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 Paul!
Excellent to hear you are leveling up your barista skills!
Remember the extraction times and doses are just guides and you really have to listen to your own body so that you make the coffee just how you like it.
Having said that, the extraction time should be between 25-30secs (22 seconds if you want a more intense flavour. This is called a Ristretto) with the yield being about 1:2.
It’s really important that you watch the extraction from start to finish so that you can see the moment it starts to turn white and go watery and wavy as that is when you want to cut the shot. If you are getting there around the 25 second mark and getting a yield of 1/2 or greater then thats awesome.
A good practice to try is running a shot into 3 or 4 different shot glasses – the first shot glass should have the first 10-13 seconds, the second glass should contain the middle part of the extraction up to about 25 seconds, the last part can be 25-30seconds and then just for recognition of the bitter flavours, put the 4th glass under and capture a late part of the shot. This should help you distinguish each flavour and will help you when you are trying to find that perfect extraction time and yield.
Good luck!
Ryd
Thanks so much for your tips Ryadan. You have helped me achieve far better results. From an extraction ratio of 14gm/60gm in/out, which often tasted bitter despite using 100% medium roast arabica beans, I tried 14gm/42gm or 1/3. The bitterness has now gone and there is more body and flavour.
However, I am unsure of ideal extraction times though. Can you please advise on extraction times I should be aiming at for 14gm at 1/3 and 1/2 which I want to try. Also, for more coffee in, eg 18gm, should extraction time be longer or stay the same?
Thanks again.
Regards Paul
Hi Basil,
Well, you definitely will see a small drop in quality on home machines compared to high end commercial machines. Some of those machines will cost $16k-$30k so aside from being able to handle high volume they also have tech which isn’t present in home machines.
That said, you should still be able to produce near quality doing the right things.
So, are you drinking them as straight espresso?
If so I think your shot volume might be too high. And this could attribute to the bitterness.
With espressos, I usually do what is called a ristretto or a ‘restricted’ shot. This means you cut the extraction short which gives you a better, sweeter and more intense flavoured shot.
So if I’m doing a 22g shot I would be cutting it off around the 20-21 second mark and should get a volume of around 30ml-35ml.
The longer you leave the shot running the more organic acids are present and these can cause bitterness in your cup.
All else seems good but (depending on the weather) I would degass the coffee a little more and maybe give them to around the 14-20day mark. If it’s a hot and humid climate you live in then 7-14 days is ok, the cooler it is the longer the carbon dioxide takes to escape which causes sourness and can sometimes be confused for a Bitter flavour.
Good luck and let me know how you go!
Ok guys I need some advice, I have sunbeam em4300 machine (it’s my first machine)and my grinder is the Breville the dose pro. Below is the result I’m getting when I pull a double espresso shot. Note: the machine default shot volume is 60ml for a double and I’m using a single wall filter not the crappy double wall that comes in the box
Medium roast beans (1 week old)
Grind setting 16
Coffee in basket 22g
Extraction time 26s
Volume out 60ml
Result: Starts a little bitter with the first sip but as you get to the bottom of the cup it becomes smoother with subtle bitterness
I just can’t get that smooth sweetness from the first sip like I do when order an espresso from the roaster I buy my beans from. Are there any minor adjustments you suggest I can make to achieve this? Or could it just be the beans I’m using and the machine I have and it’s limitations compared to a high end espresso machine?
In reply to my post answered by Ryd – I did manage to find the answer. I ground a little more coarse, more than I expect I would need to as I actually ground finer for my old cheap entry leval machine with good results. Now I am getting coffee come through after 7ish secs (Duo Temp has pre-infusion) and full exstraction of 26secs. Lovely full chocolaty coffee once more.
Other answers: Single wall basket by Sage, does the trick but I may look to upgrade this along with the tamper, which is rubbish. Anyone with the Smart Grinder Pro and Duo Temp machine – start around 15 – 16 setting on default top burr, for me 17-16 setting is the sweet spot for espresso.
Thanks for the help
Hi Richard,
11 seconds does seem like a long time to see the extraction come through. Are you doing some sort of pre-infusion at all? If not, that might be too fine a grind.
Also, when you describe “first drip” do you mean that it is dripping through for a bit? It should be a consistent stream from the get go (maybe one drip sometimes but ideally it should be a nice slow stream from the beginning to when you cut the shot).
I think either your coffee is too fine so the water can’t get through at all or you’re over-dosing the basket. The fact that you have to do a light tamp suggests that it might be too fine. I would see if you could get it to a stage where you can tamp firmly (not too hard) and if the shots run a bit closer to 25 seconds without turning white and watery and see if that helps.
Another thing that could be the issue might be the basket itself. I don’t know the Sage duo temp very well but often they ship with very terrible baskets. Does your basket taper at the sides or say words on it like “dual wall” basket. To help eliminate the issue of the basket, buy a 21g flat sided basket (so not one that tapers) and see if your problem still occurs with it.
I look forwarded to an update!
Ryd
Hi Pete,
Yes, definitely get a grinder. It’s the only way to ensure you get the right grind for your machine.
There are so many variables when it comes to getting the right grind. It’s not a case of set and forget because even the slightest change in weather (humidity, temperature etc) can affect the coffee and you want to be able to adjust the grind as you go.
I have no doubt that when you get your grinder it will fix most of your issues. I would make sure you have chosen a decent grinder though, a Baratza Sette 270 or even a Breville smart grinder Pro will get you started. Stay away from blade grinders and make sure you find conical or burr grinders.
Let us know when you get a grinder. :)
re: “Hi Pete! Yep a soupy puck is definitely a sign of underextraction…..etc…”
Thanks Ryadan!
I did indeed have problems getting fine-enough ground coffee (no grinder yet so relying on nearby cafe to do it for me). I do use a fine grind, so much so that the pressure required to finish the extraction (its a manual hand-pump machine, a Savinelli) can be excessive and initial drip rates are just that – a drip.
I think with a finer grind I would have problems not being over-extracted due to the time required to pull through.
The other points make more sense though, I have had some “eplosive” results (where the puck “pops” when the portafilter is released and the grounds are sprayed up into the head and elsewhere…) but this does appear to come in groups, so too-fresh coffee or too-hot water fit better. I definitely sometimes notice that the water spray is quite noisy and other times less so.
We will be investing in a grinder that is fit for the task so will soon be able investigate different grind settings but will look into the other things too and let you know :)
Best,
Pete
Hello
I have a Sage Duo Temp and a Smart Grinder Pro. I am getting shots that are sour, but the puck is very dry and powdery. The output time is around 33secs with a light tamp. Both my beans give the same result and are roasted by two respected roasters, Extract and Clifton Coffee and are both just over 2weeks old now – although this issue is there all the time, I’ve been getting this coffee for three years. I’ve gone finer, courser and get the same result. Finer, machine takes forever and cuts, seams I am an the limit. Can you help?
18g in
36g our
Grind top burr factory 6 and 14 at the dial (if you know this grinder)
Extraction first drip at 11secs and 31-33 full
Also heat with handle with group head and run the water through.
Could the machine be the issue? Seams to be hot, water is for sure.
Thanks!
Hi Andrew!
Thanks for putting your info in here. It helps to get a great understanding of what you’re currently doing in order to help you correct it.
I can see your issue straight away —→ Lavazza coffee will never give you the crema or taste you are looking for. It’s just not high enough quality and if you bought it from a supermarket or grocer, you are probably starting with coffee thats at least 4-6 months old.
Obvious signs to notice is if the best before date is about 6 months from now. Most roasters put a 12 month best before date on but really it’s just a meanlingless date as coffee doesn’t really go off, just loses it’s flavour and lovely oils. What an expiry date means is that the coffee was roasted about 12 months prior to date so this helps you determine what date the coffee was roasted.
As a general rule, coffee should be consumed within about 2 months to extract the maximum flavours (unless it’s flash frozen and flash thawed with precision equipment but there aren’t many people using this method currently).
Even if your Lavazza is fresh I doubt the coffee quality score would be higher than a 60 (The quality score is from 0-100 on an exponential scale – meaning it’s a lot harder to get from 60-80 than it is to get from 40-60). You want to look for a QS of about 80+
Best thing to do is find coffee that has a high quality score, uses key words like “specialty coffee”, and the beans are medium roast (not dark and oily), check the date and make sure you’re using coffee that is about 7-14 days old and you’ll find you won’t get any bitter results (unless the roaster doesn’t know what he/she is doing.)
All the best!
Ryd