Espresso: What you need and need to know. Part Six:Final Thoughts

      Final thoughts. Wow you made it this far… ok, so what could  I possibly have left to say. Well to be honest I could, go on and on and, but I wont. The final word on espresso, is that you will never perfect it. Wait a minuet, what are you talking about? Ok let me explain, its not the destination it is the journey…… ok that was lame, let me try that again. You will never make a perfect shot time and time again, which is not to say that you will never make a perfect shot. That cup of espresso that just blows your mind will happen, just don’t expect it to happen every time. So, why not?  The devil is in the details, a perfect cup is kind of a freak occurrence that can be  helped by doing everything right every time. There are just so many variables involved like: the water, temp of the water, water pressure that is applied by the machine, the tamp, grind size, grind consistency, age of coffee, roast of the coffee, the amount of coffee used, and so many more, and some you don’t have any control over at all. So, is it hopeless? No, not by any means, you just have to take control of the variables that you can control, and wait for the rest to fall in place for that, “god shot”. Every time you make a cup of coffee you will get better at controlling things. I would say that you raise the bar, every time you make espresso. What tasted good a month ago, that if you could go back in time and make your self a cup you probably wouldn’t like it. I would even say that someone whom has been making espresso for 30 years plus still has room for improvement. So it is a never ending pursuit of perfection, a very tasty pursuit to be sure. I hope that all of my rambling (no not of a mad man) will help you make an informed decision and get you on your way to making outstanding espresso. Aside from this series, there are some really great resources out there, I will include a list of them.

Places to buy your gear:
espressoparts
greatinfusions
chriscoffee
wholelattelove
aabreecoffee
seattlecoffeegear

Places to learn:
coffeegeek
home-barista
epicurious

Places to get great coffee:
Zoka Coffee
Ecco Caffe
Intelligentsia Coffee
Counterculture Coffee

And some great books:
Coffee: A Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Enjoying, Fifth Edition
Home Coffee Roasting, Revised, Updated Edition: Romance and Revival
Espresso: Ultimate Coffee, Second Edition
The Professional Barista's Handbook: An Expert Guide to Preparing Espresso, Coffee, and Tea
The Coffee Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide
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Espresso: What you need and need to know. Part Six: Final Thoughts by Noah Brewer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.