It has been nearly a year since I posted my last Flair Espresso video (which incidentally turned out to be my most popular video of all time), which garnered a whole lot of discussion about everything from grind to purchase advice to timing, so I decided to make another video with all the things I've learned in the year since.

I use my Flair Pro 2 for my daily coffee, which means I have now brewed hundreds of espresso shots with it by now. Considering I had zero experience with espresso (I brewed my coffee using a moka pot prior to the Flair), there was quite a learning curve. I used to grind coarse and tamp really hard, which used to make for both over and under extracted shots at times, not to mention a whole lot of channelling and squrting shots with espresso spraying everywhere.

I perfected the process over the months and worked out the nuances of all the variables. Here are a few points:

Coffee
India has seen a surge of new roasteries in the last year, which means I've been brewing a new variety of coffee pretty much every month. I've noticed that single estate coffees tend to grind differently than blends and imported varieties. You'll see a difference in volume between 20g of two different varieties. The one I'm using in this video— a Chennai based roasterie named Kāpi Kottai— ground less voluminous and fluffy. This is why you'll see it tamp down quite low, almost as low as my previous video's 18g of coffee. This is also why I haven't yet bought a distribution tool. The depth seems to always vary between varieties of coffee.

WDT, or the Weiss Distribution Technique
I use a straightened paperclip to break down lumps in the coffee. This made a massive difference towards reducing channelling and uneven extraction.

The Wrist Bump
I'd like to think that I've invented this technique myself specifically for the Flair's little portafilter. I hold the portafilter with the coffee and knock my wrist with the other hand, just enough to make the coffee jump and even out.

Tamping
I ought to explain that I 'polish' the coffee to flatten it first and then tamp. I usually tamp right after polishing, but I pulled it out to show the flatness of the pre-tamped coffee bed for the video. I don't usually do this, I polish and tamp in the next step itself.

Pre-heating the Brew head
Most of the time, I use the kettle method, where I get the kettle going first, with the brew head on top of it and then go about grinding the coffee, distributing and tamping. This gives it enough time to warm up quite a bit, after which I pre-heat it the usual way with boiling water for 40 seconds or so.
When I forget, I use the double preheating method, which does get the brew temperature up between 88º-93ºC, depending on how blisteringly hot the water is and ambient temperature that can pull the temperature of the metal down between steps.

Pulling the shot
The only major difference here is that I include a 15 second preinfusion, where I pull the lever down a few bars to soak the coffee. I'll sometimes go up to 20 seconds with this step, since I've found that the preinfusion step also ensures an even extraction without channelling or squirting. I think the water pushes any air bubbles or pockets up to the surface and makes the puck a lot more even.

Pressure Profiling
I think Pressure Profiling is the Flair's most underrated quality. I've found some beans at particular grind sizes reach a perfect equilibrium of extraction at around 7-8 bars (as per the Flair's little gauge). In some cases I've also used variable pressure— something I accidentally discovered when I was tired after a workout and had to change my grip mid-pull. This makes the possible brew outcomes practically infinite.
This is something you'd want to do based on instinct and practice. Certain varieties of coffee seem to ask to be brewed with different pressures. I still never cross the 9 bar threshold marked out in the gauge though.

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I think that ought to cover it— please do comment if you have any questions, suggestions or your own tips and techniques you've picked up during your brewing journey. I wouldn't call this a definitive guide yet. I started at zero, and I'm still learning new things that better my brew. I have however ruined coffee for myself and a few people who I've brewed for. Standard coffee shop coffee doesn't have the nuance that home brewing has with the Flair.


Special thanks to @Jan Benak for the preheating tip, and @Sam Whitehead for helping me troubleshoot my tamping.

Follow me on Instagram:   / magicmarinade  

00:00 Intro
00:28 The Coffee & How I Store It
01:11 Grinding & Tamping
03:31 Preheating the Brewhead Method 1
03:58 Preheating the Brewhead Method 2
05:52 Pulling a Shot
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Music: "Jazz_Mango" by Joey Pecoraro