Maybe you felt it: specialty coffee tastes sour in automatic espresso machines

You bought some specialty coffee that a coffee geek friend reccommended, put it in your automatic espresso machine, and it came out sour, thin and watery. It happens a lot, and most of the time it isn't your fault. Why this happens, what we do differently when roasting, and what settings to use for a good cup, you can read below.

Specialty coffee is usually light roasted, cupped for quality and roasting calibration with methods similar to filter brewing or with a cafe level carefully dialled-in manual espresso machine in mind. The beans stay dense, with bright acidity, and they need a thorough extraction to show their full aroma and sweetness.

An automatic espresso machine works differently: the extraction is short and the usually built-in grinder can't grind very fine or be adjusted precisely. The coffee comes out under-extracted, as the water pulls out first the acids and not the sugars and body. The result is a sour, watery espresso, even when the beans are excellent.

What we do differently

We tend to roast especially the dense bean coffees with a longer development, meaning we leave the beans in the roaster longer after first crack. This eliminates most of the acidity and brings out sweetness and the body, but without becoming a dark roast that flattens most of the aromas.

For our selection for automatic espressoo machines we also choose less dense beans. They become more brittle during roasting, so the built-in grinder breaks them down more easily and evenly, and the extraction is more complete.

Steps to perform on your automatic machine

Grinder: set it to one of the finest settings. On many machines you can only change the setting while the grinder is running; check your manual.
Strength (aroma): maximum, this means more coffee goes into each shot.
Temperature: the highest setting available.
Volume: try to aim for a short espresso of 30–40 ml. If you want a bigger cup, add hot water afterwards (americano) instead of hving more water extract the same dose.
Patience: wait for the new settings to settle, make 2–3 coffees before judging the result.
Freshness: use the beans from 10 days to a few moths after roasting and keep the bag tightly closed in a cool place, but not in the fridge. Always buy bags with valve and seal or move them to a container that has these features.
Avoid oily beans: this means very dark roasts in which the aromatics oil has moved to the exterior of the bean. Not only this means that the aroma left that bean at the first contact with air but also that this oily residue will taint the burrs of your grinder.

The 1 kg offer

If you drink coffee every day, take 2 bags of 500 g from the automatic espresso collection, mixed however you like, and you get 10% off automatically in the cart.

FAQ

Can I use these coffees in a manual espresso machine or for filter?
Yes. They work well also in manual espresso machines like Gaggia or Lelit as they have more body and less acidity than our filter-focused roasts.

Do they work with milk?
Yes. The body and sweetness from the longer development come through well in a cappuccino or flat white. And the diminished acidity accentuates the milk's natural sweetness.

See the coffees for automatic espresso machines →