/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Sup anons, I've been trying to step up my espressos for a short while now after having had decent to average shots for about 5 years at home. I'm currently using an 80s-90s shitty (but depressurized) espresso machine, a cheap chinese manual grinder, a non-precision kitchen scale and supermarket roasted beans (no idea when they were roasted).

What variables in the entire process would you say are the most important to watch out for to make a good espresso? I've been paying particular attention to my brew ratio and extraction time first and foremost since I don't have a lot of control over temperature with this machine. I've been using a 30%~33% ratio and a 28s extraction time and it's apparently as best as I'll get with my current setup

I'm going to upgrade my grinder in a week or two to an automatic burr grinder, and I'm currently awaiting for some higher quality roasted coffee beans in the mail (guy had it roasted and dispatched tuesday, might be here monday). Good recently roasted coffee beans are relatively easy for me to acquire where I live Brazil but on the equipment front the grinder upgrade is the most I'll be able to get for a year or two.