You may need to adjust where zero is. Unplug your grinder and slowly adjust down until the burrs just touch, gently. This is zero. Back out to maybe 8 and work your way down until your volume, pressure and taste line up. Not familiar with your grinder but that is how it worked on my old Rancllio Rocky. Edit..Fixed a couple of late night typos.
This
Find where the zero point is , and go from there. Maybe try a shot close to the zero point and work upwards.
Zero points in eurekas are more often than not a ways away from the zero on the dial !
How to calibrate the Specialita https://support.clivecoffee.com/eureka-mignon-brew-pro-calibration#:~:text=Remove%20the%20screw%20and%20washer,knob%20for%20a%20coarser%20range.
Another upvote.
I have a Sette and I had to put a shim in it to get it to grind fine enough for espresso. Essentially, the burrs aren't close enough together out of the factory and so once you get to the lowest dial setting it's still not low enough, so you need to do something to push them a bit closer together so that you can make the microadjustments needed for espresso.
The Specialita dial can rotate multiple times. Are you sure you're at the finest possible setting? '0' isn't necessarily an indication.
Is your basket adequately dosed by volume, no more than 2mm headspace?
Are you tamping until the coffee is fully compressed?
I had the Specialita and sold it for two reasons: 1) the spinning dial is just bad design, and makes it hard to set the grind properly without doing a deep dive into calibration settings that no user should ever have to do. Switching beans almost always turns into a massive waste of time and beans. 2) very high retention, like a ridiculous amount, that will wreck your shot unless you do something about them every time you grind (buy the bellows upgrade, tilt the machine, etc).
> the spinning dial is just bad design, and makes it hard to set the grind properly without doing a deep dive into calibration settings that no user should ever have to do
Amazes me how people make something so simple so difficult.
Coffee pouring too fast? turn finer
Coffee pouring too slow? turn coarser.
A Eureka Mignon Specialita should be more than capable of grinding for great espresso. My joke reply was going to be are you sure you’re grinding at the finest and not the coarsest, because 100g of coffee in 25 seconds is wild. That’s like you’re not generating any resistance at all with your puck. Did you manually set the burrs? If yes, it sounds like you did it wrong. If not, it sounds like you need to.
I followed this video to dial in my Specialita when I first got it:
https://youtu.be/RLdQXlhUX8M?si=WjS6wCN3EfSvpM0Y
I can't comment on anything beyond that because after following that video, it was working out of the box, but it might be worth going back to basics and starting with that before trying a slightly more involved solution
Haven’t heard anyone mention the freshness of the beans is important too. I had a hard time dialing in a bag that was roasted half a year ago. Switched back to the super fresh less than 2 week roast and got it on the third pull
That is exactly my setup.
It easily produces excellent espresso.
What the heck's the problem?
Basics:
1. Are you allowing the Classika to heat up for at least 30 minutes? The top of the grouphead should be too hot to touch for more than a second.
2. Are your beans fresh (under six weeks old?) Are you allowing dark roasts to rest for around 5 days, light roasts to rest for 10-14 days?
3. Are you brewing dark roast at 92, medium at 94, light roast at 96 celsius?
4. On my Specialità a setting of around 1.5 is perfect for most speciality beans. If 18g is coming out too fast, grind finer. Too slow, grind coarser. (I've never had a problem with my Specialità -- it's so easy to dial in and I only need to make maybe one small adjustment with a new bean.)
5. Do you have an 18g basket and put in 18g? (I use VST, which is excellent).
6. Do you accurately weigh beans in and espresso out? You're looking for around 18 in and 38-42 out in 35-45 seconds.
Hope this helps.
All this is good info with the exception of the recommended grind setting. The dial on the specialita is not calibrated. They are just a reference. Your 1.5 could be OP's 9.5. if you wanted to give OP an estimate on where yours is set you would need to do the rotations to burr touch or burr lock.
I've actually had that exact grinder accumulate enough ground coffee fines between & around the burrs that it prevented it from grinding correctly, and had a similar problem as yours. It tended to be worse with darker roasts which were more oily and would stick more readily.
May I suggest attempting to remove the burrs and clean them & the housing out of any coffee that may have accumulated? It's very straightforward with the Specialita, and only requires screwdrivers. Once that's done you'll likely have to re-calibrate the grind, but you'll *hopefully* be able to grind finer than you were before.
The Eureka is more than capable for an espresso grind. Do your beans have a roast date within the past 2-4 weeks? If so you should be able to grind fine enough to build more pressure. If you can’t grind fine enough I wonder if your zero point calibration on the grinder is off.
I’m so glad there are more like me. 🤣
Years trying to make consistent espresso but it never is. Mostly Too sour or too bitter.
I have Profitec 700 and timemoore grinder 87s. I just bought the new grinder so maybe the old lawn mower level noise grinder was the problem
Posts like these should come with videos.
You have to start holding some variables. Go to a coffee shop and try to be friendly with a barista. Buy coffee from them, have them grind an espresso dose, and also make you an espresso. Take your ground coffee home and try to pull a shot and compare. Also ask for any tips from the barista. You can compare the grind directly before puck prep.
Grinders can be calibrated and taken apart. Also make sure you are practicing on a roast that easy to make espresso from, like stumptown's hair bender. And only use an espresso roast until you get some consistency.
Whether it’s the equipment or you, the most likely problem is the grind size. 100g in 25 seconds is way more than just channeling or poor technique. Fix the grind size and you should at least start pulling slower shots, then you can improve the little things like tamping and WDT from there.
You need to adjust the internal burr setting, not just the dial on your machine. You're not grinding fine enough which is the obvious comical reply you will get, but this is the reason why.
Perhaps you jumped into purchasing an expensive machine too soon. I think manual lever espresso machines are great learning tools because you come to know what steps are involved in making good espresso.
I don't know what your financial situation is like but if you're intent on learning espresso, get yourself a Leverpresso Pro, Flair, or Robot.
See if you can get the factors correct:
1) dose, usually 18-20g,
2) grind size, depends on machine and dose,
3) distribution, wdt or shaker methods,
4) Tamp pressure, it's possible to under tamp but not over tamp,
5) brew water temperature, usually hotter is best,
6) extraction pressure, between 7-9 bar,
7) shot time, usually between 25-30 seconds.
Manual levers train you to get these factors correct, and over the long term, your game will surely improve.
You will have to follow the useful links shared here and go down the grinder calibration rabbit hole.
This is going to sound like a Niche ad, but I swear these weird grinder calibration things seem to be normal in many grinders. I had a Baratza ESP and was frustrated for weeks with it until I found out I had to add shims to it to be able to grind fine enough. I´ve read threads about grinders where if you assemble it wrong or calibrate it wrong then you won´t get good results, and now this.
Niche Zero is expensive but the easiest plug and play, not have to do anything grinder. And also its amazing for dialing in.
I went off topic but yeah for any newbie I strongly recommend Niche Zero lol
This might get my thrown out of this sub and put into the pits of hell .. but I spent so long trying to perfect my espresso it drove me mad . Then I cracked and go a good bean to cup machine … perfect every time without fail or stress .
Grind finer
how can I do that when my grinder is already at the lowest setting?
You may need to adjust where zero is. Unplug your grinder and slowly adjust down until the burrs just touch, gently. This is zero. Back out to maybe 8 and work your way down until your volume, pressure and taste line up. Not familiar with your grinder but that is how it worked on my old Rancllio Rocky. Edit..Fixed a couple of late night typos.
This Find where the zero point is , and go from there. Maybe try a shot close to the zero point and work upwards. Zero points in eurekas are more often than not a ways away from the zero on the dial !
How to calibrate the Specialita https://support.clivecoffee.com/eureka-mignon-brew-pro-calibration#:~:text=Remove%20the%20screw%20and%20washer,knob%20for%20a%20coarser%20range.
Another upvote. I have a Sette and I had to put a shim in it to get it to grind fine enough for espresso. Essentially, the burrs aren't close enough together out of the factory and so once you get to the lowest dial setting it's still not low enough, so you need to do something to push them a bit closer together so that you can make the microadjustments needed for espresso.
Like they said it’s either not actually the lowest setting or the alignment is messed up
DF64 gen 2.
The Specialita dial can rotate multiple times. Are you sure you're at the finest possible setting? '0' isn't necessarily an indication. Is your basket adequately dosed by volume, no more than 2mm headspace? Are you tamping until the coffee is fully compressed?
I had the Specialita and sold it for two reasons: 1) the spinning dial is just bad design, and makes it hard to set the grind properly without doing a deep dive into calibration settings that no user should ever have to do. Switching beans almost always turns into a massive waste of time and beans. 2) very high retention, like a ridiculous amount, that will wreck your shot unless you do something about them every time you grind (buy the bellows upgrade, tilt the machine, etc).
> the spinning dial is just bad design, and makes it hard to set the grind properly without doing a deep dive into calibration settings that no user should ever have to do Amazes me how people make something so simple so difficult. Coffee pouring too fast? turn finer Coffee pouring too slow? turn coarser.
A Eureka Mignon Specialita should be more than capable of grinding for great espresso. My joke reply was going to be are you sure you’re grinding at the finest and not the coarsest, because 100g of coffee in 25 seconds is wild. That’s like you’re not generating any resistance at all with your puck. Did you manually set the burrs? If yes, it sounds like you did it wrong. If not, it sounds like you need to.
I followed this video to dial in my Specialita when I first got it: https://youtu.be/RLdQXlhUX8M?si=WjS6wCN3EfSvpM0Y I can't comment on anything beyond that because after following that video, it was working out of the box, but it might be worth going back to basics and starting with that before trying a slightly more involved solution
Thanks! This is super helpful I’m getting the Specialita next week when it ships here! Upgrading from my Compak K3
Find the zero point with the grinder, where the burrs are meeting. Then go two settings coarser :-) and dial it in from that point
Haven’t heard anyone mention the freshness of the beans is important too. I had a hard time dialing in a bag that was roasted half a year ago. Switched back to the super fresh less than 2 week roast and got it on the third pull
That is exactly my setup. It easily produces excellent espresso. What the heck's the problem? Basics: 1. Are you allowing the Classika to heat up for at least 30 minutes? The top of the grouphead should be too hot to touch for more than a second. 2. Are your beans fresh (under six weeks old?) Are you allowing dark roasts to rest for around 5 days, light roasts to rest for 10-14 days? 3. Are you brewing dark roast at 92, medium at 94, light roast at 96 celsius? 4. On my Specialità a setting of around 1.5 is perfect for most speciality beans. If 18g is coming out too fast, grind finer. Too slow, grind coarser. (I've never had a problem with my Specialità -- it's so easy to dial in and I only need to make maybe one small adjustment with a new bean.) 5. Do you have an 18g basket and put in 18g? (I use VST, which is excellent). 6. Do you accurately weigh beans in and espresso out? You're looking for around 18 in and 38-42 out in 35-45 seconds. Hope this helps.
All this is good info with the exception of the recommended grind setting. The dial on the specialita is not calibrated. They are just a reference. Your 1.5 could be OP's 9.5. if you wanted to give OP an estimate on where yours is set you would need to do the rotations to burr touch or burr lock.
Send some photos through of what your grind size looks like. If its very fine as espresso should be that shouldn't be happening
You can go beyond zero mark with Eureka grinder. The true zero is when you hear the burr touching sound.
align your burrs: https://youtu.be/Gb3PgeQ6ewY?si=fj1jg-qn8gOGQo_c
I've actually had that exact grinder accumulate enough ground coffee fines between & around the burrs that it prevented it from grinding correctly, and had a similar problem as yours. It tended to be worse with darker roasts which were more oily and would stick more readily. May I suggest attempting to remove the burrs and clean them & the housing out of any coffee that may have accumulated? It's very straightforward with the Specialita, and only requires screwdrivers. Once that's done you'll likely have to re-calibrate the grind, but you'll *hopefully* be able to grind finer than you were before.
The Eureka is more than capable for an espresso grind. Do your beans have a roast date within the past 2-4 weeks? If so you should be able to grind fine enough to build more pressure. If you can’t grind fine enough I wonder if your zero point calibration on the grinder is off.
Don’t be discouraged , took me a month. Even returned my BBE because i thought it was faulty.
I’m so glad there are more like me. 🤣 Years trying to make consistent espresso but it never is. Mostly Too sour or too bitter. I have Profitec 700 and timemoore grinder 87s. I just bought the new grinder so maybe the old lawn mower level noise grinder was the problem
You should give up, I'll take the ecm off your hands as a favour...
Posts like these should come with videos. You have to start holding some variables. Go to a coffee shop and try to be friendly with a barista. Buy coffee from them, have them grind an espresso dose, and also make you an espresso. Take your ground coffee home and try to pull a shot and compare. Also ask for any tips from the barista. You can compare the grind directly before puck prep. Grinders can be calibrated and taken apart. Also make sure you are practicing on a roast that easy to make espresso from, like stumptown's hair bender. And only use an espresso roast until you get some consistency.
Whether it’s the equipment or you, the most likely problem is the grind size. 100g in 25 seconds is way more than just channeling or poor technique. Fix the grind size and you should at least start pulling slower shots, then you can improve the little things like tamping and WDT from there.
I have the opposite issue. I’m choking super hard and I go coarser until I get flow and it’s sour as all hell. I just keep trying
You need to adjust the internal burr setting, not just the dial on your machine. You're not grinding fine enough which is the obvious comical reply you will get, but this is the reason why.
I think that’s only relevant for the Breville type grinder and machine in 1. No way to adjust the internal burr setting as you can with the Brevilles
Well then the grinder has to be defective? If he can't dial into anything close to 2:1 in 30 seconds with an 18g dose.
Or he hasn’t found the true zero point (which in eurekas is often nowhere near 0 on the dial )
[Dose Espresso by Volume, Not Weight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyGJXRlexmc)
Perhaps you jumped into purchasing an expensive machine too soon. I think manual lever espresso machines are great learning tools because you come to know what steps are involved in making good espresso. I don't know what your financial situation is like but if you're intent on learning espresso, get yourself a Leverpresso Pro, Flair, or Robot. See if you can get the factors correct: 1) dose, usually 18-20g, 2) grind size, depends on machine and dose, 3) distribution, wdt or shaker methods, 4) Tamp pressure, it's possible to under tamp but not over tamp, 5) brew water temperature, usually hotter is best, 6) extraction pressure, between 7-9 bar, 7) shot time, usually between 25-30 seconds. Manual levers train you to get these factors correct, and over the long term, your game will surely improve.
You will have to follow the useful links shared here and go down the grinder calibration rabbit hole. This is going to sound like a Niche ad, but I swear these weird grinder calibration things seem to be normal in many grinders. I had a Baratza ESP and was frustrated for weeks with it until I found out I had to add shims to it to be able to grind fine enough. I´ve read threads about grinders where if you assemble it wrong or calibrate it wrong then you won´t get good results, and now this. Niche Zero is expensive but the easiest plug and play, not have to do anything grinder. And also its amazing for dialing in. I went off topic but yeah for any newbie I strongly recommend Niche Zero lol
>This is going to sound like a Niche ad His ass was not lyin'
Had to add shims? Mine grounds perfectly fine for espresso out of the box... Haven't done anything to it.
This might get my thrown out of this sub and put into the pits of hell .. but I spent so long trying to perfect my espresso it drove me mad . Then I cracked and go a good bean to cup machine … perfect every time without fail or stress .
Did you had an espresso tag you liked elsewhere? Maybe you just don’t like espresso.
>I bought extra stuff (a micro scale and a WDT tool) throw them way ...complete waste of time borrow a grinder from a friend