The Espresso Report Blog

Shorter pieces: what changed in the category, what's overrated, and corrections when we get something wrong.

Troubleshooting
Why Your Espresso Tastes Sour
Sour means under-extracted — water ran through too fast and left too much in the puck. The five causes, ranked, and the one-thing-at-a-time sequence for fixing them.
Explainer
Pressurized vs Non-Pressurized Baskets
A dual-wall basket manufactures crema regardless of your grind — which flatters a bad grinder and hides every piece of feedback you need. Here's what's actually in the box, and which basket to use.
Explainer
Do You Need a PID on an Espresso Machine?
What a PID actually controls, why brew temperature decides whether your shot is sour or bitter, and the counter-intuitive spec fact: Breville fits PID to machines that undercut the Gaggia Classic Pro, which has none.