Dialed-in starting recipe
Starting recipe for the Breville Bambino / Bambino Plus
A new bag shouldn’t cost you half its beans in guessing. Here’s where we’d start on a Breville Bambino / Bambino Plus with fresh, roast-to-order specialty coffee — plus how to correct in one cup, not ten.
- Method
- Espresso
- Dose
- 18 g in → 36 g out
- Ratio
- 1:2
- Grind
- Fine (espresso) — needs a capable external grinder
- Water
- 93°C (machine default, 3s pre-infusion)
- Time
- 25–30 seconds
The Bambino heats in seconds but has no grinder — your grinder is 80% of this recipe. The stock pressurized basket forgives; the single-wall basket rewards.
The three steps
- Grind 18 g fine into the portafilter, tamp level.
- Pull the shot aiming for ~36 g out.
- Time 25–30 s counting from the pump, including pre-infusion.
If the first cup is off
Under ~20s, sour or watery → grind finer.
Over ~35s, bitter or ashy → grind coarser.
Change one variable at a time. A starting recipe is a starting point, not a prophecy — burrs, water and beans all drift. That’s the whole idea of dialed-in coffee.
What we’d brew on it
- Adira Blend — dark and smooth — the easiest landing for a new espresso setup.
- Colombia — medium-dark single origin once the Blend is dialed.
Skip the guessing entirely
Every Adira order comes with a starting recipe built for your exact machine and grinder — emailed to you and saved to your My Cup account. This page is the generic version; yours gets translated to your burrs. And if the first cups are off, Stefan helps you dial it in personally.
Start with your first dialed-in bag →First bag ships free with code FIRSTBAG · No subscription required
Starting recipes for other setups
Breville Barista Express · Breville Bambino · Gaggia Classic Pro · De’Longhi Dedica · Hario V60 · Chemex · AeroPress · Moka pot · French press · Moccamaster