How to Pull Better Shots on a Breville Barista Express or Bambino

Breville's 54mm machines, including the Barista Express, Barista Pro and Bambino, can pull much better espresso than most owners get out of them. The difference usually comes down to the basket you use and how you prep the coffee before it goes in the machine.

1. Use the single-wall basket

Breville machines often come with two kinds of baskets. The dual-wall (pressurized) ones are made for pre-ground coffee and create pressure on their own. The single-wall ones let the coffee itself create the pressure, which is what you want with fresh beans ground fine. If you've been using the dual-wall basket, switching is the first upgrade and it's free. You'll need fresh coffee ground fine enough for espresso, which the Barista Express and Barista Pro can do with their built-in grinders.

2. Weigh your dose

Breville's standard 54mm double basket is sized for about 18 grams of ground coffee. Start there, and aim for roughly twice that in the cup, about 36 grams, in 25 to 30 seconds. If the shot tastes sour and thin, grind finer. If it tastes bitter, grind coarser. Change one thing at a time.

3. Level the grounds, then tamp

A 54mm basket takes a 53mm tamper and distributor, which sit just inside the basket wall. Level the grounds with a distributor or a few thin needles (a WDT tool), then press straight down. Our 53mm rosewood tamper ($19.99) fits Breville's 54mm baskets.

4. Watch the shot with a bottomless portafilter

A bottomless portafilter has the spouts cut away, so you can see the coffee come out of the basket. A good shot pours from the whole bottom and joins into one stream. Thin jets spraying sideways, or one side running pale early, mean water is finding a shortcut, and you'll know to go back to step 3. Our 54mm bottomless portafilter ($36.99) fits the Barista Express, Barista Pro and Bambino. Keep your original portafilter too, in case the machine ever needs warranty service.

What it costs

Steps 1 and 2 are free if you have a kitchen scale that reads to 0.1 gram. The tamper and bottomless portafilter come to about $57 here. Do the free steps first, since they make the biggest difference.

Get it all in one order

The Breville upgrade kit puts the bottomless portafilter, a 53mm tamper, a distributor and a WDT tool together for $84.99, and it ships free. Everything else that fits these machines is on our Breville page.