Espresso


Espresso is a coffee-making method of Italian origin, in which a small amount of nearly boiling water is forced under pressure through finely-ground coffee beans. Espresso coffee can be made with a wide variety of coffee beans and roast levels. Espresso is generally thicker than coffee brewed by other methods, has a higher concentration of suspended and dissolved solids, and has crema on top. As a result of the pressurized brewing process, the flavors and chemicals in a typical cup of espresso are very concentrated. The three dispersed phases in espresso are what make this beverage unique. The first dispersed phase is an emulsion of oil droplets. The second phase is suspended solids, while the third is the layer of gas bubbles or foam. The dispersion of very small oil droplets is perceived in the mouth as creamy. This characteristic of espresso contributes to what is known as the body of the beverage. These oil droplets preserve some of the aromatic compounds that are lost to the air in other coffee forms. This preserves the strong coffee flavor present in the espresso. Espresso is also the base for various coffee drinks—including caffè latte, cappuccino, caffè macchiato, caffè mocha, flat white, and caffè Americano.
Espresso has more caffeine per unit volume than most coffee beverages, but because the usual serving size is much smaller, the total caffeine content is less than a mug of standard brewed coffee. The actual caffeine content of any coffee drink varies by size, bean origin, roast method and other factors, but a typical serving of espresso usually contains 120 to 170 milligrams of caffeine, whereas a typical serving of drip coffee usually contains 150 to 200 mg.

Brewing

Espresso is made by forcing very hot water under high pressure through finely ground compacted coffee. Tamping down the coffee promotes the water's even penetration through the grounds. This process produces an almost syrupy beverage by extracting both solid and dissolved components. The crema is produced by emulsifying the oils in the ground coffee into a colloid, which does not occur in other brewing methods. There is no universal standard defining the process of extracting espresso, but several published definitions attempt to constrain the amount and type of ground coffee used, the temperature and pressure of the water, and the rate of extraction. Generally, one uses an espresso machine to make espresso. The act of producing a shot of espresso is often called "pulling" a shot, originating from lever espresso machines, with which a barista pulls down a handle attached to a spring-loaded piston, which forces hot water through the coffee at high pressure. Today, however, it is more common for an electric pump to generate the pressure.
The technical parameters outlined by the Italian Espresso National Institute for making
a "certified Italian espresso" are:
ParameterValue
Portion of ground coffee
Exit temperature of water from unit
Temperature in cup
Entry water pressure
Percolation time25 ± 5 seconds
Volume in cup

Espresso roast

Espresso is both a coffee beverage and a brewing method. It is not a specific bean, bean blend, or roast level. Any bean or roasting level can be used to produce authentic espresso. For example, in southern Italy, a darker roast is generally preferred. Farther north, the trend moves toward slightly lighter roasts, while outside Italy a wide range is popular.

History

, from Turin, patented a steam-driven "instantaneous" coffee beverage making device in 1884. The device is "almost certainly the first Italian bar machine that controlled the supply of steam and water separately through the coffee" and Moriondo is "certainly one of the earliest discoverers of the expresso machine, if not the earliest". Unlike true espresso machines, it brewed in bulk, not as individual servings. Seventeen years later, in 1901, Luigi Bezzera, from Milan, devised and patented several improvements to the espresso machine, the first of which was applied for on 19 December 1901. Titled "Innovations in the machinery to prepare and immediately serve coffee beverage"; Patent No. 153/94, 61707, was granted on 5 June 1902. In 1903, the patent was bought by Desiderio Pavoni, who founded the La Pavoni company and began to produce the machine industrially, manufacturing one machine daily in a small workshop in Via Parini, Milan.
The popularity of espresso developed in various ways; a detailed discussion of the spread of espresso is given in, which is a source of various statements below. In Italy, the rise of espresso consumption was associated with urbanization, espresso bars providing a place for socializing. Further, coffee prices were controlled by local authorities, provided the coffee was consumed standing up, encouraging the "stand at a bar" culture.
In the English-speaking world, espresso became popular, particularly in the form of cappuccino, owing to the tradition of drinking coffee with milk and the exotic appeal of the foam; in the United States, this was more often in the form of lattes, with or without flavored syrups added. The latte is claimed to have been invented in the 1950s by Italian American Lino Meiorin of Caffe Mediterraneum in Berkeley, California, as a long cappuccino, and was then popularized in Seattle, and then nationally and internationally by Seattle-based Starbucks in the late 1980s and 1990s.
In the United Kingdom, espresso grew in popularity among youth in the 1950s, who felt more welcome in the coffee shops than in pubs. Espresso was initially popular, particularly within the Italian diaspora, growing in popularity with tourism to Italy exposing others to espresso, as developed by Eiscafès established by Italians in Germany. Initially, expatriate Italian espresso bars were seen as downmarket venues, serving the working-class Italian diaspora and thus providing appeal to the alternative subculture; this can still be seen in the United States in Italian American neighborhoods, such as Boston's North End, New York's Little Italy, and San Francisco's North Beach. As specialty coffee developed in the 1980s, an indigenous artisanal coffee culture developed, with espresso instead positioned as an upmarket drink.
In the 2010s, coffee culture commentators distinguish large-chain mid-market coffee as "Second Wave Coffee", and upmarket artisanal coffee as "Third Wave Coffee". In the Middle East and Asia, espresso is growing in popularity, with the opening of Western coffee-shop chains.

Café vs. home preparation

Home espresso machines have increased in popularity with the general rise of interest in espresso. Today, a wide range of home espresso equipment can be found in kitchen and appliance stores, online vendors, and department stores. The first espresso machine for home use was the Gaggia Gilda. Soon afterwards, similar machines such as the Faema Faemina, FE-AR La Peppina and VAM Caravel followed suit in similar form factor and operational principles. These machines still have a small but dedicated share of fans. Until the advent of the first small electrical pump-based espresso machines such as the Gaggia Baby and Quickmill 810, home espresso machines were not widely adopted. In recent years, the increased availability of convenient counter-top fully automatic home espresso makers and pod-based espresso serving systems has increased the quantity of espresso consumed at home. The popularity of home espresso making parallels the increase of home coffee roasting. Some amateurs pursue both home roasting coffee and making espresso.

Etymology and spelling

Some English dictionaries translate espresso as "pressed-out", but the word also conveys the senses of expressly for you and quickly:
Modern espresso, using hot water under pressure, as pioneered by Gaggia in the 1940s, was originally called crema caffè as seen on old Gaggia machines, due to the crema. This term is no longer used, though crema caffè and variants still appear in branding.

Variant spelling

The spelling expresso is mostly considered incorrect, though some sources call it a less common variant. Italy uses the term espresso, substituting s for most x letters in Latin-root words; x is not considered part of the standard Italian alphabet. Italian people commonly refer to it simply as caffè, espresso being the ordinary coffee to order; in Spain, while café expreso is seen as the more "formal" denomination, café solo is the usual way to ask for it when at an espresso bar.
Some sources state that expresso is an incorrect spelling, including Garner's Modern American Usage. While the 'expresso' spelling is recognized as mainstream usage in some American dictionaries, some cooking websites call the 'x' variant illegitimate. Oxford Dictionaries online states "The spelling "expresso" is not used in the original Italian and is strictly incorrect, although it is common." The Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster call it a variant spelling. The Online Etymology Dictionary calls "expresso" a variant of "espresso". The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style describes the spelling expresso as "wrong", and specifies espresso as the only correct form. The third edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage, published by the Oxford University Press in 1996, noted that the form espresso "has entirely driven out the variant expresso ".

Shot variables

The main variables in a shot of espresso are the "size" and "length". This terminology is standardized, but the precise sizes and proportions vary substantially.
Cafés may have a standardized shot, such as "triple ristretto", only varying the number of shots in espresso-based drinks such as lattes, but not changing the extraction – changing between a double and a triple requires changing the filter basket size, while changing between ristretto, normale, and lungo may require changing the grind, which is less easily accommodated in a busy café.

Size

The size can be a single, double, or triple, using a proportional amount of ground coffee, roughly 7, 14, and 21 grams; correspondingly sized filter baskets are used. The Italian multiplier term doppio is often used for a double, with solo and triplo being more rarely used for singles and triples. The single shot is the traditional shot size, being the maximum that could easily be pulled on a lever machine.
Single baskets are sharply tapered or stepped down in diameter to provide comparable depth to the double baskets and, therefore, comparable resistance to water pressure. Most double baskets are gently tapered, while others, such as the La Marzocco, have straight sides. Triple baskets are normally straight-sided.
Portafilters will often come with two spouts, usually closely spaced, and a double-size basket – each spout can optionally dispense into a separate cup, yielding two solo-size shots, or into a single cup. True solo shots are rare, with a single shot in a café generally being half of a doppio shot.
In espresso-based drinks in America, particularly larger milk-based drinks, a drink with three or four shots of espresso will be called a "triple" or "quad", respectively.

Length

The length of the shot can be ristretto , normale or standard, or lungo : these may correspond to a smaller or larger drink with the same amount of ground coffee and same level of extraction or to different length of extraction. Proportions vary and the volume of crema make volume-based comparisons difficult. Typically ristretto is half the volume of normale, and lungo is double to triple the normale volume. For a double shot,, a normale uses about 60 ml of water. A double ristretto, a common form associated with espresso, uses half the amount of water, about 30 ml.
Ristretto, normale, and lungo may not simply be the same shot, stopped at different times—which may result in an under-extracted shot or an over-extracted shot. Rather, the grind is adjusted so the target volume is achieved by the time extraction finishes.
A significantly longer shot is the caffè crema, which is longer than a lungo, ranging in size from 120–240 ml, and brewed in the same way, with a coarser grind.
The method of adding hot water produces a milder version of original flavor, while passing more water through the load of ground coffee will add other flavors to the espresso, which might be unpleasant for some people.

Variations

Caffè Freddo

A Caffè Freddo or Espresso Freddo espresso is the cold version of an espresso, mostly served in southern Europe. In Rome, coffee bars have the drink already prepared and chilled.

Freddo Espresso

In Greece, Cyprus, and neighbouring countries, a cold espresso is a Freddo Espresso. Despite its Italian name, the drink is prepared differently from its Italian counterpart. Conceived in Greece, along with freddo cappuccino in the early 1990s, freddo espresso is in higher demand during summer. After 2 shots of espresso are prepared, the coffee is stirred in a big metal can along with sugar and 2–3 ice cubes until the coffee is cold. Then the blend is put in a glass with additional ice.

Nutrition

Probably owing to the higher quantity of suspended solids—compared to typical coffee, which is absent of essential nutrients—espresso has significant levels of dietary mineral magnesium, the B vitamins niacin and riboflavin, and around 212 mg of caffeine per 100 grams of liquid brewed coffee.

Espresso-based drinks

In addition to being served alone, espresso is frequently blended, notably with milk – either steamed, wet foamed, or dry foamed, and with hot water. Notable milk-based espresso drinks, in order of size, include: macchiato, cappuccino, flat white, and latte; other milk and espresso combinations include latte macchiato, cortado and galão, which are made primarily with steamed milk with little or no foam. Espresso and water combinations include Americano and long black. Other combinations include coffee with espresso, sometimes called "red eye" or "shot in the dark".
In order of size, these may be organized as follows:
Some common combinations may be organized graphically as follows:
Methods of preparation differ between drinks and between baristas. For macchiatos, cappuccino, flat white, and smaller lattes and Americanos, the espresso is brewed into the cup, then the milk or water is poured in. For larger drinks, where a tall glass will not fit under the brew head, the espresso is brewed into a small cup, then poured into the larger cup; for this purpose a demitasse or specialized espresso brew pitcher may be used. This "pouring into an existing glass" is a defining characteristic of the latte macchiato and classic renditions of the red eye. Alternatively, a glass with "existing" water may have espresso brewed into it – to preserve the crema – in the long black. Brewing onto milk is not generally done.