How to Get Real Espresso Out of a De'Longhi Dedica

The De'Longhi Dedica is a good little machine held back by one part: the basket it ships with. The stock baskets are pressurized, which means the basket creates the pressure instead of the coffee. That makes it forgiving with pre-ground coffee, but it also caps how good the shot can get. Most of the upgrade comes from swapping that basket and changing how you prep the coffee, and none of it requires opening up the machine.

First, check your fit

Most Dedica models, including the EC680, EC685 and EC885, use a 51mm portafilter with three tabs (ears) that lock into the machine. Count the tabs on yours before you buy anything. Standard 58mm accessories won't fit.

1. Sort out your grinder first

This is the step people skip, so it goes first. A pressurized basket covers for coarse or stale coffee. A single-wall basket doesn't, so you need fresh beans and a burr grinder that can grind fine enough for espresso. Supermarket pre-ground coffee will run through a single-wall basket fast and taste thin. If you don't have an espresso-capable grinder yet, keep using the stock basket until you do.

2. Switch to a single-wall basket

The simplest way is a bottomless portafilter that comes with a single-wall basket. Our 51mm three-ear bottomless portafilter ($32.99) includes one. With the bottom cut away you can see the shot come out, which makes the next steps much easier to judge. Keep your original portafilter and baskets, since you'll want them if the machine ever goes in for warranty service.

3. Weigh what goes in and what comes out

Use a scale that reads to 0.1 gram. Start with around 14 grams of ground coffee in the basket and aim for about twice that in the cup, roughly 28 grams, in 25 to 30 seconds. Those are starting points, not rules. If the shot tastes sour and thin, grind finer. If it tastes bitter and harsh, grind coarser. Change one thing at a time.

4. Break up clumps, then tamp level

Fine grounds clump, and clumps make water rush through some spots and skip others. Stir the grounds in the basket with a few thin needles (a WDT tool) before you tamp. Then press straight down and level with a tamper sized for a 51mm basket, like our 51mm rosewood tamper ($19.99), so the whole surface gets the same pressure.

5. Watch the shot

With a bottomless portafilter, a good shot comes out of the whole bottom of the basket and joins into one stream. If you see thin jets spraying sideways, or one side running pale while the other is still dark, water is finding a shortcut. Go back to step 4, stir more thoroughly and tamp flatter.

What it costs

If you already have a good grinder, the portafilter and tamper come to about $53 here, plus a scale if you don't own one. If you don't have a grinder, that's the purchase that matters most, and it's worth making before anything else on this page.

Get it all in one order

The Dedica upgrade kit puts the bottomless portafilter, a 51mm tamper, a distributor and a WDT tool together for $84.99, and it ships free. Everything else that fits the Dedica is on our Dedica page.