My Espresso Equipment
![All Equipment](/assets/espresso/all.webp)
For a few years I’ve been visiting nice coffee shops and ordering espresso based drinks, but I never appreciated or understood much about how they were made. At home I would do a pour over to prepare coffee. In 2021 I decided to start making Espresso at home after I tried to convince my friend to get stuff for pour overs and he said naw and said he was going to get an espresso machine instead. So I did the same and here we are.
Niche Zero Grinder
![Niche Zero](/assets/espresso/niche-zero.webp)
The Niche Zero grinder is a minimalist, single dosing, espresso grinder. I love that it has no lights or display, the only button is a single on/off switch, and that the hopper is designed for single dosing. I generally am preparing coffee two drinks, one for me and one for my girlfriend Jessica, at most once a day, so a large hopper was unattractive to me. I also like to weigh the beans for consistency, so any controls other than an on/off button would just be extra things I don’t use. The Niche Zero was perfect in this respect and I’m very happy with it.
Gaggia Classic (with MrShades PID and 9 bar OPV)
![Gaggia Classic](/assets/espresso/gaggia.webp)
The Gaggia Classic is a relatively inexpensive machine, with simple controls, and is easy to modify. Out of the box it has poor temperature stability and inconsistent steam pressure. I found that temperature surfing the steam wand worked well, but was tedious to do everytime. I opted to add a PID controller from Mr Shades of Coffee which gives it better brew temperature stability and much higher, and more stable, steam pressure.
Acaia Lunar Scale
![Acacia Scale](/assets/espresso/acacia.webp)
This scale is kind of expensive, but I find it aesthetically pleasing. I like that it has a timer, is precise, responds to weight changes quickly, and is small enough to measure liquid out while pulling a shot. It’s also relatively water resistant which is nice when channeling sprays coffee all over it.
Mr Shades Bottomless Portafilter with Wooden Handle
![Portafilter](/assets/espresso/portafilter.webp)
I wanted a bottomless portafilter so I could more easily observe channeling, and also to enjoy the beautiful espresso flowing out. I chose a wooden handle just because I don’t like the pastic handle on the stock portafilter.
58mm 18g VST Basket
![VST Basket](/assets/espresso/vst.webp)
The Gaggia Classic comes with some stock baskets and everyone online says they are bad. I had a very hard time getting consistent shot timings with the stock basket. I would pull one shot and it’d be faster than I wanted, and then the next would be slower. After switching to the VST basket, my shot timings were much more consistent.
ALSAINTÉ Espresso Tamper & Distributor
![Tamp and leveler](/assets/espresso/alsainte.webp)
I initially used a normal looking 58.5mm tamper but occasionally had inconsistency in my shots, that I believed had to do with my puck preparation. I bought a WDT distribution tool, tried grinding directly into the portafilter with a funnel, used a distributor tool, a different tamper style, and combinations of all of these things in search of greater consistency. I ended up finding that with my setup I could get more consistent taste and shot time if I just used a distributor and a tamper that always tamps perfectly level and to a pre-set depth. This tool has both, fits my basket very nicely, and looks great.