I’ve been the happy owner of a Gaggia Classic espresso machine for more than 2 years. It’s a stout, shining beast of a machine that sits proudly in my kitchen and provides 3 or 4 excellent cups of espresso that make my daily website programming much more pleasant. So pleased have I been with the machine that I persuaded my parents to buy one too… and they haven’t managed to get a good espresso out of it! Wouldn’t a Nespresso machine be so much easier they asked me? Anyway, all of this has prompted me to write the simple guide to good espresso with a Gaggia Classic.
1 – Coffee grind (vital)
This is far and away the most important factor to make a good espresso. If your coffee grind is too coarse the water flows through too quickly, giving a kind of americano coffee that can taste a bit burnt. If the grind is too fine very little water passes through the coffee and you get a ristretto of extreme potency. Experiment with different coffee grinds until you get a small cup of espresso coffee with a rich brown crema on top in 20-30 seconds. Good espresso coffee should be adequately finely groud to mean the individual grains are hard to make out with the naked eye and the coffee can be almost moulded with the coffee scoop.
2 – Coffee (important)
Get some espresso coffee – simple as that. Should be 100% arabica beans as cheaper robusta beans can make your espresso bitter. Lavazza Qualità Rossa will do the job just fine. Monmouth Coffee Company Organic Espresso Blend is a favourite of mine. Even the espresso beans at my local Delhaize in Brussels are perfectly fine. Essentially don’t go for bargain basement, but you don’t have to pay over the odds.
3 – Heating the machine (medium importance)
The Gaggia manual states that the machine should be left on for at least 6 minutes before making an espresso. Out of experience I’ve found that 2-3 minutes is perfectly adequate. A Gaggia Classic is rated at 1200W (about half as powerful as a kettle), so don’t leave it on unnecessarily long. Just make sure that you make the coffee as soon as you’ve put the coffee in the coffee filter, and also make sure you make your espresso first before frothing any milk.
4 – Other factors
A few other things to bear in mind:
- Use the 2 cup filter, even if you’re making just 1 cup of espresso, and half-fill it. It’s much easier to fill than the 1 cup filter.
- Avoid water with too much limescale in it – filter water before putting it in the machine
- If you want to grind your own beans (highly recommended) then get a burr grinder – my Krups Expert GVX231 has done a fine job
Jon Worth. European, social democrat, federalist, feminist, atheist, anti-monarchist, ENTJ. Inline skater. Blogger, website designer, avid Mac user, trainer.
I tell you what – A good cup of coffee in the morning definitely makes a whole lot of difference to the day ahead.
We had a Gaggia cubika: smart shiny steel thing – it died in 6 months. The DeLonghi basic shiny black plastic thing that we’d bought the Gaggia to replace (back in those Halcyon days pre-credit crunch when you could replace things because you wanted to rather than needed to) is still going strong. My top tip is buy one with the ESE system and use the Illy pods…
Espresso connoisseur, seems like you have a good system running there. But since you’ve mastered your machine, what about the beans? I just came across this article about how to get the more (or less) caffeine from your coffee
http://lifehacker.com/5170684/get-more-or-less-caffeine-from-your-coffee
So if you need to measure you caffeine level, here’s the rule of thumb from the Starbucks co-founder:
An espresso made from 100% Arabica, on average, has about 70 milligrams of caffeine per shot; a 12 oz. cup of drip coffee made my way in a press pot, using two scoops of coffee per 12-ounce cup — would have 200 milligrams.
And for the ones not in hurry, how about grinding your beans manually?
I highly recommend the Zassenhaus experess coffee grinder (Kaffeemühle Santiago schwarz “Espresso”: http://www.zassenhaus.com/index.php?id=17#)
You can adjust the finess of the grind, it’s garanteed for a couple of centuries (or so) but it’s not for those in a rush (it takes 2-3 minutes of grinding to fill a Bialetti moka coffee maker: http://www.bialetti.it/uk/catalogue/scheda.asp?id_cat=24).
Great feeling though.
Good you don´t have a Nespresso as they turn out a huge amount of aluminium waste in the form of those little capsules (which can´t be put in the normal aluminium recycling bags or bins because of the coffee dregs) . It seems the only country in which they have a recycling centre is Switzerland so far. Time for a campaign amongst Nespresso users around Europe and elsewhere perhaps…
I have the same machine. Filtering the wtater is vital in Brussels, where the limescale is a big problem. I find that Lavazza Crema e Gusto makes the best coffee. I need two double shots before I am human.
Hi,
Just moved to Brussels. In need of good espresso machine. Gaggia is one of the options. Do you know of any good places to buy coffee machines in Brussels?
Hi Sven,
Very sorry, but I don’t know a good coffee place in Brussels… The Gaggia Classic was purchased in the UK and I brought it with me to Brussels. I’m sure there must be a place to get them in Brussels or Antwerp though.
Ok, thanks.