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Is your espresso flowing too fast? Then your grind is probably too coarse, you're using too little coffee, or you're tamping too lightly. An espresso should take 25 to 30 seconds to extract. If it's faster, you're missing flavour, body, and balance. Luckily, you can easily fix this with a few simple tweaks.

Read more about the ideal extraction time for an espresso.

Why is your espresso flowing too fast?

An espresso that ends up in your cup within ten to fifteen seconds is flowing too fast. What does that mean? Your coffee is under-extracted, meaning the water hasn't had enough time to draw out flavour compounds, oils, and acids from the ground coffee. The result: a thin, sour espresso lacking depth.

Possible causes of a too-fast extraction

An espresso pouring out of your machine like a waterfall almost always points to too little resistance during brewing. This can have several causes. Here are the most common:

• Grind too coarse: The coarser the grind, the faster the water flows through.

For the advanced barista, the extraction time of an espresso is much more than just a number. It's a direct gauge for extraction and therefore for flavour. An espresso that runs through too quickly or too slowly is rarely in balance, with a bitter, sour or watery coffee as the result. But what IS the ideal time? And how do you adjust your grind, tamping or dose accordingly?

What is extraction time?

The extraction time, also called brew time, is the time the water needs to flow through the ground coffee in the portafilter, from the moment you press the espresso button to the last drop falling into the cup.

This time is always measured in seconds, usually with a stopwatch or a built-in timer in the espresso machine.

Important: extraction time isn't the same as warm-up time of the machine or pre-infusion.

What is the ideal extraction time for an espresso?

The guideline for a classic espresso is between 25 and 30 seconds.

But this depends on:

• The amount of coffee (standard: 18-20 grams)
• The