Espresso Fundamentals Course with Café Sublime

I’ll be honest, espresso has always played second fiddle to pour over and immersion methods in terms of my appreciation for coffee. Call me a hipster or whatever you want, but the fact of the matter is that espresso’s significantly more widespread recognition and the fact it is so quickly and easily accessible at any of millions of places from global chains means there’s a much higher chance that providers care less about the product and just focus on volume. That leads to things like sugar and other syrups being the predominant factors in a good majority of coffee consumer’s cup. To each their own.

I have mentioned elsewhere that I was never a big fan or regular coffee drinker until I discovered the French Press because the over-roasted, bitter espresso filled with sugar just wasn’t for me. That said, I did have a good number of plain shots of espresso and cappucinos during a couple of trips to Italy around 2009/2010. That experience definitely provided a clue to what lay beneath the surface of sweetness in espresso elsewhere, but I hadn’t quite realized it yet.

Fast forward to today. On the back of a Coffee Roasting Basics course I took with Café Sublime/Café Estelar ( estelar.coffee) in Guadalajara, a group that runs a roastery and several incredible coffee shops in the city, I learned and enjoyed it so much that I decided to also join the Espresso Fundamentals course taught by Fabrizio Seed ( fabrizioseed). I can now say confidently, my eyes have been opened to the nuance of espresso and all the glory it contains when done properly. And therein lies the key. Espresso is here to stay for me.

4. Theories of Extraction

For a good extraction, you need to control the speed that water circulates through the ground coffee. Since most espresso machines have a fixed water flow rate, you must adjust other details to extract at the ideal speed. A slow flow rate brings out too much coffee and over-extracts, leading to bitter flavors that dominate the cup. A fast flow rate under-extracts, leading to weak flavors and less coffee. In the end, we want synergy between sweetness, acidity, and bitterness. The body and sweetness of espresso rise and fall together.

5. Calibration & Evaluation

A point that Fabrizio really drove home was the importance of calibration. For every day, every new bean, every shift change of baristas, for every busy day, the importance of cleaning the espresso machine and then recalibrating for the series of shots to come is vital. A team of baristas is likely to spend 10-15 minutes calibrating to the bean on offer during their shift to ensure it produces the best possible shot, using a base recipe and then adjusting one variable at a time. Because coffee is a living thing, using the exact same measurements and methodology every single time is a recipe for failure, or at least sub-par espresso. The origin of the bean, its freshness, the roast, the grind, the weight of solid and liquid, the current ambient temperature, and so many other details factor in, so why not make the most of it?

Espresso should be consumed immediately after it comes out of the machine, ideally in 2 sips after mixing with the spoon.

The triangulation of a group of tasters is also important in the evaluation process to ensure everyone is more or less on the same page. This usually involves a blind tasting of 3 cups, where 2 of them are the same bean, with maybe a slight difference.

6. Espresso & Milk Drinks

The final element of the Espresso Fundamentals course focused on the ever-present and ever-popular espresso milk drinks. All recipes use whole cow milk as the milk source due to its ideal concentration of water, high quality protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals. This combination works best when steamed and mixed with espresso. Obviously, order your espresso drinks however you like, just know that whole cow milk is the originally intended mixer and alternatives just don’t complement espresso as well and therefore may create a differenct consistency in the end. Considering espresso and milk drinks are the most commonly ordered coffees in most coffee shops, you probably already know their names, but one thing you may not have known is that the latte art you see actually has an additional purpose beyond just making your drink Instagram-worthy. It also helps to create the ideal ring of coffee around the edge of the cup with the milk on the top layer centered, so that your first sip all the way to your last will have the best combination of coffee and milk.

Learn more about coffee in GDL with the Guadalajara episode and while you’re at it, read more about traveling to Guadalajara.

For more about Café Sublime’s coffee courses, check out my articles on the Coffee Roasting Basics course and Coffee Roasting Advanced course.