Learn espresso from the best

May 27, 2008 Author: Veronica | Filed under: san francisco, video

Ryan and I recently became the owners of Rancilio Silvia espresso machine, and since then we’ve been trying to learn the ins and outs of pulling a decent shot. While Ryan has some experience in this area, I’m a total and complete noob.

Luckily, our friend Niall steered us towards this great video series that one of my favorite coffee places in the city is producing. Ritual Roasters (a.k.a. “RitRo”) has six videos up so far, with topics ranging from using a french press to making a worthwhile shot. Not only are the videos super informative, but they’re also amazingly well produced (just like their coffee!). Here are a couple of my favorites:

If you’re in the city, make sure you check them out! Blue Bottle is another espresso obsession of ours, and that’s where we get our beans from. Yum!

17 Responses for "Learn espresso from the best"

BDKR May 27th, 2008 at 1:18 pm 1

That’s sweet. I have a machine that see’s no use due to be a looser noob.
Dean Bestall May 27th, 2008 at 1:20 pm 2

Dude, the machine in the second clip rocks my world, what is that thing? I have to get myself one, bet they are expensive though.
Brian Marshall May 27th, 2008 at 2:09 pm 3

Dean Bestall,

That would be a Clover brewer… http://cloverequipment.com/whyclover/faq.aspx

I believe they cost around $8,000 new…

Starbucks just bought the company though, so the chances of any of us actually being able to buy one (let alone any non-Starbucks coffeehouses) will probably be mighty slim.

Ciao,
Brian
Joffi May 27th, 2008 at 2:11 pm 4

Is that RitRo pronunciation as in the “Rut-ro, Shaggy” ?
Troy May 27th, 2008 at 2:13 pm 5

I need the machine in the second video! How much? and where/how to get one?
jesse May 27th, 2008 at 2:52 pm 6

Yea that second machine is straight Terminator.

The Ritro logo is amazing. Scooby Doo approves.
swag May 27th, 2008 at 4:53 pm 7

“RitRo”? What is this, Astro the dog from the Jetsons is now giving advice on coffee? (Scooby Doo a close second choice.)

Sorry, but I can’t take anyone seriously who comes up with cutsy abbreviations for things. These people need other professions to contribute something else to society.

The Silvia is a great choice, btw. But it’s no commercial machine — so there will be a slight disconnect from what you see in the videos.
Clay May 27th, 2008 at 10:39 pm 8

I love Ritual Roasters. I tasted the best espresso that I’ve ever had when I visited there while I was in SF.

There is a local shop here in STL that has a Clover. I am going to have to forgo espresso to try a cup the next time that I am there.

The only thing that I didn’t like about the espresso video is that it didn’t give nearly enough info for someone to actually make a decent shot of espresso on purpose.

I am very lucky to get to make espresso on a Nuova Simonelli “Aurelia” at work. I used to have a La Marzocco at my old job. They are both excellent machines. With the Nuova Simonelli it is almost hard to make bad espresso.
insignificant thoughts » Blog Archive » Daily Links from Ma.gnolia May 27th, 2008 at 11:00 pm 9

[...] Learn espresso from the best [...]
Erwin Chuk May 28th, 2008 at 5:30 am 10

Good stuff! I’m interested to see how you make out as I’m learning to pull espresso at home as well. By the way, if you haven’t had some already, I would recommend trying to get your hands on some Ecco Caffe espressos (and coffees) as well. They’re out in Sonoma County but have retail clients in the Bay Area.
swag May 28th, 2008 at 12:21 pm 11

Oh, and whatever you do — you need to have a good burr grinder. Everybody thinks machine machine machine, and the #1 thing people don’t realize is that getting a nice home espresso machine and using some cheap chop grinder is like fueling your new Porsche with canola oil.

If you’re going to drop $400 on a Silvia, you should at least expect to pay $200-$300 for a good burr grinder to get something worthwhile out of your machine.
Complex « citizen geek May 28th, 2008 at 4:11 pm 12

[...] Learn espresso from the best. [via Veronica Belmont] [...]
imacynic.org May 28th, 2008 at 10:28 pm 13

Ok, Veronica, you proved me wrong big time. I wasn’t expecting you to comment at all! =) (regards to Sarah Atwood). Maybe I just haven’t surfed the web hard enough around your blog and your fans—but I apologize for being presumptuous.
Googleman81 May 29th, 2008 at 11:06 am 14

first of all this http://www.vroomfoods.com is much better than coffee and second i find it fascinating how you can turn absolutely everything into a totally deep science and waste lots of money on it.
Brian Marshall May 30th, 2008 at 10:14 am 15

As was mentioned earlier, the grinder is probably more important than the machine in making great espresso. You can get away with a pretty inexpensive machine if you combine it with a really great grinder.

Best coffee resource on the ‘net http://www.coffeegeek.com
Rafa June 3rd, 2008 at 3:56 am 16

OT: Can you explain this Qore thing in your own words, please? Especially the part where we now pay for demos…
marry December 18th, 2008 at 2:40 am 17

just came across. Nice blog