What grind type should I buy?

This depends on how you want to brew:

Got an espresso machine or aeropress? Go for Espresso grind.

Got a plunger/French press, pour over or drip? Go Filter grind.

I have a grinder at home - what grind should I use?

Check out this handy graphic for how we would recommend you grind your beans:

How can I dial in my grind for my espresso machine?

How we dial in our grind for our coffee machine.

Using a consistent amount of coffee (we use 18g) grind at your current setting and tamp with firm pressure.

Extract your coffee shot.

• If the coffee extracts too quickly and looks light in colour, your grind is too coarse - this will result in the coffee tasting watery and weak. 
• If the coffee struggles to extract and drips slowly (or not at all) from the portafilter then your grind is too fine and will result in your coffee being acrid and bitter like me.
• It should take between 20-30 seconds to extract 36g of espresso (a double shot).

Adjust your grind accordingly. Re-test using the above as a guide.

Our hot tips

Scales. Dialing in without a set of scales is difficult and ensuring that you have a consistent amount of coffee grinds going in and espresso coming out makes this a whole lot easier and faster.

Flushing the group between shots. This will ensure that no used coffee grinds are in the group which could potentially impact the flavour of the next shot.

Spring loaded tampers. A great help with consistency for tamping your coffee. If you don’t have one, no worries just tamp with the same pressure as a firm handshake.

Puck screen. Bang for buck wise, these things are game changers in our opinion. Cheap as chips but they help keep your coffee machine cleaner, channel water flow correctly, and help you pull nice consistent shots. Clean up is a breeze too as the even water distribution ensures that the coffee pucks come out easily.

How we like our coffee

A flat white tastes great when its made with a double ristretto shot (18g of grind in, 20g of espresso out) with 140-160ml of milk. Talk about a flavour bomb! Some people argue this is the traditional way of making a flat white – idk I’m just here for the coffee not the semantics of what is or isn’t a flat white.

How do I make wonderful silky textured milk for my coffee?

Do you want to create a silky textured milk for your flat white, latte or cappuccino? We've got some easy to follow steps below and you don't need a commercial coffee machine to make this work. This method works on anything from a Breville to a La Marzocco. 

Fill your milk frothing jug with cold milk, straight from the fridge. 

Briefly purge the steam wand to ensure it is free from condensation and previous milk gunk that is akin to cheese at this point. 

Position the steam wand just below the surface of the milk and turn on the steam wand.

Tilt the jug slightly to allow air into the milk, creating a big swirling motion in the jug. This will begin the aeration process and you will hear a little crackle, but there shouldn't be a lot of hissing. Best way to think about how to place your wand in the jug is to have it slightly off centre and to use the lip on the jug as a reference for your tilt.

Do not move your jug up and down, this will introduce too much air into your milk and it will overflow. Keep it smooth.

When the desired amount of air is in milk (I tend to use rough measurements by splitting the remaining space in the jug into thirds: One third bigger, flat white; two thirds bigger, latte; at the top of the jug, cappuccino) submerge the wand into the milk entirely ensuring that the milk is still swirling. This is super important to make the silky texture. Again there shouldn't be a lot of noise coming from the jug. Top tip - if the steam wand is making a screaming sound in the milk - you're doing it wrong and you've lost the vortex, adjust the steam wand so it goes back to little to no noise.

Monitor the heat with your hand on the side of the jug. When it becomes too hot to comfortably hold, you are probably at the right temperature. If it's the temperature of the sun, you've gone too far and you'll need more milk and possibly a new hand. Milk that is too hot will give a burnt or sulphurous flavour as the sugars and proteins have begun to break down. It will also affect the texture of your milk, making it watery and separating it into large bubbles instead of the smooth microfoam that you are trying to achieve. 

Once steaming is complete, swirl the milk in the jug to give it a glossy wet paint look. Some people say to tap the jug to get rid of the large bubbles, others say not to. Try both, see which is better. 

Pour straight away so as not to let the milk separate.

Try your hand at latte art.

For the love of god, purge the steam wand. If you don't, milk can back up through the wand and will lead to issues down the track such as having to get the whole steam arm replaced... or so I've heard. 

There are heaps of great video on the internet for showing you how to create microfoam. I'd suggest checking out Golden Brown Coffee  on YouTube for some great instructional videos.