Congratulations on your new TIMEMORE purchase!
Using the machine is quite straightforward, but to make it even easier we’ve put this guide together to walk you through every step in the brewing process. We’ve included a few useful ‘tips and tricks’ at the end of the article.
Before you begin, be sure to set aside the spare boiler o-ring and safety ring, which you’ll find in a small brown envelope. Next, give your heat transfer plate or induction plate a quick rinse with soapy water and dry it with a towel or cloth, making sure it’s completely dry.
Although it’s not completely necessary, we recommend that you run a cycle without any coffee the very first time you use your machine. To do this, follow steps 1, 3 and 4 below. When that’s complete, you’re ready to get brewing, this time following all the steps below:
Step 1: Adding water
Fill the boiler with 120g of water, or just below the ‘fill to here’ line. We recommend using filtered water to prevent the build up of limescale, which can affect the functioning of your machine. It’s important that you don’t fill beyond this amount or you may find that water spits out of the chimney. Next, screw the grouphead onto the boiler, taking care to do this gently so as not to spill any of the water. Tighten until you can see that there is contact between the top of the boiler and the bottom of the grouphead, creating a seal.
Step 2: Preparing the coffee
- Freshly ground coffee: We strongly recommend using freshly roast coffee beans and grinding them just before you use them, although you can also use pre-ground coffee if you must. We’ve written a blog post detailing our favourite grinders to provide some guidance if you don’t have one yet.
- Choosing your dose: One of the parameters you can adjust with 9Barista is the weight of ground coffee you use in the basket. We recommend starting with 18g. It’s a good idea to weigh out the exact quantity of beans each time, and only grind that much.
- Grinding the beans: The fineness of the grind is possibly the most important parameter when making espresso – it makes a big difference to the flavour. The grind size will determine how long the extraction takes; that is, how long the water is in contact with the beans for. We measure this by timing how many seconds it takes for the espresso to fill the portafilter, from when it first appears to when it stops rising. The aim is 25-30 seconds. Use the setting on your grinder recommended for espresso for the first attempt, and then adjust as necessary. If in doubt, grind coarser and gradually go finer until you hit 25-30 seconds.
- Put the ground coffee in the basket: Put the ground beans into the basket (you may wish to use a funnel to help keep things neat and tidy).
- Tamping the beans: Evenly distribute the ground coffee in the basket before you tamp, by giving the portafilter a shake side to side, or by sliding your palm over the top of the basket. Then when you tamp, carefully keep the tamper horizontal, while you apply a firm push downwards – around 5kg of force is enough. After tamping, simply put the basket cap into the basket, being careful not to disturb the coffee. We’ve written further advice on how to best prepare your coffee beans here.
- Attaching the portafilter: You can now turn the portafilter back over and attach it to the grouphead. The portafilter will be sealed when the two handles are at 90 degrees to one another. When you first receive your machine it might be slightly stiff when closing the portafilter, but this is get much easier after a few uses. You’re now ready to put your machine on the heat.