[Music]
welcome to the second part of the
understanding espresso series it's a
series where we go through each
individual variable in this pressure
making process talk about how it impacts
espresso and talk about how you can use
it when dialing in to make your coffee
taste better and today's is ratio ratio
is a kind of weird variable but I need
to talk about why we talk about ratio
and not just liquid in the cup because
that's what we're talking about
basically we're saying how big should my
espresso be and what happens if I make
my espresso bigger or smaller now it's
called a ratio because the amount of
liquid that ends up in your cup should
correlate to the amount of ground coffee
that you started with in espresso making
you will often see a ratio given between
the weight of the ground coffee and the
weight of the liquid in the cup
something like 1 to 2 which would mean
18 grams of ground coffee yields 36
grams of liquid espresso now for a long
time we didn't talk about the weight of
liquid espresso we talked about the
volume when I learned to make coffee and
espresso was 25 to 30 milliliters in
size millilitres are a volume
measurement and they're kind of useless
when it comes to coffee specifically
espresso for one reason crema that foam
that sits top and espresso is kind of
related to how fresh the coffee is it's
some of the co2 that was generated in
the roasting process trapped in a foam
on top of the drink the fresh your
coffee is the more foam you're going to
have so if you're chasing a fixed volume
to get that fixed volume let's say 50
mils as a double espresso with very
fresh coffee more of that volume is
going to be gas and foam basically
unless if it will be liquid compared to
a coffee that is rested or aged a little
bit more that has less co2 in it this
will mean you produce identical looking
shots that actually have very different
recipes for that reason I would strongly
recommend weighing the output of your
coffee machine because that way you'll
really
understand how much liquid you pushed
through and as we'll talk about in a
second
this is probably the most critical thing
to control to have consistent and
repeatable tasting espresso before we
jump into the practical side of this I
do want to talk a little bit about how
ratios are now used to kind of define
different espresso drinks for example
what is a ristretto the name comes from
the idea that it's a restricted flow
that the coffee flowed through the
coffee cake
slower it was less liquid coming through
but but what exactly is a ristretto
these days we tend to use ratios to
define our ristretto and it would be
anything from say 1 to 1 through 2 1 to
1.5 traditional espresso might go in the
range of 1 to 1.5 through 2 1 to 2.5
most people would agree that espresso
made in Italy made in the UK Australia
the u.s. anywhere really am like modern
espresso and even pretty traditional
espresso Falls pretty much into this
range into this ratio above that if
you're producing more liquid from a
fixed amount of coffee you kind of fall
into a lungo kind of range a long coffee
that's anything really above 1 to 2
point 5 1 2 3 that kind of way and
upwards these are not set in stone
these are broadly agreed amongst part of
the coffee community but it's just
guidance if you want to understand water
a Strato is it at least offers you some
sort of definition now into the most
important part which is understanding
how changing our ratio impacts the taste
of the coffee that you're making water
in the case of coffee brewing is a
solvent it's what's going to dissolve
the soluble material all of the flavor
and good stuff in the ground coffee and
pull it out so that we can drink it in
the end of it the more solvent you use
the more extraction you're going to have
the more water that you pass through
that coffee cake the more soluble
material you're going to pull out and so
it's a very simple way to increase or
decrease your extraction with one pretty
important caveat it's like a a slider as
you move it up and down you see a change
in the output but you change two outputs
at the same
time while using more liquid will
obviously increase their extraction it
will also decrease the strength of your
coffee you'll start to lose body and
texture and that kind of richness that
makes espresso espresso the more liquid
that you push through the coffee but the
more extraction that you'll have you can
put very coarsely ground coffee into an
espresso machine and if you're willing
to push enough liquid through it you'll
get a tasty and balanced beverage at the
end of it
but it won't necessarily be espresso you
might have had to use a lot of liquid to
do that practically speaking we don't
see enormous variances in our recipes we
might vary by a few grams rather than 20
or 30 or 40 grams but a few grams still
have an impact it's a very simple very
easy way to manipulate the taste of your
espresso but as I said at the cost of
strength of texture of mouthfeel now
before I get into how and when in a
practical sense I would use ratio to
tweak my espresso in my darling in
process well there's a couple of things
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this video so let's get into the
practical side the nitty gritty of using
ratio for me I tend to start with a
pretty fixed ratio in mind that's more
about the style of espresso that I
typically enjoy so often I'll start in
the 1 to 2 1 to 2.2 range but that's
just me that's just my preference and
I'll dial in keeping that actually
pretty fixed pretty constant now it's
one of those situations where I will
generally try and use things like grind
to get the extraction that I want
instead of just messing around with my
ratio too much unless I'm pretty low on
coffee if I need to pull a shot and I
don't want to reach ange my grind
setting or purge coffee through my
grinder and I want to make a small tweak
a small adjustment that's a great time
to use ratio you'll be surprised
pleasantly I hope but just how much
difference 2 or 3 grams more liquid will
make in pulling an espresso going from
say 36 to 39 grams will be the
difference between a slight harsh
sourness through to something that's
more balanced cleaner clearer more
complex it's a shocking change and
you'll understand then why it's so
important to use a set of scales when
making espresso such a tiny change can
have such a big impact like I said if
I'm making an adjustment or being forced
to make an adjustment more than 2 or 3
grams then chances are I'm going to
start to move away from the textural
experience the style of espresso that I
want so I tend not to go that far it'll
be a little bit too much dilution for me
so I'll tend to use dose or grind and
fix another variable in my process but
there's a quick and easy way to make a
small tweak I really like adjusting
ratio but I'd be interested to know your
thoughts does this line up with how you
dial in espresso does this line up with
how you think about espresso do you have
a totally different way of thinking
about it I would love to hear from you
down in the comments below
for now I'll say thank you so much for
watching and I hope you have a great day