How to Make Espresso Shot at Home?

A well-made espresso shot is the holy grail of coffee lovers everywhere. Nothing feels quite as good as having a perfect espresso after a long day of work, or sometimes, at the start of a tough workday. However, it can be quite expensive and tiring to buy an espresso from a coffee shop every day. Worry not as we’ve brought you the best espresso recipe without a machine.

For those who don’t know, Espresso is a method of brewing coffee. When making espresso, you push boiling water through the finely ground coffee at high pressure.

Here is all you need to know about how to make espresso at home.

How to Make an Espresso Shot Using Instant Coffee

Ingredients

• 1 ½ tablespoon Instant coffee. (Or more if you prefer that)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ cup milk
• ½ water
• Drinking cocoa powder

Method

• Add the instant coffee and sugar to a cup.
• Add just a few drops of water and mix the sugar and coffee to a paste. Keep mixing that paste, till it turns shiny and whiter in color.
• Boil the water and milk together
• Add the water and milk mixture to the coffee. Make sure to do it from a height, so the pressure of the milk makes the coffee froth up.
• You can then add some cocoa powder on top for more flavor.

How to Make an Espresso Shot Using a French Press

• Remove the French Press lid and add about 2 tablespoons of finely ground coffee, into the bottom of the glass carafe.
• Add a small amount of boiling water and let the coffee sit for about 30 seconds. Then add the rest of the water, particularly, one cup in this case.
• Put the lid of the French press back into position, and draw into the top.
• Let the water and coffee steep for 4 minutes.
• With even pressure over the lid of the French press, bring the lounger down halfway. When you get halfway down, you have to bring the plunger back to the top, and press down to the end.
• Making sure the plunger is at the bottom, you then pour your homemade espresso into a mug.
• This is the perfect recipe for making espresso at home.

What Beans You Should Use to Make the Perfect Espresso Shot?

While espresso is usually made from Robusta or Arabica beans, they need to be ground finely and evenly before they are used. Coffee beans used in espresso are usually roasted more than any other coffee brew. They are usually heavy dark roast, however, you can also substitute for medium to light roast. If you’re making your espresso using the easy recipe, we recommend you go for the dark roast.

If the beans aren’t ground fine enough, the espresso won’t be strong enough. The taste will also be affected. A good espresso shot is meant to be sipped alone. The flavor profile is supposed to be bitter, sweet, and acidic. The stronger an espresso, the better would its taste be and the more active you are likely to stay.

Things to Invest in to Make Your Espresso Shot

A Coffee Grinder

As discussed above, a fine, even grind is necessary to make a good cup of espresso. Invest in a coffee grinder that is trusted and has many good reviews too. Some of the top coffee grinders are made by Hamilton Beach, Cuisinart, and Black + Decker. A good grinder would help you in an even grind, and would also prevent the coffee from sticking and forming clumps.

A Kitchen Scale

The need for measurement is another necessity, especially, if you intend to make espresso at home regularly. The trick to making good espresso is also the amount of coffee you use. The right way to measure your coffee is to measure the beans when they are whole. Then you should grind and use them. The correct weight of coffee beans to make 1 cup espresso is 10 grams. The ratio of coffee to water should be 1:2. This is far stronger than other brews, where the ratio of coffee to water is 1:15. This is also true for any espresso recipe without a machine.

A Frother

A frother may come in as a handy investment, especially when you want to have café quality espresso. You should drink an espresso shot alone. However, over the years, the addition of milk has given birth to many recipes. Two of these are macchiato and Latte.

A frother aerates the milk, creating a foam. It gives the milk a lighter consistency and increases its volume. The frothed milk gives a lightness and creaminess to the coffee, which normal milk can’t. A good frother can give the perfect flavor to any espresso.

Things to Take Care of When Making an Espresso Shot

Prime Your French Press

Many coffee machines, including the French press, need to be primed. Priming means running clean water, up to 3 times, from the machine. You don’t need to add any coffee at this stage. This helps remove any dust that might have accumulated in the machine. Priming should be done to all machines that have been out of work for over a month. Still, it is advisable to run water at least once through a machine, even if you use it every day.

To prime a French press, add clean, boiling water to the glass carafe. Swirl the water around for 30 seconds. This will not only help remove dust but will also heat the glass carafe. Heating the glass carafe ensures that things brew at the right temperature.

Use Filtered Water

The main difference between filtered and tap water is the removal of chlorine. The first benefit of using filtered water is that it prevents limescale buildup in the machine. This helps protect your French press. The best part about using filtered water is that it removes small particles and chlorine, but leaves behind enough minerals to make the coffee taste amazing. All of these reasons make it perfect for any espresso recipe.

Grind Your Coffee Beans Just Before Brewing

For the strongest brew and taste, you should grind your coffee beans, right before you are about to brew your coffee. Grinding your beans too early makes them lose their taste.

Skimmed Milk Is the Best for Coffee

When you choose the perfect milk to froth for coffee, the right answer is always skimmed milk. This milk is the best when it is frothed and increases in size the most. Skimmed milk is also the creamiest when compared with all other types of milk. It gives a mouthwatering creaminess, and flavor to any espresso recipe.

Although, if you don’t like skimmed milk, you can substitute it for whole milk, almond milk, or oat milk. Just keep in mind they don’t get as frothy or creamy as skim milk.

Conclusion

Both the methods mentioned above, are ways you can duplicate a café Espresso at home. However, espresso in its reality needs an espresso machine. Espresso is stronger and thicker than any other brew out there. This is because very little water, and high pressure are used to brew an espresso shot. Establishing such a high pressure without a machine is impossible.

Nonetheless, the above-mentioned methods are more than capable of satisfying your espresso cravings. They are also some of the most flavorful espresso recipes.