Welcome to the rabbit hole ☕ Here's the 5-step starting recipe:

  1. Dose: 16–18g of fresh coffee (roasted within 2 months) into the basket.
  2. Grind: finer than table salt. When in doubt, start finer and coarsen.
  3. Tamp: level and firm — consistency matters more than force.
  4. Ratio: aim for 1:2 — 18g in, ~36g out.
  5. Time: 25–32 seconds. Faster → grind finer. Slower / drips → grind coarser.

Taste, adjust one variable at a time, repeat. Sour = under-extracted (grind finer), bitter = over-extracted (grind coarser).