Espresso Dialed In

Tuesday's shot was sweet and syrupy. Wednesday's, from the same beans and machine, tasted like a lemon wedge, and the obvious suspect is the equipment. Usually it isn't: a handful of variables decide almost everything about a shot, and each produces a taste you can learn to recognize. This book teaches you to read grind, dose, ratio, and time, taste a shot and diagnose it as sour, bitter, or balanced, and change exactly one thing at a time until it's right. You'll learn to dial in a new bag of beans while wasting little coffee, and spot the real causes behind a gusher, a choke, or a channeled shot. By the end, a great shot becomes a recipe you own.

Imad Muratspahic is an independent author of practical how-to guides, technical handbooks, history and fiction. The books aim to be clear, honest and useful from the first page.