How do I make great espresso?

Making great espresso requires a few elements. Firstly, you need to start with freshly roasted, high quality coffee that's ground and brewed immediately thereafter. You need a burr grinder that's able to consistently grind coffee finely, with minimal heat and retention. Finally, you'll need to brew your coffee in an espresso machine, ideally one that has good temperature stability, uniform dispersion of water and the ability to extract at 9 bar of pressure.