Sour and watery
Ran fast, thin body, sharp short finish.
Grind finer
Tell Dial Your Shot how your last shot tasted. It shows where the shot sits between sour and bitter, watery and intense, and the next change to make (grind, yield, dose or temperature) with the reason behind it.
Free · No account needed · Any espresso machine
Two questions place any shot: is it sour or bitter, and is it watery or intense? The answer tells you which lever to pull first.
Ran fast, thin body, sharp short finish.
Grind finer
Ran slow, dark drips, harsh and drying.
Grind coarser
Flow time looks fine, the cup is sharp and syrupy.
Pull a longer shot (more yield)
Hollow and bitter at the same time.
Pull a shorter shot (less yield)
Spurts, a pale stripe in the stream, uneven puck.
Fix puck prep, not the grind
The rule behind it: grind moves strength and extraction the same way, yield moves them in opposite ways.
Dialing in is a loop, not luck: pull a consistent shot, taste it, change one thing, repeat. A new bag usually takes three to six shots.
18 g in, 36 g out (a 1:2 ratio), around 93 °C, at the grind you used for your last similar coffee.
Keep the dose fixed for the whole session. Stop the shot on the scale, note the time and taste it stirred. Its job is to tell you where you are.
Much too fast and sour: finer. Much too slow and harsh: coarser. Roughly 25 to 35 seconds for a medium roast, one small step at a time.
Once the flow is close, listen to the cup. Sour: pull 2 to 4 g longer. Bitter: pull shorter. Temperature comes last, 1 to 2 °C at a time.
One great shot can be luck, two in a row is a recipe. Save it on the bag, so the next bag of that coffee starts from an answer.
The dialing tool runs this loop with you, shot by shot. Start dialing in
Every step explained, with a full session logged shot by shot: How to dial in espresso, the complete guide
Three tools for the shot in front of you, and three places to learn from other people and from the science.
Enter dose, yield, time, grind and temperature, pick what you taste, and get the next changes ranked, each with its reason. Mark a shot as good and it becomes that bag's recipe.
No account needed Bag recipes: free account Open the tool →An interactive dial-in chart. Your shot appears as a dot between sour and bitter, watery and intense, with an arrow for every lever, so you can see what each change will do before you make it.
No account needed Try the compass →Diagnose virtual shots and fix the recipe against the clock: training, daily challenge, career and gauntlet modes. Build the instinct before you spend real beans.
No account needed Play now →Share a stuck shot from the tool in one click, with recipe and taste attached, and get concrete fixes from other home baristas.
Read: no account Post: free account Join the conversation →Clear guides on extraction, grind size, ratios, temperature and troubleshooting, written for coffee people, not chemists.
Read the guides →Grinders, machines and accessories that are worth it at every budget.
Browse the gear →The dialing tool, the Espresso Compass, the game, every guide and every Tamp Talk thread. Nothing locked, no paywall.
A saved recipe for every bag of coffee, your game progress on the leaderboards, and posting in Tamp Talk. We only ask for your email.
Start from 18 g in and 36 g out, keep the dose fixed, and pull a first shot to see where you are. Adjust the grind until the shot runs roughly 25 to 35 seconds, then tune the yield by taste, 2 to 4 g at a time, and adjust temperature last. Change one thing per shot and confirm the final recipe with a repeat shot. Dial Your Shot walks you through this loop and tells you which change to make next.
Grind finer when the shot is sour and watery and runs fast. Grind coarser when it is bitter, heavy and runs slow. If it is sour but intense, or bitter but watery, change the yield instead of the grind. If it is sour and bitter at the same time, the water is channeling through the puck: improve the puck preparation before touching the grinder.
The Espresso Compass is a chart with extraction on one axis (sour to bitter) and strength on the other (watery to intense). Dial Your Shot makes it interactive: describe how your shot tasted and it places the shot on the chart, draws where each lever would move it, and highlights the one that gets you closest to balance.
It is completely free and there is no paid tier. The dialing tool, the Espresso Compass, the game and all the guides work without an account. A free Google sign-in is only needed to save a recipe per bag of coffee, keep your place on the game leaderboards and post in Tamp Talk.
Yes. It works with any machine where you can weigh the dose and the yield and time the shot: lever, single boiler, dual boiler or heat exchanger. It also asks whether your basket is pressurized, because on a pressurized basket grinding finer barely changes the shot, so it suggests other levers instead.
No. Every suggestion comes from a fixed set of rules based on how extraction works, so the same shot always gets the same advice, and the reasoning is shown next to each change.
Yes. It is built for phones first, so you can keep it open next to the machine, and you can install it to your home screen like an app. It is available in nine languages.
Open the tool, enter the shot you just pulled and get your next move. No sign-up, no cost.
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