This is how I make soup (unpressurized espresso), which is my typical morning brew. I usually use a cheaper bean but since I’m not working today (and also this is my second coffee today), I’m using a nicer bean.

I start by preheating the kettle. I use a Fellow Stagg EKG Pro and set it to 98.5°C.

I then weigh out 18g of beans. And yes, I’m using a small measuring cup for my dosing tray. I’d like to get a nice ceramic or pottery one at some point, but this works in the meantime.

Then I grind at a setting 40 on my DF54. I’ve found this to be a good setting for soup. When it’s done, I bellows a few times to get rid of any retained grinds.

The basket of my Robot fits perfectly with the catch cup of the DF54, which is nice. I place it on top, then flip the whole thing over.

After I flip it I also shake it a fair bit. This is my budget Weber Workshops Blind Shaker. It works well enough for me.

As you can see, grinds are quite coarse for espresso, but it’s great for soup. Shaking also gets rid of clumps and does a pretty good job evenly distributing the grounds. I like to WDT too just for fun but I probably don’t need to. Shaking has been shown to be the most effective form of grind distribution.

Then I tamp. I’d like to get a self-levelling tamp at some point, but the stock one works for the time being.

This is the grinds tamped. Might look weird if you’re used to espresso, but that’s just because of the coarse grinds. This is as tamped as I can go.

I then add my filter.

At this point, the kettle should be at temp and holding.

Then I start pouring.

This is about as full as I fill it.

Then I carefully place the basket into the portafilter. If I think of it, sometimes I’ll add the basket in first before adding water, but I forgot to this time.

Then I lift the arms of the Robot, secure the portafilter in place, and add a glass below. Since there’s not much resistance here, it’s important to keep the arms held up while adding your glass below, and to move quickly. You can get a couple drips if you aren’t careful. I’ve gotten quite good at not making a mess now, but the first couple brews required a fair bit of cleanup.

I then very gently pull the arms down for a pre-infusion. I just use the tips of my fingers to slightly pull down the arms until I see even beading on the bottom.

This picture was very annoying to take (I had to prop my phone up against a container, then take the picture with my nose since my hands were both being used to pull the shot), so it doesn’t look great, but this is what the shot being pulled should look like. Not very pretty, that’s okay. There isn’t enough pressure to generate crema, that’s on purpose.

I use all the water when making soup. This is what it should look like when you’re done. Quite light for espresso, almost similar to a pour over.

I let it rest for a few minutes while I clean up. It’ll be too hot to drink right away anyway.

That’s it. It might sound like a lot because I showed it step by step, but it’s really not annoying at all. It’s the easiest, most forgiving brew I do, and gets excellent results with really light roasts. I’ve tried it with darker roasts too, and it’s not really my thing, but I’m sure some people will like it. For darker roasts, I prefer more traditional espresso.

Why light pressure "soup" w no crema?

I find soup does a better job complimenting really light roasts, compared to traditional espresso. To my own tastes, I’ve found light roast espresso, when brewed normally, tends to be quite sour. The response to that was turbo shots, but soup is kind of the extreme of that, and I personally prefer it. Dark roasts should absolutely be thick and goupy and syrupy with a nice layer of crema on top, and medium roasts should lie somewhere in between. Again, in my own opinion.

Just installed a soup profile on my GaggiMate earlier this week. I also picked up a bag of light roasted Ethiopian beans from my local roaster yesterday. This inspired me to finally try it out with a nice light roast.

I’d love to hear how you get on with it!