Barista tools & portafilter holders

Start with the size of your portafilter. Nearly all commercial machines and most better home machines use 58 mm, and the dosing cups, blind filters, and standalone portafilters here are designed for that size. If your machine has a different size, first measure the basket's inner diameter.

Then consider what you are missing in the brewing process. A WDT tool with thin needles breaks up the clumps that freshly ground coffee forms due to static electricity. A dosing cup catches the grounds so nothing spills over the side. A scale with a timer records how much goes in and out. A blind filter is a basket without holes and is needed for cleaning. A second portafilter is not a luxury but a time-saver: while one is running, you fill the other. For tamping itself, see the tampers.

Catch the grounds in the dosing cup, stir them with the WDT tool for ten seconds until there are no more clumps, then tap the cup empty into the filter. Level the surface and only then tamp. A tilted or clumpy coffee bed makes the water flow through the weakest spot, causing the shot to taste thin while the rest of the coffee is still packed in.

Weighing gives you a reliable reference from there. Eighteen grams in, thirty-six grams out, in twenty-five to thirty seconds, is the usual starting point to dial in from. If it runs through too quickly, grind finer. For the milk side, see the milk pitchers, and if you want to turn your espresso into a cocktail, the ratio is given in the espresso martini.

Coffee oil goes rancid, and that’s a matter of days, not weeks. With a blind filter, you perform a backflush: the machine pumps the water back through the group head and flushes the buildup out. Do this at the end of every shift, and within a week you’ll taste the difference in the first shot of the day.

A group head brush removes the grounds under the shower screen, while a steam wand brush keeps milk residue out of the wand. Milk that dries inside the wand gives the next cappuccino a burnt taste. So wipe the wand with a cloth immediately after each use and purge it. You’ll find the knock box for used coffee pucks at the knock boxes.

If you have the equipment and are looking for the right glassware, you’ll find single- and double-walled models among the coffee glasses. If you mainly serve milk-based drinks, then latte macchiato glasses are the logical choice, with a height that keeps the layers visible. And if you want to work with cold coffee instead of milk, start with espresso tonic.