Our coffee recipes

At Barcino, every coffee we sell comes with its own recipe. That's not a marketing detail — it's one of the reasons Barcino exists in the first place. Here's why, and how we put them together.

The first-bag problem

If you make your coffee with an espresso machine, you probably know this frustrating moment: you open a new bag of beans you've never tried before, and it takes days, sometimes weeks, to find the right settings. It takes time to strike the perfect balance between acidity and bitterness, and to get the coffee to fully express what it has to offer, rather than staying a bit hit-or-miss, cup after cup.

That's exactly what we want to spare you. That's why we always include, with every coffee, the recipe that goes with it: grind, dose, extraction time, volume in the cup. Of course, every machine is different, and some people prefer their coffee a touch stronger or a touch softer — but this recipe remains an excellent starting point. From there, all that's left is to adjust it to your own taste.

How do we build these recipes?

It all starts with conversations with our roasters. We try to understand which beans and origins make up the blend, which aromas they want to bring forward, and what they were trying to express through their roast. Once we've properly understood that philosophy, we discuss the recipe with the roaster themselves.

Then comes the longest part: testing, at home, in real conditions. A lot of testing. Most of the time, it comes down to tiny adjustments — the temperature, a few seconds of extraction time, half a gram more or less of dose, a centilitre or two in the cup — but these are exactly the details that make all the difference.

That's the recipe, refined cup after cup, that we then share with you on the site.

"Good water is the key to good coffee — it can change the taste and the extraction."
— Riccardo, Toscaffè

One recipe, adapted to every machine

Let's be honest. It's hard to reproduce a recipe the same from one machine to another. Your basket might not be quite the same; its size can vary, and even how hard your water is will affect the result in the cup. But even without a perfect reproduction from the very first cup, this recipe spares you the worst of it: wasting coffee for days just to find your bearings.

And that's really the whole point. Artisanal coffee is a unique product, and a relatively precious one — which is exactly why we want to make sure that, from the moment you have the bag in hand, you're able to pull a genuinely good shot, maybe even a perfect one.

Pro tip: change only one setting at a time

If the recipe we give you doesn't quite match the taste or the aromas you're after, resist the urge to change everything at once. Adjust one parameter at a time — the grind, for instance — taste, then move on to the next if needed. It's the only way to really understand what's shaping your cup, rather than losing yourself in several changes at once.

Want to go further? Check out our dedicated article on the different espresso parameters to understand exactly what each one changes in your cup.