How to Make the Perfect Espresso, Like a Real Italian Barista
Making a simple cup of coffee isn’t exactly rocket science. Making an excellent cup of coffee, howevereven if you don’t have a 2000$ professional coffee machine at home, is a slightly more complicated task. But it can be done! After so many years in Italy, I’ve come to realize that good technique is, in many cases, 70% of a job well done. So, when the time came to learn how to make a delicious espresso like a true Italian barista, I turned to my friend Michele Paolicchi, the owner and manager of Capatosta cafe, in Pisa, Tuscany.
"Coffee has always been my passion, even was younger and worked as a carpenter,” he says as soon as we sit down for a caffeine-infused chiacchierata (chat).
“You were a carpenter?” I ask, surprised.
"Yes, but I never stopped thinking about gastronomy,” he winks. “At first I trained as a sommelier, and then I moved on to coffee, which has always been my passion. Actually, maybe I love coffee just a little too much… I drink 9-10 glasses a day,” he says with a guilty smile.
For the past decade, Michele and Michela, his wife, have been running this small neighborhood cafe, which serves mainly the lawyers from the nearby court, and officers from the police headquarters.
After some chit chat, it’s time to get down to business. In no-time Michele comes up with a list of basic rules that any coffee-lover should keep in mind, if he or she hope to make a perfect espresso, like a true Italian barista:
1. Good coffee starts with good water:
“The quality of water will determine the quality of the espresso you make,” he says. “If the water in your city is rich in minerals, “hard water”, as it’s often called, then I highly recommend that you use some sort of purification system, both a filter and water softener. Otherwise, your coffee will never be excellent, even if you use the highest quality coffee beans on the market. Plus, hard water will ruin your coffee machine,” he adds.
2. Before you start, take a look outside and check the weather:
“Most coffee-lovers know that beans should be grinded just before you make your coffee, to minimize contamination risks and to avoid oxidation, which causes the loss of many volatile aromas in the coffee bean. Deciding how coarse or fine you grind your beans depends mostly on the variety (arabica or robusta) and on the way the beans were roasted, but also on the weather” he says. "On humid days I prefer a slightly thinner grind, otherwise the water passes through too quickly, and we don’t get a full extraction. On dry days, I prefer a coarser grind. These are very small differences, I know, but to me they are important. When you put all these little details together, they change the final result.”
3. The right amount of ground coffee to put into your portafilter is 6-7 grams, and you should pack it down properly:
"The coffee should leave the machine in 28-35 seconds," says Michele. “If it comes out too fast, the size of the grind is probably too small, or maybe you didn’t tighten it enough. The result, in any case, will be a flavorless liquid. If, on the other hand, the coffee comes out too slowly, it will burn and become bitter."
4. What’s the secret to an espresso with a nice layer of coffee foam?
“Keep your porcelain espresso cups (china cups) on the machine, so they are very hot when the coffee is poured into them. “You see how most bars in Italy place their cups and glasses on the machine while it is working? That’s how they keep them nice and warm, hot, even, so when the coffee is poured in, a nice layer of rich foam is created."
5. Never trust the cookie:
“Some places in Italy will serve you a complimentary biscuit or chocolate next to your espresso. For me, that is a reason to become suspicious,” he says. “Yes, there are cafes that like to indulge customers with a small treat, but in most cases the candy or biscuit is there to hide quality flaws, or the fact that the coffee is just average, and nothing more.”
6. Is it better to use a glass or a porcelain (china) espresso cup?
“It's an aesthetic choice,” says Michele. “Some say that glass is more hygienic, less permeable than porcelain, but today, everything goes into the dishwasher so the differences are marginal. One advantage of glass, I guess, is that you can see the coffee well, and you can immediately notice any flaws. China, on the other hand, maintains the temperature of the drink for a longer period of time."
7. What should you eat next to your Italian espresso?
“One of my pastries, of course!” laughs Michele, who in recent years has started producing small quantities of traditional Italian morning pastries for his regular customers, “pezzi dolci”, as they are known in Italian: cornetto (the Italian version of the French croissant), Sfoglia (a puff pastry) filled with apple jam and vanilla-infused cream, and a Tuscan specialty called Budino di Riso (a sweet rice pudding cooked in milk - excellent!). For now, I’m sticking with the traditional Italian pastries, he says. “You know, I named this coffee shop Capatosta after a well-known grape variety from the Marmara region of southern Tuscany. They use it to make a very good wine. But in the Neapolitan dialect, Capatosta means ‘a hard head’, and, well, that describes me perfectly!" he laughs.
Cafe’ Capatosta, Via Palestro 35. Open Monday-Saturday, 8:00-15:00. On weekdays, Michele and his wife Michela prepare light lunches, too, with home-made pasta dishes.
