I was taught to do it by a barista at Chromatic Coffee. 18g tamped down, then enough sugar to barely cover the bed, lock in and pull. I make sure to backflush often.

anything straight (at least for Saka, I have tried light roasts and did not add sugar to those): yes, about a tsp of cane sugar for a double shot and half a tsp for a single.

anything added (milk drink, coffee alcoholic beverages, etc) I do not add sugar

yes I add sugar cubes in my espresso, because i enjoy my coffee like sweet traditional espresso

I lived in Southern Spain for a while. There was a tremendous amount of espresso consumed in the country. Every espresso came with sugar cubes. And...there sugar cubes are 3 of ours! Very common in Spain.

When I first arrived, I went to a Spaniard's house for coffee with some friends. He asked if I wanted sugar in my espresso. I said sure. He used condensed milk. Upon the first sip, I thought my teeth shattered from the sweetness. I was simply awful.

I now have it with or without depending on my desire for a given flavor profile. Kind of like Gin vs Scotch.

David

Yep, I use organic coconut sugar which has a good caramel-like flavour which seems to work well and doesn't affect the coffee taste that I can tell.
I just use a tiny demitasse spoon I think they're called which is about 2.2grams worth.

never have

I usually add about 1.6g sugar to a 38-40g pull.

-Phil

I only add sugar when...

• ...drinking traditional espresso in Europe

• ...served bad coffee or espresso anywhere

The experience of sitting in an outdoor cafe in Europe (especially Italy) drinking a dark, chocolatey, Arabica-Robusta espresso served with one or two packets of unrefined sugar as long and thick as my ring finger, or two huge cubes of it, and munching a cookie or fabulous pastry is downright sublime. I'm especially fond of eating the coffee-soaked undissolved sugar at the bottom of the cup when I finish drinking the shot.

At home, I'm always seeking a bright, sweet, complex cup that reveals origin flavors, almost always from a light to medium-light roast. If I add sugar, some or all of those elements would be muted or masked. It would be a different cup, dominated by sugary sweetness. I'm sure it wouldn't taste bad, it just wouldn't be what I'm looking for from high-quality Arabica specialty coffee.

I'm not a straight espresso snob. I enjoy a cappacinno or latte, too, and certainly milk dramatically changes the flavor profile of the coffee. But when the milk is steamed properly it adds it's own brand of sweetness to the cup that's more subtle and complex than added sugar.

Before I discovered espresso and good coffee more than a decade ago, I had moved to artificial sweeteners for dietary reasons. Once I got hooked on their overly-sweet impact, I preferred them over sugar. I still sprinkle a little on raw fruit sometimes. On rare occasion, when the regular coffee I'm served is really horrible, I'll add artificial sweetener instead of sugar. It seems to kill the bitterness or sourness better than real sugar. That's not the case when I get a bad espresso in a cafe or restaurant. Artificial sweeteners make for a really awful espresso, so that's when I add real sugar, preferably unrefined.

In my youth, I always added cream or half-and-half (and loved donuts and a cigarette with my coffee ), but once I got a taste for straight espresso, I found that I no longer like coffee-with-cream and always drink regular coffee black. Well, almost always. I've had a couple of bad coffees at Starbucks, including Starbucks Reserve, and other places that required artificial sweetener and cream to be partly drinkable, and even then I couldn't finish those cups.

Oddly, some of the best non-specialty regular coffee I've had is at diners or high-traffic breakfast restaurants. These places know how to produce a very balanced cup and their throughput is so high that they don't have to leave the carafe on the burner for long, if at all. The flavor isn't nuanced, but it's pleasant to drink and I enjoy drinking it black.

Tastes can vary dramatically from person to person, and I don't judge anyone for adding sugar or think that I'm some sort of purist or elite taster. What I like in coffee doesn't appeal to a lot of people, and vice-versa. Heck, I like naturals (for the most part), while many skilled coffee tasters hate them.

I don't add anything to straight espresso shots. When I make a cappuccino, typically about 60 to 65 grams of espresso plus frothed milk, I usually add a packet of Splenda.

Honey. A tsp or so of high quality honey can really bring out some different flavors. I add it to mine most of the time but for my wife it's required.

I usually taste the shot before serving my wife because there's nothing like hearing, "Did you add honey to this shot?" when you did and that just means it shoulda been a sink shot.