Sometimes in the morning it’s hard enough to find your wallet, keys and phone, let alone try to troubleshoot a coffee that just tastes off. We’ve all experienced a brew tasting bitter, sour or burnt, but it doesn’t have to ruin your day. These problems can often be fixed with a quick adjustment and re-brew, provided that the problem is not the coffee beans themselves.
Espresso coffee tastes best when made with medium-roast beans. Beans that are too fresh can taste sour, as they haven’t had time to degas. From about a week after roasting your coffee will have settled in and will be beautiful for espresso based coffees.
Assuming you have great quality coffee beans and they aren’t too fresh, this guide will help you solve some issues with the coffee extraction.
Words to understand
Extraction = This refers to the pour of the coffee from your espresso machine. It’s extracting the coffee oils from the beans.
Blonding = When the coffee pour is a pale yellow colour
Basket = The basket holds the coffee grinds which the water flows through
Crema = The light brown oils that sit atop the coffee shot.
Puck = The coffee grinds that remain in your basket after you have run a shot. The make a shape like a hockey puck when you empty the basket out.
Why does my coffee taste bitter?
What to look for: Your puck will be super soggy and sloppy. A thin white/pale yellow watery pour and spirals at the end. Big patches of white on your crema.
Diagnosis: When your espresso comes out tasting bitter, it usually means that the extraction or pour time is too long. Commonly, you’ll see a pale yellow/white stream of coffee that wobbles and spirals towards the end of the shot.
Remedy: Adjust your brew time. A good pour will be somewhere between 25 – 35 secs. Keep watch on the shot as it comes through and as soon as you see the coffee coming out in a light “blonde” colour, stop the shot immediately. This is almost pure caffeine and caffeine tastes very bitter so you want to avoid this and stop the shot as soon as you see it start blonding. Most people make the mistake of trying to extract too much coffee out of a single coffee dose. If you want a strong coffee, get a bigger basket (22g – 28g) and keep the shot time within the ideal range. Don’t worry, you’ll still get your caffeine fix, it just won’t be as bitter.
Why does my coffee taste sour?
What to look for: The coffee GUSHES out under 15 seconds and is wide, pale yellow and bubbly. Your puck will be really dry and powdery.
Diagnosis: A sour espresso shot is one that is under-extracted; meaning the water has run through the coffee too quickly and hasn’t extracted the delicious tasting oils. You are either not putting enough coffee in your basket or you are tamping too lightly and your coffee is too coarse. If your shot pours in under 15 seconds, you are getting under-extracted coffee. The coffee will appear blonde and pale and bubbly. The coffee crema will also dissipate rapidly and the taste will appear thin and sour.
Remedy: To fix a sour espresso shot, adjust your grind to be finer. This will mean that when you tamp the grinds you’ll create more resistance for the water to pass through allowing it to pick up more oils along the way.
Why does my coffee taste burnt?
What to look for: Slow dripping for almost the entirety of the shot. Dark/black pours. You only get a small volume of coffee liquid even after a 45 second extraction. Your puck will look soggy and sloppy again.
Diagnosis: Burnt tasting espresso has been over extracted, meaning the hot water is flowing through the grinds too slowly creating harsh and burnt tasting espresso. You coffee grind is too fine or you are over filling the basket and tamping the coffee too much.
Remedy: To remedy a burnt tasting espresso shot, adjust your grinder to a slightly coarser grind. This will help the water to seep through the grind more evenly without too much resistance, and it won’t overcook the coffee.
If you try out any of these fixes and they don’t work, leave us a reply and we’ll try and give you specific and detailed help! No one has time for dodgy tasting coffee.
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109 comments
Hi Matt,
Yep well before you throw it out, I would check two things. The bitterness can be caused by either the beans themselves or the way they pour. If the extraction is just dripping through for more than a few seconds at the beginning of the pour, you’re grinding the coffee too fine. If your extraction is pouring evenly and is a nice golden thick creamy texture, AND it still tastes bitter, your beans have been roasted too dark. Check the look of the beans and see if they are oily and dark dark colour. This is where the bitter flavour can come from and it is possible your palate has developed and now you’re able to recognise the bitterness.
I honestly don’t think it’s the pump though, although it would be something that can definitely go, but you’ll know it when it does, because the water won’t flow through even if you haven’t got coffee in the portafilter. So ttest that first and see if the water is flowing with nothing in.
So try those things and let me know.
I purchased a “cheap” espresso maker several months ago, and initially I had fantastic results with Starbucks espresso beans, ground fine in a burr grinder.
But in the last month the shot is tasting more and more burnt. Now it is undrinkable. I’ve bought a new basket, cleaned all the filters and anything accessible that can be cleaned. Still horrible even with freshly purchased beans.
The only think I can think of is that the water pump in the machine has become weak and not producing enough pressure for a proper extraction.
Any thoughts or tips before I throw the machine out? Thanks!
Hi Kaan!
Excellent sounds like you have a great setup and just need to tweak a few things.
Firstly, I would remove the preinfusion setting. I have never liked it on. It’s actually a small fad that coffee went through where people baristas wanted to use fresh coffee (as in day old roasts) and light roasted, so to counter the affect, they used preinfusion. It’s not a good method in my opinion and as the roast ages it just gets worse.
So turn that off and then try again aiming for the 25-30 second extraction.
Assuming you’ve chosen high quality coffee beans that are medium roast, you should comfortably be able to extract a balanced shot.
Hi Ryadan,
Very nice post and site indeed! I read all the comments and tried a couple of shots (in addition to the 10s of shots before coming up to this) with my new Breville (Sage) Dual Boiler machine.
I have a Breville (Sage) Smart Grinder Pro and Dual Boiler combo. I am using medium roasted 14-16days old coffee beans from my local roastery/coffee shop.
Here is my problem:
I am having very hard time to reach 25-30 secs for 1:2 ratio as it takes 18-20secs to reach to that point (18gr coffee in; 36-40gr espresso out). As I go finer to reach to 25-30 secs brew time; the shots start getting quite bitter/burnt. These times by the way include the ~6-7 secs of the pre-wetting process. The temp is 93C.
I know I need to find a sweet spot between the two of them but it gets quickly from sour to bitter/burnt as I change the grind size.
I am doing quite a strong tamp; don’t change other parameters though. I even changed the beans and coffee house but no luck with getting any closer to have a sweet oily shot that I get in the coffee shop.
Any suggestions or other variable to change? (Tamping force, timing etc.)
[…] Или же если он слишком долго находился в воде. При мытом способе сортировки и обработке ягод […]
Between 55-65°C for milk (131-149°F)
If just using water I prefer it around 93°C (199°F)
For hot coffee, what should be the temperature?
Hi Dimitris!
Yep extraction time should include preinfusion however, I really believe you should turn off the preinfusion. It was created to offset the short-lived fad of light roasted espresso coffees. Because light roasted coffee degasses more slowly and contains a lot of carbon dioxide, you can help it along with the preinfusion. However, I still think it tastes too sour when its light roasted so I prefer to turn off the preinfusion and just use medium roasted coffee instead.
So let me clarify, you are NOT getting any drops at all in your cup for 25-30 seconds? If this is so, you have the coffee ground way too fine. While the preinfusion is on it won’t drip through but that should only be on for the first 5-6 seconds. Make sure as you dial the coffee grinds more coarsely that you also turn back the dosage time on your grinder otherwise you’ll also overfill your portafilter basket.
Let me know if this helps
hallo and thanks for your advice….your perfect time for exraction (25-35 sec) is uncluding pre-infusion time? during that time we don’t have any drops on the cup….i also have the sage dual boiler coffe machine.
Hi Sir, I’m new in coffee. Still need learning much. I’ve watched many youtube videos, but i still don’t get the perfect time for espresso.
FYI, i’m using home espresso machine, Delonghi Icona 311. I use grinded coffee that i bought from the store, which i don’t know the characteristic of it, or how long has it been roasted or grinded.
I learn with 15gr coffee in my 51mm double spoon portafilter, then tamping, and i wait for 25secs before stopping the brew. And i got about 30ml of espresso which color is dark and a dark gold crema on the top, not so thick but also not so thin. But it become sour and sour everyday i try. What have i done wrong Sir? O yeah, the puck is soupy and sometimes got some little hole.
Please give me an advice. Thanks a lot