Why Every Home Barista Should Understand It
One of the most common questions we receive at Brewing Culture is simple.
“Why does my coffee taste different every time?”
The answer is usually not the machine or the beans. It comes down to something much simpler. Your coffee recipe.
Understanding your coffee recipe is one of the biggest steps in moving from guessing to making consistently great coffee at home.
What Is a Coffee Recipe
A coffee recipe is simply the relationship between three things:
• How much coffee you use
• How much liquid coffee you get out
• How long the extraction takes
These three variables work together to determine how your coffee tastes.
Once you understand this, making good coffee becomes repeatable instead of random.
The Basic Espresso Starting Point
For most espresso setups, a common starting recipe is:
• 18 grams of coffee in
• 36 grams of espresso out
• 25 to 30 seconds extraction time
This is often called a 1 to 2 ratio. For every gram of coffee in, you get roughly two grams of espresso out.
This is not a strict rule, but a reliable starting point.
From here, you adjust based on taste.
Why a Scale Matters
Many home baristas upgrade their machines before learning their recipe.
A scale allows you to understand what is happening in your cup. Without it, you are guessing every shot.
When you measure dose and yield, small adjustments become meaningful and repeatable.
This is one of the simplest upgrades that makes the biggest difference.
Adjusting Your Recipe
If your coffee tastes sour or thin, the extraction is often too fast. Try grinding finer or increasing extraction slightly.
If your coffee tastes bitter or dry, the extraction may be too slow. Try grinding slightly coarser or reducing extraction time.
Small changes make big improvements.
Good Tools Help, But Understanding Matters More
Tools like dosing rings, WDT tools, and puck screens help improve workflow and consistency, but the foundation is always the recipe.
Once you understand your coffee recipe, every upgrade you make becomes more meaningful.
Final Thoughts
Great coffee at home is not about chasing expensive equipment. It is about understanding how small changes affect flavour.
Start with a simple recipe, make small adjustments, and enjoy the process.
That is how café quality coffee becomes part of your daily routine.