If you ask for a “black coffee” at a majority of coffee shops or cafes in Western Europe, aside from Scandinavia and the Netherlands, you are likely to receive a puzzled expression.
In the region stretching from Great Britain and France in the north down to Portugal and Italy in the south, espresso is the go-to coffee. Using milk, you can make various coffee drinks like cappuccino, latte, café au lait, or cortado which is common in Spain. One could combine it with hot water to brew a Caffe Americano. If you go towards the East and get to Germany, Greece, or Turkey, you are unlikely to find a lot of eateries that offer brewed coffee.
Brewed coffee is served throughout America, of course. However, there are two major explanations why Americans drink espresso.
For a few, it is more European straightforwardly speaking. They view it as cosmopolitan, refined, and elegant, and think it conveys something about their identity. They don’t drink coffee…they drink espresso.
The idea of drinking any beverage other than espresso isn’t something that most espresso drinkers think about. Individuals consume this beverage for the strongly pleasing taste and scent, not to mention the energizing effects of the caffeine it contains. It’s the ideal starting point for the cafes drinks which were made notorious by Starbucks in the United States and are now savored around the globe.
If you believe that only people who think they are superior like espresso or think it’s wasteful to spend a lot of money for a small amount of coffee, then you haven’t sampled this remarkable beverage.
Let’s stimulate your taste buds.
The History of Espresso Coffee
This drink, which originated in Europe, is quickly becoming as popular in America as it is in its home continent.
Approximately a century and a half ago, the initial basic design for an espresso machine was given a patent in Italy. This apparatus was known as “steam machinery for generating coffee drink quickly and efficiently” but it did not resemble the espresso machines we know now. It created the beverage in large quantities instead of in individual portion sizes.
It wasn’t until the beginning of the 1900s that Luigi Bezerra and Desiderio Pavoni developed the device substantially to allow for a superior espresso to be made, as well as added a steam wand and introduced it at the 1906 Milan Fair. This innovative type of coffee was massively successful, causing complex espresso machines to appear in coffee shops across Italy.
The difficulty was this: even with advancements in technology, there wasn’t enough force exerted on the first espresso machines to produce the level quality espresso that we are familiar with today. It was not until after the Second World War that Achille Gaggia crafted an espresso machine that would use a spring-piston lever, giving it the capacity to generate 4-5 times as much pressure as that of a Pavoni-style device. Innovative, high-powered designs only had the capacity to hold one ounce of liquid – thus spawning the thought of an “espresso shot”.
Gaggia’s espresso maker produced an exquisite, strong coffee with a never before seen element: a crema that settled on top. Later developments incorporated the utilization of motor-controlled pumps to create pressure and heat exchangers to keep the desired brewing temperature.
In the 1940s and 50s, Italian espresso saw a huge surge in popularity. The invention of the cappuccino was a major factor in its eventual popularity across Western Europe. The popular beverage of cappuccino arrived in the U.S. in Seattle a few years ago, and people eventually embraced lattes. This eventually led to the extensive list of items featured at Starbucks.
How popular is espresso coffee in America these days? The National Coffee Association has found that consumption of espresso, cappuccinos, lattes, and flat whites has increased by half over the last five years, while traditional coffee has decreased by 10%.
One may be able to get a better understanding of how well-liked espresso is by considering the fact that Starbucks, which specializes in making espresso and espresso beverages, is the leader in the US market as they own 40% of the share.
That leads to an important question.
What Is Espresso?
In truth, espresso is coffee. It originates from the identical coffee beans taken from the same coffee plants, and is roasted employing the same technique. Espresso is simply more concentrated.
Three aspects that set espresso apart from ordinary brewed coffee are the fineness of the bean grind, the techniques used to generate the final beverage, and the foam (crema) that is typically atop a thoroughly-pulled espresso shot.
Let’s take them one at a time.
Coffee Grounds
The ground coffee required for making espresso must be as finely and evenly ground as possible, similar to the consistency of fine sand at the beach. Grounds that are too coarse are not useful for espresso; the portafilter will not hold the grounds long enough to release the flavor and tastiness when water is poured through it.
Alternatively, if your grind is too powdery it can congeal and obstruct the portafilter. An appliance described as a “burr” grinder is the preferred choice; on most domestic coffee grinder machines, the knob setting should be located somewhere between 3 and 8.
Espresso Brewing
When espresso is created, the apparatus forces incredibly hot water that is under pressure through the coffee beans. That’s an alternate way of making coffee compared to the normal means of a drip coffee maker, in which the water drips over the grounds. The amount of pressure in water is expressed as “bars,” which is similar to the way atmospheric pressure is gauged; to get the best espresso, nine bars of pressure are typically used.
It’s vital to pay attention to how the coffee grounds are tightly compressed into the portafilter. The target is to offer opposition to the water, so it needs to exert effort to go through the grounds and into the cup. The correct methods of tamping are not complicated; it just needs a tamp and a bit of effort. In order to make the most optimum “puck” of espresso grounds, it will take some experimentation and getting used to.
The Crema
Once you make a perfect espresso shot, a light cream-coloured foam will emerge on the top. You don’t require to take any extraordinary actions to achieve the crema; the result will be successful if the steps are handled properly. A velvety blend of oil and air bubbles produced by water pressure, the crema adds complexity to the taste of a high-quality espresso.
Differences between Drip Coffee and Espresso
The distinctive flavor, body, and texture of espresso make it seem as though it requires special coffee beans.
It can be difficult to decipher what the labels mean; many roasters label their mixtures and single origins as “espresso”, but that doesn’t mean that the same beans can be used to make espresso in any coffee maker.
I’ll be straightforward. Coffee brands aren’t trying to mess with your head. Various characteristics of their roasted coffee beans determine if they are suitable for espresso or not.
The distinction between brewed coffee and espresso is not in the type of beans used, but rather in the way each beverage is made. The difference in flavor between the two is noticeable, but the brewing process is what makes them unique.
This text discusses the contrast between espresso beans and coffee beans and dives into the technical elements of espresso and coffee making.
The differences between coffee and espresso are that:
- Espresso is more concentrated than black coffee.
- Coffee grounds for espresso are finer than for drip coffee.
- Espresso can only be made using an espresso machine. We can make black coffee using a wide range of coffee makers.
To put it another way, it is not possible to make an espresso shot with only a machine and not a good grinder.
Why?
An espresso machine is able to produce a hot flow of water under 9 bar of pressure by pushing it through a layer of ground coffee particles.
I’m aware that my viewpoint might not be shared by the majority. You may be skeptical at this point because you have gathered that espresso can be brewed using either a Moka pot or an Aeropress.
Moka pot and Aeropress brews are strong, flavourful, and intense coffee beverages.
Not espresso.
Grind
Espresso needs magnificent coffee grounds. The coarseness of the beans has a huge influence on the quality of espresso. In order to make a decent espresso, it is essential to have a high-quality burr coffee grinder.
The justification for this is that espressos are created by exerting a lot of force onto a flat layer of finely ground coffee.
This mattress we call the puck, and if the granules are uniform, a cup of espresso should turn out more delicious. Many times, an undesirable taste of sourness and bitterness in espresso can be due to an inferior grinder creating too many small particles or large pieces.
Consistency isn’t enough. A grind that is too finely milled will create an espresso that is too bitter, whereas a more coarse grind will cause the espresso to have a tangy taste. In the most serious situations, it will result in a weaker entity as well.
In comparison, making standard coffee necessitates a grind of moderate coarseness. For drip coffee, we employ filters that have a dense texture and are able to retain most of the particles so that fewer of them make their way into the beverage. For this reason, drip coffee has a lighter body. In addition, clogs can be avoided if the beans are not too finely ground, as it won’t require extra force to pass the water through.
Preparing a superior cup of filter coffee mainly comes down to your skill in adjusting the grind size. Due to its higher level of accuracy, it is simpler to adjust the size of the grind while maintaining the other parameters unchanged.
Making better espresso shots means changing the size of the grind, timing the extraction carefully, and paying close attention to the portafilter throughout the process. More than anything, the key to making a delicious espresso usually lies in tweaking the grain size. Yet, the ultimate sign isn’t the froth on the coffee or how long it takes to be prepared.
The decisive indicator of espresso quality is taste.
Dose
The amount of coffee used when making a cup of coffee through either drip or espresso is a major distinguishing factor between the two. In the case of espresso, this amount is referred to as “dosing,” whereas for drip coffee it is known as “brewing ratios.”
In traditional Italian espresso drinks, as little as 7 grams of coffee were used, leading to small shots of less than 20 ml. It is now widespread for most coffee shops to serve double shots, the espresso containing up to 20 grams.
We typically use 15 to 20 grams of coffee when preparing a 250 ml cup of black coffee.
Effectively, regarding coffee, an espresso consists of 1 part coffee to every 2 parts water. Conversely, typical coffee has a ratio of 15 to 18 parts of water for every unit of coffee.
Brewing
As I said before, pressure makes espresso extraction unique. A regular espresso machine is capable of producing a pressure of 9 bars. This necessitated a major progress in technology in order to provide this amount of pressure, reliably and securely.
The great intellects of Angelo Moriondo, Luigi Bezzera, and Achille Gaggia established the basis for present-day espresso machines. By doing this, contemporary espresso makers developed an entirely different form of coffee beverage.
Business-level equipment is different from prosumer and residential espresso machines. It is not unusual to come across household appliances that can generate a pressure of 15 bars, but this feature is not typically seen in professional-level machines.
That said, higher pressure doesn’t mean better espresso.
A solid and flawless extraction is preferred to an unsteady one, and commercial espresso machines are excellent in this regard. Furthermore, they are able to handle a large number of servings in a brief amount of time without the loss of pressure.
Compared to espresso, drip coffee is made by pouring hot water onto a paper filter that contains coffee grounds in a conical shape. When the two components, coffee grounds and water, come into contact, water works to extract some of the coffee’s elements. Then, we let it drip over a filter. This extraction process is crucial. This is somewhat comparable to the differences between drip coffee makers and espresso machines.
Instead of using percolation, some kinds of coffee makers like the French press and Clever employ immersion. However, none of these machines increase the pressure over the coffee like an espresso machine does.
Grinding the coffee beans to the proper size has a major influence on how the coffee ultimately tastes. Getting a weak cup of coffee as a result of grinding beans too coarsely is a common occurrence. Even more frequent is obtaining a cup of coffee that is overly bitter because the grind is too fine and/or there are too many fines present.
Even without pressure involved, since the regular coffee filters are different than espresso ones, it is much less concentrated than espresso. Therefore, using only a small amount of water to make filter coffee will yield a much weaker flavor than with espresso.
Home coffee makers that use paper filters can keep most of the greases and little bits from ending up in the beverage. Therefore, brewed coffee normally results in a clearer beverage that doesn’t leave traces.
With the French press and Moka pot, this is not accurate. Metal filters permit a greater number of granules to enter the mug, contributing to a more full-bodied and intense flavor. No matter what, a French press or Moka pot cannot make something similar to espresso, since they cannot manage to create 9 bars of force.
It is easy to discern that Moka pot and French coffee don’t create a crema, but their body, flavor, and mouthfeel are particularly divergent from espresso too.