Our Barista Basics Guide: Your Easy Path from Grind to Perfect Milk

Switching to coffee beans can transform your daily cup. It takes a little more effort, but once you get the hang of it, the process becomes effortless. Instant coffee has its place on busy mornings, but it will always be limited in taste.

Moving to beans or freshly ground coffee gives you a richer, more rewarding experience. If you’ve just bought a bean to cup machine, it’s normal to feel unsure about where to begin.

Great coffee starts with the basics. Small tweaks such as grind size, milk texture and understanding your beans, can completely change what’s in your cup. Our home barista guide breaks it down for beginners, coffee lovers and anyone wanting to master the art of better coffee.

Understand Your Beans

Unlike instant coffee, every bag of coffee beans is unique. What works with one blend won’t necessarily work with another, and that’s part of the craft. Once you start treating each bag as its own experience, you’ll avoid repeating the same mistakes and get better results.

Beans generally fall into three main roast levels, each shaping the flavour:

• Light roast - bright, delicate and often fruity
• Medium roast - balanced, smooth, versatile
• Dark roast - bold, rich, intense

Most bags will state the roast, and it might take some time to discover what you enjoy most. But once you know, you can fine tune your technique.

For a reliable all rounder, we recommend Nescafé Barista Signature Blend Coffee Beans, a smooth, chocolatey, medium roast that’s ideal for beginners. It works beautifully across all barista drinks, from silky lattes to frothy cappuccinos, making it a great starting choice.

Master the Grind

Grind size is one of the trickiest parts of coffee making. It can take years to perfect, but most machines include automatic grinders, meaning you rarely need to adjust anything. Some machines still have manual settings, giving you the option to tweak the grind.

When it comes to grind size, remember two simple rules:

• Making the coffee coarser = move to a higher grind number
• Making the coffee finer = move to a lower grind number

For espresso, you’ll want a fine grind, similar to smooth sand. For a French press, go coarse. For pour overs, medium grand works well.

Even though many machines handle this aleady, it’s helpful to understand the basics. Grind size can also vary by bean and many brands include a recommended setting, so it’s always worth checking before you brew.

Dialling in Your Espresso

Dialing in your espresso is a crucial step and determines how your coffee tastes. It refers to how long your espresso takes to run through the machine. Too fast and it becomes bitter or burnt, too slow and it turns watery and ashy.

There are three key variables to focus on when dialing in espresso:

• Dose - how much coffee goes into the basket
• Yield - how much espresso comes out
• Extraction time - how long the shot takes to pour

Every bean and roast behaves differently, but as a starting point for a great espresso, aim for:

• Dose: 16-18mg of coffee
• Yield: 36 espresso
• Extraction time: 25-20 seconds

Other brew methods like French press or drip will differ, but for espresso based drinks, these numbers are a solid benchmark. It might sound technical, but after a few tries, it will become second nature.

Don’t Forget to Tamp

Once you’ve weighed out 16-18g of coffee, there’s one step you can’t skip: tamping. So many people overlook it, but it’s essential.

Tamping compresses the grounds so water can flow evenly through the coffee. Without it, you risk uneven extraction and a burnt, bitter tasting coffee.

Most modern machines include a tamp, so make sure you don’t skip this step. Even pressure makes for a better flavour every time.

Perfect Milk Steaming

Milk texture takes practice as it’s one of the hardest skills in coffee. The key thing to remember is that dairy and plant based milks behave differently.

Dairy contains more proteins, so it naturally steams into a silky, glossy texture. Plant based options like oat milk have fewer proteins, making them trickier to stream and more prone to turning into thick foam.

For smooth, silky latte milk, start with the steam wand just at the surface to introduce a little air and create that stretching sound, and then lower it gently to create heat and texture. Gentle movements are key as too much agitation creates excess foam.

It’s also easy to overheat milk. You can usually feel the temperature through the jug, but a milk thermometer helps you stay consistent. Watching tutorials and practising regularly will make a huge difference.

Ratios for Popular Barista Drinks

Struggling to know the difference between a flat white and a cappuccino? It can be a bit confusing at first. But each drink on your barista menu has a different ratio of espresso to milk and milk texture.

Flat White

• Double espresso
• Uses between 120-140ml of steamed milk
• Thin microfoam
• 1 part espresso to 2-3 parts milk

Latte

• 1-2 shots of espresso
• Uses between 200-300ml of milk
• Light microfoam (1-1.5 cm)
• 1 part espresso to 4-6 parts milk

Cappuccino

• 1-2 shots of espresso
• Equal parts steamed milk to foam
• Thick foam layer (2-3cm)
• 1 part espresso to 1 part foam

Once you get the hang of the drinks and what their milk textures should resemble, you’ll be mastering the art of coffee in no time. Essentially, it boils down to practice, patience and small tweaks adding up to make a big difference.

Great Tasting Coffee Maters

A perfect way to elevate your everyday life is to consider switching to coffee beans. It takes a little bit of mastering to get there, but even a few months of practice can get you making delicious, great tasting drinks in no time.

If you’re a coffee lover, you will feel a real difference when you switch to beans. Here at Office Stationery, we now stock a wide range of coffee beans, alongside instant coffee sachets and coffee tins, designed for all kinds of environments.