Triumph over Espresso

I have now, thanks to Wikipedia and YouTube, made a latte macchiato. It is a beauty to behold, so I thought you should behold it.


And...it stays in layers while you drink it, at least at first. I just realized that I'm enjoying experimenting with espresso-making more than the drinking of the espresso made. I think that's partly because I really can't drink more than three shots a day. Which I'm hoping is a virtue. Of some sort.

Yum!

On the Italian moka method of stovetop espresso-making, it turns out that the main factor affecting the outcome was not the fineness of the grind of the beans, but the amount and density of grinds put in the filter basket. I saw some people just absolutely stuff if with grinds on YouTube video demos, but that didn't work at all for me. As the grinds expanded with heat and steam, there simply wasn't enough pressure to push the espresso up the percolator and I would end up with over-cooked coffee exploding and sputtering from the top of the percolator after 10 minutes (instead of the 4-5 that is expected). Fewer grinds left more room for the steam to do its magic, and I would have espresso softly flowing, almost oozing out of the conical top, followed by that characeristic gurgle that signals the end of the brewing. Just watching that alone is a delight. Sweet Maria's had a helpful guide to brewing that set the record straight on a few of my questions and is, in general, a super-awesome coffee maven site.

Pancho, however, is worried about my caffeine intake, so the experimentation is going to have to slow to a more reasonable pace.