This being my first post here let me start by giving a huge thanks to everyone who is active in the HB community. I've spent hours and hours here soaking in as much knowledge as I can and without HB I would have been very lost and extremely frustrated as an espresso novice. Seriously, THANK YOU!

That said, I think it sometimes help to hear tips from other novice folks just starting out because when you become an expert in something it is easy to forget some of the simple things that really helped you along the path to becoming an expert.

Here are a few of my tips for newbies, but I'd love other novice/beginner barista to chime in with their own tips as well:

1. This was HUGE for me: To pick the beans you will first use for espresso start by finding a local shop that uses the beans you're interested in using. Go there and talk to the barista. Tell him/her you are starting out and going to be using the same beans at home. She/he will likely tell you how they like to pull that particular bean. But more importantly you can taste what it should be coming out like. After tasting a shot of Tuscano (Counter Culture) pulled by one of the barista at Everyman Espresso (NYC) I realized the maximum potential for depth of flavor and sweetness from a properly pulled shot of that bean. Now with this as my goal I knew what to expect and shoot for in pulling from these beans at home. I'm still not there yet, but now I know what I am aiming for.

2. Keep a pad of paper next to your machine and write down your variables and result after each shot you pull. For me this sped up dialing in my grinder because the process of stopping for a second to record and analyze my shot allowed me to more easily see how my variables and mistakes effect my results. This won't work for everyone but it really helped me.

3. Does your stomach hurt from all that mediocre coffee? In the beginning we're all going to be tasting some pretty bad shots. Those with more sensitive stomachs might get an upset belly pretty quickly. Everyone is going to be different but for me I found taking a sip or two of milk between shots to help this a lot. It also seemed to clear my palate for the next shot allowing me to better tell more subtle differences between shots.

Well that's it from me for now, what tips do you other newbies out there have?

Hi William and welcome to HB, congrats for embarking on a journey to produce quality espresso!

A small caveat in setting the record straight here, milk is far from a palate cleanser. Best to use a sparkling mineral spring water, or soda crackers, among other items better suited for this purpose.

Thanks, good to know! I went with milk mostly for the calming affect it has on stomach acid but I can see how the fats in milk could make for a poor choice as far as palate cleansing goes. I'll give the crackers a try since at this point my stomach isn't getting beaten up as badly as it was when I started a little over a month ago.

Hi William,

Wow, impressive set-up for a newbie

As a fellow newbie (at espresso since Jan), I'll add: invest in accurate measuring equipment:
1) volumetric shot glass(es),
2) 0.1g scale,
3) thermometer

Since you keep a notepad, I'm sure you have these already. But I think it is useful to know and record what I am doing as I learn.

I started with HB last December & got a lot of great advice & knowledge here. Bottom line for me is "what's in the cup". I'm no expert but I've learned to make some pretty good espresso. fact is I'll take very little credit in the actual finished product. My thought is with this modern equipment and a great roast it's very easy to get a great shot. I started out with the Rocket & a POS grinder and getting a good shot was almost impossible I went through pounds of expensive coffee trying every method I read about and finally returned the POS grinder got the Compak & that was the game changer. With the Rocket all it takes is great beans ground right & it makes very very consistent shots regardless of me. I really don't even bother weighing the dose anymore I can be a gram off either way and still get good shots. I'm sure an experienced Barista would get a better shot using my eq. & beans but how much better I don't know ? My palate is prob. not good enough to discern the finer nuances of the taste descriptions the experts talk about. Right now I can actually taste the flavors the roaster says are in his beans. I'm pretty stoked about my set up and results right now. Maybe some day I'll learn how to steam milk that seems way more of an art then pulling a shot.
My advice to a newbie would be spend the money on a grinder, be patient it's really not that complicated to make good espresso, plan on spending a boat load of $ on coffee when you first get started and hit a few good coffee shops compare there espresso to what your doing.