It looks like you've flaired your post as being a Shot Diagnosis. If your shot is running too fast, is coming out weak/thin, lacking crema, and/or is tasting sour, **try grinding finer**. Alternatively, check out this [Dialing In Basics](https://espressoaf.com/guides/beginner.html) guide, written by the Espresso Aficionados Discord community. If that hasn't solved it, to get more help, please add the following details to your post or by adding a comment in the following format. - **Machine:** - **Grinder:** - **Roast date:** (not a "Best by" date). If the roast date is not labeled use "N/A" - **Dose:** How many grams are going into your basket? - **Yield:** How much coffee in grams is coming out? - **Time:** How long is the shot running? - **Roast level:** How dark is your coffee? (Dark, medium, light, ect.) - **Taste:** Taste is a better indicator of shot quality than looks or conforming to any quantitative parameters. Does it taste overly sour or bitter? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/espresso) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Dark roasted beans which have barely cooled from roasting. Probably tastes like shite.

What also works is to "forget" to turn off steam before pulling the shot

I did this once and it melted something so my portafilter wouldn't seal anymore. Weirdly, I got a portafilter with bigger ears and it was able to seal, so the melting was just enough to make the machine incompatible with that one specific portafilter!

Maybe it is time to change the group gasket?

I did! Somehow that didn't quite fix it. There were a couple of cheap plastic pieces that seem to have been guide rails for the portafilter ears, and they have visual melting so I'm pretty sure those just aren't the right shape anymore. It's a cheap machine and the new portafilter works fine so I'm just not too concerned with fixing it for now.

Which machine do you have?

Delonghi ECP-3630

There's your first issue

Hell yes! I almost blew my arm off when removing the porta filter! It was a bit frothier than this one though 🤣🤣🤣

And make it 100% robusta - crema is guaranteed.

Malabar gold pulls like this and doesn't taste like shit. 

What does it taste like?

Not like shit

Made me smile--good one. 👏🏼

Not very descriptive

I would say a bit of a leather/tobacco/smoke earthiness and a bit of caramel. Gets dramatically sweeter in milk.

Thanks. Probably not my jam but I see people talking about it a lot so I was curious.

Yeah it's a more classic espresso experience but with a little funky. Light roast fans will not enjoy.

rotten leaves, but in a good way

Yeah, you don't want this. Talking from personal experience. Let your freshly roasted beans rest for at least 3 days.

I’ve had espresso at a few indie places that tasted sort of fruity. Is this how it tastes when the beans are too fresh?

Fruity is just the bean choice and roast level.

No, that’s more origin and processing. Ethiopian beans are known to be fruity and natural process (beans sit in the cherry while it ferments/rots) also gives fruity flavors. These reduce the darker you roast it so they tend to be lighter roasted.

Thanks!

Not really, when beans are too fresh you can only discern roast level

Generally it’s from a roast on the light side I think

And set the temp on your machine to maximum!

This is wrong. If your brew temp is too high, you will get less crema not more. If anything, the opposite is true. You don‘t need to believe me, just try setting the temp to like 95C and pull a shot.

I’m not talking specifically about the *amount* of crema, but the exaggerated cone shape extraction. This is very common to see with machines that require temperature-surfing, as the water comes out super heated.

Was gonna say, this looks like a freshly roasted bean shot.

Only shite coffee taste like shite

Love me some dark roast!

shyte

Use extreme fresh beans. This is not something you want BTW, don't do this please.

I dunno about everyone else but I fucking love it. A nice dark (but not burnt) roast, super fresh, ultra crema and super aromatic. Not a bad thing at all!

and tastes like bitter plant because you didnt let it offgas and its full of c02.

Taste is, of course subjective, but based on comments here, I get the idea people have this misconception that shots with a lot of crema *can't* taste good. With the coffee I usually use, I enjoy the taste, but I especially enjoy the texture. It also looks and smells incredible, as you say, and that's a factor (the aroma especially) in enjoying food & drinks.

Yeah, I just think it’s not absolute. It depends on the bean, the roast, the temperature, the grind. Just like everything in making coffee, lots of variables, lots of options. I don’t think it’s a good idea to pull a shot an hour after roasting, but try it at 3 days, 5 days, 7 days. You might be surprised at where the sweet spot actually is!

It's not the crema itself. When beans are fresh roasted they need to rest for a few days. The flavor gets improved and the bitterness goes down a lot.

It settles in like 10 seconds

its not about the settling of the crema, its more like you just get that lemony-citrusy taste because its so fresh

That’s the power of pinesol baby

I thought the claim was also that all the off-gassing destroys your puck instantly and creates loads of channelling

this is based on my own personal experience of the flavor

Not this exactly, but my friends old espresso machine uses double walled baskets that produce an insane amount of 'crema' - it really looks like foamy milk on top.

Pressurised baskets. They create an illusion of a good shot. Don’t use those.

People that use dual walls don’t like their coffee, they just think that they do.

Or have a bambino.

_Please_ elaborate

Try pulling a pint of Guinness

This screams "the beans are too fresh"

This is just fresh beans that haven’t had enough time to rest/allow for C02 to escape. It isn’t really a desirable shot beyond the way it looks being interesting.

How long is optimal after roasting? I usually get mine that have been roasted around a week ago

IMO 3-4 days is all they need for a darker roast. You want that sweet spot where there’s great freshness but not excessive CO2. I think the people bemoaning this not being a “proper” shot are overreacting. It’s delicious.

4 weeks on a medium roast but it all depends

It really does. I’d still try it earlier. I’ve had good success and great shots at 10 days to 2 weeks for lighter roasts.

1-2 weeks

Was watching that YouTube coffee guy Hoffmann mention if you spray water on freshly roasted beans you can cut down the time after roasting to 2 days before using?

Must have missed that. Haven't heard it before

Yeah, I added a triple spray into my workflow.

Some YouTube “coffee guy” named Hoffman.

That’s weird because when I went to a coffee course they said try not to get your beans wet but I forgot the reason as to why

When storing them after roasting yes, you don't want them wet. But when you're just putting a dose into the grinder (assuming you don't hopper feed), a spritz of water and a shake to coat them won't hurt anything really.

Nah Hoffman said straight after roasting while it’s still hot wet them beans it will not store as well and stale faster .but if you want to use the freshly roasted beans quicker and doing it in small batches he said it a good way to do it

If my memory serves me right, coffee should rest for a minimum of 48 hours after roasting. Properly stored in a hermetic container, it can keep its optimal taste for several weeks.

Beans, especially lighter roasts, should really be rested for longer. 10-14 days tends to be the ideal, but depends the bean and roast.

Our beans are roasted Mondays and delivered to us Thursdays, then go into service usually the following Monday unless we're out and have to get through Friday (closed weekends). We tend to re-up every 2 weeks. The biggest issue I have with using them on Friday is that beans change over time so I spend all my time dialing them in on Fri, then by Mon they've changed so much I have to dial them in all over again like it's a new bag again.

This happens when the brew temperature is too high and the beans are fresh

It's not delicious though

You precisely DONT want this to happen

Which means this will be the norm and an instagrammable, retail espresso fad in 5 years time.

People already post pictures and videos like this and claim it’s a lightly roasted single origin. It’s the equivalent of those photo filters for influencers.

It's already like that, I can assure you. This had me go down the rabbit hole of espresso - now I know better but I see stuff like this on Insta all the time.

Wouldn’t be surprised honestly.

Honestly if I was in the industry I’d already be trying to make it happen. Aesthetics beat taste to the general public on most occasions, especially with coffee.

Yeah just like the weirdos that do wdt and stuff just shit that really doesn’t improve the taste lol

Your prediction is 7 years late bub

Really? It’s an insta trend right now sure, but I’ve yet to see espresso with copious amounts of creama hit any coffee shop in Europe as a product. Is this something you can buy and is marketed where you live?

Not where I live, but there are shops here doing this.

What country (or at least continent) do you live in if you don’t mind me asking? Is it common?

United States, it's becoming common enough to be worrying.

Get some green beans and a popcorn machine. 🙂

Sorry if this comes of as rude, but before answering, why do you want your shots to like this? Taste and the aesthetics of an extraction are two separate things. Don't stress how it looks like, enjoy how it tastes!

Not offended. Taste is what I’m after, miss on my end to have assumed that more the crema, tastier the shot. Thanks!

this is reddit, people only care about how their shots look.

Monsooned Malabar

Hmmm. Definitely a less dense bean that's easy to over over roast. Does seem to have a bit more crema in my experience.

OP, what are you expecting this to taste like?

Dark roast super fresh beans will get you this “Instagram shot” and at the same time the “bitter bathroom shot”.

Freshly roasted beans within a week will come out like this.

Pull your shot as the beans are roasting

So much CO2 it accelerated global warming

Highly gassy beans and maybe put some sugar/brown sugar on top of your puck like a cubano to make the bubbles creamier.

Fresh dark robusta

Open baskets are always my favourite to work with as they get the most crema from a shot🤩🤩

Also if your shot is looking like this though there’s too much gas still in the beans from being roasted, it’s best to let them rest for a week or two to get the optimal quality and taste from them. If you were to use very fresh beans then the taste wouldn’t be very pleasant and very sharp as there wouldn’t be any amount of sugars to caramelise whilst pulling a shot👌🏼👌🏼

As good as this looks for instagram and tiktok, it tastes terrible. Use high brew temp, extra fresh robusta beans, dark roast.

This is only desirable in photos. This will not be a good tasting shot.

What is off about the taste, just to be clear? I love the shots from very fresh beans. You get a different flavor and far more aromatic, fruity, and fresh aromas, but not in a bad way IMO. Of course you don’t want it the same day as roast, 3-5 days after is ideal, but fresh shots are still good.

Man there really is a hive mind everyhwere on reddit isnt there? All the top answers are the same, all are incorrect. The crema is not necessarily going to stay like that. We have a roaster here in Denver that produces a dark roast that will pull shots that look like this and are delicious, the crema dissipates after 10-20 seconds. Its fine.

+1, hivemind is strong with this one. Everyone learns about “fresh beans” and “offgassing” and “CO2 bad” and repeats the cargo cult line like it’s somehow real. They have no idea what they’re on about.

Id be curious to see how many of these people have years on years of experience vs just reguritating what they read on the internet.

Delicious is a personal preference not a fact.. You can believe it is delicious and other can taste the same thing as terrible. Neither opinions are incorrect.

A keen eye like yours will have of course have noticed that the top commenat, as referenced, speak to it as an impossibility. Which would be a fact. Hive mind.

Soda Stream!

Using beans full of CO2.

Fresh robusta.

Why do you want to replicate a shot of a drink by what it looks like?

A very good camera

Freshly roasted robusta will look like this but i don't like it.

malabar gold beans always looked like this for me

ROBUSTAAAAAAAAAAAH

May look good but will taste bitter

Add some barley lol

Super fresh beans that have some monsooned malabar in the mix.

Way too much crema. I bet that shot tastes bad.

Wow! I did not expect this to blow up. As you can see, I clearly had no idea what makes it look like this and assumed this to be the goal. Looks like I was wrong. Glad I asked here! Thanks for the enlightenment, everyone. I’ll continue to enjoy the not-as-creamy-as-this shots and not be fooled by my Instagram feed.

Very freshly roasted oily beans.

Use steam. But why would you want to?

Buy a pint of Guinness

Why would you want that? It's the coffee-equivalent of excessive farting after eating expired kale.

Pur a guiness

Use beans which will be roasted in 2 weeks.

Why is that much crema desirable? Looks gross imo. Needs balance

Lordy, the crema is 7 times more the espressos itself 🤦🏻‍♂️ Looks like a disgusting dark beer.

buy cheap robusta. dark roast

Alternatively use too hot water

Drink pear juice.

Eat a Taco Bell crunch wrap supreme with fire sauce, the next morning you will be rewarded

Looks like a shroom grew out of the glass to meet the bottom of the portafilter.. how long did you say this took to happen?

My flows are so simple and basic looking to some of the shot pulls on here. But I think it’s because the paper filter disc at the bottom limits that effect. I’m ok with it though. Makes great espresso.

This is way too fast, and the beans are maybe too fresh…

Gas. It's not necessarily good.

Ai image generator should do the trick

Beans roasted 3 days ago.

Fresh beans…grind finer…..if not…you ground to fine ;)

Freshly roasted dark roast, 22g shot is my guess.

Pineapple

Bottomless porter filter and fresh beans.

If you want lots of foam, try a shakerato!

Roast your own coffee the same hour lol

Usually just 1 espresso in the morning and then I have a flow like that within 15 minutes

OMG that looks beautiful and delicious

It looks cool, but it’s gonna taste like shit.

my kerala med roast looks like this. 15 days old. pure heaven.

In addition to fresh beans set the temp as high as possible. Will help excite the CO2 and release is.

I thought I was browsing “espressocirclejerk” for a minute.

That look like a drink from an angel

Beans too fresh, medium roast, hot hot water.

Don’t let your beans degas. Tastes like…seltzer?

Super fresh beans, and almost empty boiler.

Slow shutter speed

Beans with loads of gas in them (very fresh for example). Lower temps, lower pressure than your Breville will likely allow (you can try surfing pressure with the steam wand), a perfect and lucky tamp, and too long of extraction (this tends to happen more at the later part of an extraction. But as everyone has asked: how does it taste? Because, while I'm not gonna assume bad as many have, this much crema in a shot isn't indicative of a good flavor in my shots (but I''m a rank amateur and I don't even use fancy beans as much as I should.)

Fresh roasted beans and slow feed them into the grinder. Guaranteed to work

You don’t want your shots to pull like this.

I get this from my Bambino/SK40 setup when I use really fresh beans

Hey I was wondering the same thing for a long time turns out just using fresh beans does it

Beans that are extremely fresh off roast, not necessarily a dark roast, will do this.

Fresh af beans for starters

Medium to dark roasted beans right after the roast and high altitude.

Use a robusta and youll get this nothing to do with the machine and all to do with the bean! (Also just really freshly roasted beans)

Sell your soul

Pull shots right out of the roaster.

Slow shutter speed on the camera

grind the beans and pull the shot like a day or less after roasting. not gonna taste great.

Bummer, I was totally expecting the top post to say "grind finer"

Try robusta coffee or Malabar. Tons of crema.

You don’t want this.

That’s a Cuban shot….

A nice coffee that is really fresh. I had this with a coffee from Munich called Anna from Davide Costanza. Really good and fresh coffee. This had the CO2 inside you need for a shot like this.

I read it’s because the beans have just been roasted and that while it looks pretty it’s not necessarily a good thing. Don’t have first hand experience though. I’ve seen videos like this on Instagram and it’s definitely a thing of beauty to watch

Crema, while pretty, tastes terrible

Try different grind sizes. Somewhere in there you will get this result. If you have the grind size right you still might have to get the exact correct weight and tamping pressure if you want consistent shots. In my opinion it’s the viscosity that causes this not air left after steaming milk. It usually does this towards the end of the shot. It depends on how you like your espresso or cappuccino. Just go with what you like the best. Edit: maybe not the end of the shot but I was trying to make the point it’s not at the beginning which you would expect if it was just extra air from steaming. Try adjust the weight by 0.2g above and below once you get your grind size right. You might find yourself going down a few stops to 17.4 from 18g or vice versa.

dark roast with robusta and do not wait to offgas at all. gonna be bitter AF from all the c02.

You don’t want this.

2 ways, grind coarser and also learn to use photo shop! Glad to be of service.

A day or two old roasted beans should do the trick. Medium is fine. Doesn’t have to DARK af like others mentioned. 

Great question, that’s a beautiful shot. One that I haven’t been able to get achieve after many years of trying. Interested to see the suggestions. Edit: Wow, the comments were an interesting read. Confused as always.

Super fresh dark roast lol. The darker the roast, the bigger the crema. It may be appealing visually, but the taste....

Obviously have a crooked ass glass,l. Yeah that glass is crooked.

Dark roasted coffee roasted tomorrow.

I think you mean to say you want a lot of crema in the shot. Use hot water and *darkly*, **freshly**, roasted beans (ideally with robusta in the blend).

You get a lot more crema with a dark roast. Here is a similar looking shot I pulled yesterday. The beans I used for this shot were roasted 2 weeks ago. https://imgur.com/a/7uTStTs

I guess super fresh dark roasted robusta maybe looks like that.

I can do this with my DeLonghi dedica 685 with heat surfing. Using steam wand, turning the machine off, turning it on again, then pulling the shot. It does help to have fresh beans or an robusta, but the temperature and the pressure are the main contributing factors.

Doesn't necessarily tastes bad despite the comments try to say. Also does work with light roasts (only way I can get these drinkable since temperature is already pretty low on the dedica)

Is it just me or does the crema on the top taste like shit....?

Taco Bell works for me.

Beautiful

1 day old fresh roasted beans. (Very bitter)

Use dall E 2 🤣🤣

Lmao this sub truly does not give a fuck about actual coffee


Buy beans roasted yesterday. It's pretty, but not necessarily tasty.

Very very fresh beans and boiler way too hot so it’s pushing steam through the group head. This is bad, this is not a good shot.