Coming from a pour-over background I had little clue about brewing espresso. Lucky for me I bumped into Dan Kehn who took me step-by-step through the espresso brewing process and even lent me a ECM Synchronika so I could hone my technique. Here's what Dan taught me, one week in to my espresso journey.

As a beginner, what really helped was watching massive compilations of their workflow and shot diagnostics and reading the critiques on them. I feel like I've watched enough that I can foretell the suggestions now just from watching the flow and without ever touching a portafilter in my life.