Is Pre-Infusion Really Important for Espresso? A Simple Guide to Better Extraction
A while ago, a friend of mine updated his La Marzocco Home App , and he turned off the pre-infusion function. I asked him why he did that, and he said it felt useless. After I emphasized how important pre-infusion is, he quietly turned the setting back on. Haha. That little incident gave me an idea—why not make a post dedicated to talking about the importance of pre-infusion? To be honest, whether pre-infusion is truly important doesn’t seem to have a single absolute answer. For people chasing the ultimate flavor in espresso, it’s a core variable. But for someone who simply wants a stable, decent cup of coffee, it’s just another machine parameter. Before we decide whether it’s important or not, we should first understand what pre-infusion actually is and what role it plays during espresso extraction. Simply put, you can think of pre-infusion as watering a dry sponge . If you skip pre-infusion and start extraction right away, high-pressure water blasts through the coffee puck im...