14 Greatest WIRED Examined and Reviewed Espresso Machines (2024)

There’s all the time room to up your sport, and there are fairly a couple of further instruments that may make it easier to make one of the best espresso potential. These are all instruments you’d make use of earlier than the brew, setting the stage for the proper extraction.

Fellow Atmos Canister for Espresso Beans ($40): A vacuum canister is an effective way to retailer your espresso beans. By vacating the chamber of all air each time you shut it, the Fellow Atmos slows down the degradation of all these flavorful oils and chemical compounds inside your freshly roasted beans.

Oxo Conical Burr Grinder ($100): That is one in all our high picks in our Greatest Espresso Grinders information, and it is a sensible choice for espresso. Espresso requires a high-quality and constant grind, the likes of which you’ll be able to simply get out of a burr grinder. Simply be sure you get in there and provides your burrs a sweep from time to time—upkeep that the Oxo makes straightforward, with a bean bin that snaps aside with none fuss.

Bottomless Portafilter ($50): Nothing will enhance your expertise of watching espresso brew like a bottomless portafilter. Not as a result of it can make your espresso higher; it’ll make you higher by making you extra conscious of your errors and inconsistencies. Bottomless portafilters are finicky, and when your grind is off otherwise you’ve over-tamped your grounds, the bottomless portafilter enables you to see that in how the espresso coats the underside of the filter and pours down into the cup. You should definitely double-check the circumference in your espresso machine’s group head, although (the place the filter attaches). There are a selection of ordinary sizes, so it’s worthwhile to ensure you order the proper one. The most typical are 53 mm and 58 mm, and nearly each bottomless portafilter is available in every of those sizes.

Crema Distributor & Tamp ($39): As soon as you set your grounds into your portafilter, the subsequent step is giving them a superb, even tamping. You wish to use about 30 to 40 kilos of strain, and whereas you should utilize a scale to find out precisely what that appears like, I discover it’s higher to simply press along with your higher physique, then extract a shot and see the way it went. If it’s too bitter, you tamped too laborious; if it’s too watery you didn’t tamp laborious sufficient. A distributor (additionally known as a leveler) makes it straightforward to get a fair floor so that you can tamp, and this one has a tamp on one aspect and a distributor on the opposite so you possibly can degree off your beans, then flip this device over and provides ’em a superb tamp. Simply ensure you get one that matches the circumference of your machine’s portafilter!

Duralex Picardie Shot Glasses, Set of Six ($20): These are my favourite shot glasses typically, however they’re additionally nice espresso shot glasses—tall and slim sufficient to permit a splendidly aerated crema to type on high, and product of tempered glass to allow them to stand as much as the warmth. They’re additionally nice for serving up smaller drinks like macchiatos—a shot of espresso with a dollop of froth on high.