espresso.
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