Hello espresso lovers,

I newlky own a Gaggia Classic Coffee machine with a Santos 40a Burr Grinder.
I am disapointed as i tried a lot of things but i always get very bitter shots.

I have descaled and backflushed my gaggia, i have dismantled and clean my grinder.

I tried to grind finer, coarser ; coarser makes very weak coffee, finer makes it. The crema is here. Time takes from 10s to 40s.

BUT whatever i do, the taste is really bad : very bitter ! (i think it's bitter, as i'm not sure i can tell the difference between bitter and sour...)

Last week, before i had the grinder, i could make a fine tasting espresso with Illy pre-ground coffee...
Then i got the grinder, i tried 3 brands of beans and still get that very bitter taste.

Can you guys help me ?

Thanks

I have been using a Gaggia Classic for several years and generally get very nice results. If your machine is not defective, I think you might need to get your grind, dose and tamp all working together. Failure to do so is usually why I find the coffee bitter. So when I see your extraction time is 10 to 40 sec, I would suggest:

1. Make sure you have put 14 grams in filter basket
2. Make sure you have tamped it right. I don't know the metric value, but whatever equals 30 lbs of pressure (I imagine that's listed somewhere here)
3. Make a test shot. If it takes less than 20 seconds, grind finer. If it takes more than 30 seconds, grind coarser. Adjust your grind in small amounts -- just a bit can make a big difference. You can visually compare to a commercial grind that you know works well

In the end, you want to get your brew time to 20-25 seconds. In reality, I find 18-28 is OK, depending on the roast. For example, if you are using very dark, oily beans, you have to grind a little less fine. If your beans are more toward the FC+, a little finer. Generally, whenever I get a new coffee, I have to experiment on the first 2-3 shots to get it right. I recently bought a tamper that's spring loaded so that it always exerts the right pressure -- despite making my own espresso for 15 years, I found that was the biggest thing to get right. And change your grinds slowly; I have a nice Mazzer grinder and I move one or two clicks at a time, within a very narrow range.

Hope that helps.

Bitter coffee is more likely a result of the brewing temperature being too high and not the dose/grind/tamp.

I used to have a Gaggia Classic and it does tend to get too warm - especially if you use the steamer from time to time.

Try doing a cooling flush just before brewing. Perhaps start with a relatively short one (a couple of seconds), then try a longer one (5 secs or so) and see if it makes a difference.

C

This question really doesn't belong in the "Espresso Machines" section because there's probably nothing wrong with the machine. There's only a couple things you could do on a Classic to really screw up the espresso anyways (not let it warm up, for example).

I've never heard of the Santos 40a, but a quick google search, and it looks like it should be capable. As long as you can grind fine enough to choke the machine, that's a good sign at least. You don't mention how much coffee you're using either, that's a very important detail.

But the biggest change is you're using new coffees now, and now the espresso is bitter? It could just be that you've got bad coffee. It could be stale, or a bad roast or just a blend(s) that doesn't work well for espresso. The most important factor in how your espresso will taste is what kind of coffee you're using. Let us know what kinds of coffee you're trying, did you get them all from the same place? Hopefully someone else will have tried one and will have an idea of how it should taste. Or at the very least if no one has tried any, someone can recommend a good coffee to try.

Don't assume that the machine will be able to take any coffee you put in to it and turn in to espresso (or good espresso), start with the coffee and work your way to good espresso from there.

Have you adjusted the pressure? I found that when adjusted down it was probably the biggest improvement to the Classic, as I was getting a lot of harsh espresso at first too. It could be any number of other things, but it's a start.

The major recent change being the new grinder and coffee, i'd say try switching back to your old method and see if the problem disappears. Don't fix what isn't broke.

Cleaning the grinder isn't going to help if it needs new burrs and needing burrs is a common problem. If you can see any wear at all, new burrs are needed.

nasdak wrote: i tried 3 brands of beans and still get that very bitter taste.

Are the beans freshly roasted? Or supermarket brands?