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.
Want to learn more?
Check out our ULTIMATE Home Barista Course!
With this course, you are guaranteed to improve your home barista skills, becoming an expert in coffee theory and practice, and leaving you with the confidence to take on the coffee industry.
What you’ll receive
- A six-lesson series of in-depth information
- Video tutorials
- Cheats sheets and small quizzes to help with retention
- On-going Support
- Access to an exclusive Facebook group
- Priority discounts and bonuses as we release more and more special materials
Find out more info here!
109 comments
Thanks for a great article
Hi Ryd,
I have read through lots of comments here and taken some notes but thought I would ask you directly for some help. I have a barista breville express. I was playing today with it to try and get the extraction right.
I was using good specialty beans roasted 2-3 weeks ago. Now I changed the grind repeatedly and not once did it extract longer than 15 seconds. And I mean I tried like very option. At about 7.5 it made a nice coffee and I enjoyed it but it didn’t pour for more than 15 seconds – from pushing the cup button to it finishing. Have you got any pointers of what I am doing wrong?
It was sitting in the correct place in the pressure gauge too – if not a bit higher.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Georgina
Hi Ryd,
I am getting a burnt flavour. And my puck is too dry and powdery what should I do ?
Hi Paul!
Sounds like something has changed on your setup or your beans from when you were creating beautiful shots.
First off I think the boiler is a little cool. It should peak around 240F (116C) and then after you flush it it should ideally sit at around 198-204F (92-95C). I think your temp is too cold and while this won’t cause bitter coffee, it will create a sour and unpalatable taste. So, it’s definitely one to look at.
The stats all look correct, although I’d be looking at around a 1:2 for the extraction volume (1:3 will be getting bitter for sure). Another thing you can try is to pull a double ristretto (italian = restricted) which create a sweeter more intense flavour. To do this you are looking at around a 1:1 extraction cutting the extraction short about 20-22 seconds. I would also go the other way with the dosing and slightly over dose the basket. I like a 1gm or 2gm over.
The watery coffee is an indicator that the oils aren’t present. Either from poor quality coffee beans or from underextracting (but that taste is not bitter, but more tasteless and slightly sour). Finding high quality beans are challenging because people will always say they are “specialty coffee” when in fact they are sub 80 cupping score (a universal score to measure the overall quality of coffee beans). Look for a coffee beans that specifies 85+ coffee score and make sure they are medium roast (no city or dark roasts). If the weather is cool, wait around 14-21 days from roast date before you use them (you can sample them earlier but usually I find they degas after a few weeks.) If the weather is extremely hot you may find your coffee degases after only a week.
Good luck!
Hi Ryadan,
After producing some satisfying coffees at home for awhile, with an occasional godshot, my coffee now tastes consistently bitter, intense, unpalatable and leaves an unpleasant taste. I have backflushed and descaled my rancilio silvia M, cleaned solenoid valve, portafilter and IMS ridgeless 15gm filter basket. I thoroughly cleaned my eureka specialata grinder burrs and shute and have tried various beans with no noticable improvement in coffee taste. I measured water temp at group head after temp surfing (brew 30 secs after thermostat light goes off) at 185F. I guess slightly cooled by the time it falls into cup. Not sure about the pressure. Grinder is fairly new and burrs look fine.
I wonder if you may be able to help me as I don’t know what to try next.
Maybe the machine is not functioning properly. Have been dosing quite fine 14gms in 15gm IMS basket, level, tamp firmly, extract ratio 1:2.5 to1:3, pour start 4-5 secs, pour for 25-30 secs. Not sure if I’m on the right track. Have tried various blends and 100% arabica. Some shots have looked good but most look a bit watery. But if I grind any finer the shot time will be over 25 -30 secs.
If nothing wrong with my equipment, I wonder if I may be under or overextracting, incorrect brew
ratio, tamping pressure incorrect or something else. The confusing thing is I have been trying to replicate my methods I used when coffee tasted good, but now without any success.
Thanks,
Kind regards
Paul
Hey Christian,
So glad you sent that video through! I can see straight away what the issue is.
It shouldn’t be at 121C. Maximum it should be is around 95C but I like to set it at 93CI don’t know why they tell you in the manual to set it at a minimum of 121 but thats definitely not correct unless maybe it’s talking about the steam boiler (but I am not sure if that Izzo Vivi model is a twin boiler or just a single boiler)
That’s definitely why you’re getting the burnt flavour.
The beans look fine and the grind looks fine.
Other than that, I think you’re coffee making skills are great. I watched the pour and that’s exactly what it should look like when it’s extracting.
It makes me even more convinced that it should be the water temp.
Just try putting it down to 93 and see how it tastes but I’m sure thats the reason.
No idea why they would say 121 either. Thats not even Fahrenheit cos that would be 199 or something. (F-32)x5/9 = C
Fingers crossed this works!
Cheers,
Ryd
Thanks for that Noor,
I’m so glad you sent me the video because I think I saw the problem you are having!
It looks like the Breville has got a pressure leak.
There’s a split second where you film far enough back that I caught a glimpse of the pressure gauge in the corner of the screen and it looked like it hadn’t gone up past about 1 or 2 bars when it should be hitting about 9 bars.
I am sure this is the problem.
Definitely the shot doesn’t look right as it falls, it shouldn’t be that wavy and watery. It should look exactly like pouring honey. Thick and smooth and evenly pouring straight down.
Watch the pressure gauge as you extract the shot and see if you can get the pressure up to 9 bars. As an excercise to see if it’s the coarseness of the coffee and not a fault on the machine, try making the coffee fine and see if you get the pressure that way. Or if you have blind filter (it should be a flat grey rubber disc that fits inside the basket and stops the water from flowing through.)
Let me know how it goes.
Hi Christian,
Interesting problems you are having!
For the most part I think you’re doing everything right in terms of using the ratio and time as a guide. Although I would be aiming for the shot to be finishing up around 25-27 seconds as a full shot (20-22 seconds for a ristretto for a more intense and sweeter shot).
The low amount of crema is a worry because if everything else you are doing is correct – you should be getting a nice full crema. This could mean the coffee quality is not that high or it’s been roasted badly. So here’s some further questions for you if you can reply we might be able to get deeper into the issue.
Is the coffee shiny at all? Are there small amounts of the beans that are oily?
Is the coffee a dark roast or a medium roast? Identify the colour on the scale at the top of the blog post.
When you start extracting, how many seconds until you see the first signs of the shot come through?
Is the shot dripping a lot when it first comes through or does it fall straight down in a nice even flow? Or does it fall in a concave shape?
Is the coffee gushing through quickly or billowing out in a super thick bubbly stream?
I notice the PID on that machine, and you said you have it on the lowest temp. What temp exactly?
Are you using a preinfusion at all? If so how many seconds?
Backflushing is one of many cleaning habits, have you ever taken the showerscreen off and soaked it in chemical overnight? (if you have always experienced this bitterness, then it might not be this, but it’s a good cleaning habit to do every 2-4 weeks)
Lastly, is it definitely bitterness and burnt that you taste? Sometimes our tastebuds trick us so it’s important to hone in on exactly what tastes we are seeing.
I know we can get to the bottom of this problem!
Hi! Following up from my recent email where I had a soupy puck/burnt espresso. I am using the breville barista express 2-cup single wall filter basket. My coffee is not preground, I use fresh beans. The shot usually starts to pour about 5-6 seconds after I press the button. I typically let it run until it stops. There is a variation in color in my espresso. Starts of dark, then gets lighter and ends with a caramel-y color. There is just no body in my espresso. It looks flat and the crema doesn’t sit atop as it should.
Hi Ryadan
Thanks for a great article (and the Q&A as well). I read everything (and a lot more:)) but I still can’t find the answer to my problem. I keep pulling shots with a bitter and burnt taste almost no matter what I do and I can’t figure out why.
I’m going for a 1:2 ratio as a guideline – just did a 18 gm/40 ml shot in 20 sec. If I stop the shot around 23-25 sec the bitterness and the burnt taste is even worse. I tried to lower the extraction time by grinding coarser but the shot time will be way to low. I also tried to grind much finer and do a 18 gm/36 ml in 28 sec. Still tasted bitter and burnt – but somehow a bit less.
The crema is very low but I don’t know if it’s just the coffee? The coffee is medium roasted 11 days ago and good quality from a local coffee roaster. It should leave me with a round chocolate taste but this burnt taste is taking over instead.
My machine is Izzo Vivi PID III and grinder is Mazzer Mini. I backflush every 2 weeks so I don’t think the reason is dirty equipment. The temperature is the lowest recommended in the guide that came with the machine.
So do you see anything here that might be the reason to this bitter and burnt taste?
Thanks again
Christian