Dialed-in starting recipe

Starting recipe for the De'Longhi Dedica (EC685 / EC885)

A new bag shouldn’t cost you half its beans in guessing. Here’s where we’d start on a De'Longhi Dedica (EC685 / EC885) with fresh, roast-to-order specialty coffee — plus how to correct in one cup, not ten.

Method
Espresso (pressurized basket)
Dose
14–16 g in → ~30 g out
Ratio
≈1:2
Grind
Medium-fine — the pressurized basket does part of the work, so espresso-fine can choke it
Water
Machine default
Time
~25–35 seconds

The Dedica’s basket is forgiving by design: grind matters less, freshness and dose matter more. Don’t chase café-exact numbers on it — chase a cup you like.

The three steps

  1. Fill the basket with 14–16 g, level, tamp lightly.
  2. Pull a double aiming for ~30 g out.
  3. Taste; adjust dose before grind on this machine.

If the first cup is off

😖 Sour / weak

Sour or thin → slightly finer, or up the dose 1 g.

😤 Bitter / harsh

Bitter or burnt → coarser, or shorten the shot.

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 chocolate profile that stays smooth even through a pressurized basket.
  • Mexico — soft, chocolatey medium if you drink it straight.

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