Espresso is a word that gets thrown around a lot, most of the time improperly. This page describes what I think of as espresso, how it is made, and close alternatives.
Beyond the technical definitions, when it comes to good espresso, you know it when you taste it. Either by itself or as a part of a < 7 oz milk drink. It is sweet. It has great body and mouthfeel. There are flavors of nut, chocolate, and maybe fruity or earthy tones. Perhaps a small hint of pleasant acidity. It smells great. The flavors stay in your mouth for a bit. The ultimate indicator is that you would get a second or third drink, if not for the caffeine. That is how you know. Those great drinks make you develop an interest in espresso. What if you could have a drink this good any time you want?
How do you find good espresso?
If you have already tried good espresso, you know exactly what I am talking about.
If you have not found good espresso yet, keep looking. Go to different cafes in your town (and larger towns when travelling) and order a cappuccino (~6 oz) or an espresso for here (so they serve it on a ceramic cup). Drink it and see if you like it. See if you want more. That is how you know. If you do not find it, it is possible that the cafes you visited do not know what they are doing (which is unfortunately often the case) or that espresso is not really your thing. Like wine, coffee can be an acquired taste.
How is good espresso made?
There are three components to making good espresso: the coffee, the grinder, the espresso machine, and the technique.
The coffee
Technically any coffee can be brewed as espresso, but in practice many coffees do not make good espresso. This is because espresso is brewed under pressure, so it can highlight salient attributes of some coffees too much, and the process is very unforgiving (it is easy to blow a hole in the coffee grounds when brewing under pressure; in that case the water does not extract the coffee correctly).
This means that coffees that are good for espresso are usually somewhat balanced in their flavor profile to begin with (or a mix of different coffees), and that they are roasted enough for the ground coffee to offer enough resistance to the water. Coffee that is stale (more than 2-3 weeks after its roast date) does not make good espresso because many oils evaporate over time and the remaining grounds do not offer enough resistance to the water to brew correctly. Pre-ground coffee does not make good espresso for the same reason.
I will discuss more about what coffees you can use successfully in other sections, but for now it is good to understand that not every coffee makes great espresso (either because its origin, the way it was roasted, or because it may be stale).
The grinder
The grinder is the foundation of espresso making equipment. No fancy machine can make up for a bad grind. Brewing under pressure is necessary to get the subtle flavors and great mouthfeel of espresso, and for this to happen the coffee grounds need to be very uniform in size. They also need to fall evenly on the espresso basket when they come out of the grinder, or else the water will create holes in the parts of the basket that have less coffee. Lastly, the grinder must provide the ability to fine-tune the size of the grind particles in very little increments; a small change of particle size can mean a large change in the flow of espresso when brewing under pressure. Lastly, the grinder must hold its grind setting throughout the grinding process.
I will discuss more about grinders in other sections, but for now it is good to understand that a coffee grinder is a precision instrument whose importance is critical in making good espresso. Acceptable espresso grinders for home use cost a few hundred dollars.
The machine
A good grind is necessary but not sufficient to make great espresso. A machine needs to be able to deliver water uniformly across the ground coffee at a set pressure and as close as possible to a set temperature, and to do this consistently shot after shot. (Minor changes in pressure and water temperature have a disproportionate effect on the texture and flavor of the resulting espresso.) In addition, a machine also needs to make dry steam for airing and texturing milk, without having to wait for it. Good espresso machines are examples of fine engineering. Brewing under pressure also causes stress to the components of a machine; good espresso machines last many years must use high quality components.
I will discuss more about machines in other sections, for now it is good to understand that brewing espresso at a set pressure and temperature is no easy task. Acceptable espresso machines for home use cost over one thousand dollars.
The technique
There is a lot more to espresso making technique that I will discuss in other sections, but this section covers a high level overview. To brew a double espresso, you grind 14 to 20 grams of coffee to a very fine (but not powder) grind, have them fall on the espresso basket as evenly as you can, tamp the coffee on the basket (also called filter) as level as you can with ten to twenty pounds of pressure using a tamper, lock the portafilter onto the machine carefully, and brew for 25 to 30 seconds at a pressure of 8 to 9 bars with water temperature between 195 and 205 degrees, hoping to obtain anywhere between 14 to 60 grams of brewed espresso, if all goes well.
There is a lot that can go wrong and will go wrong at first. You might use a coffee that is stale; you might put in too much coffee or too little coffee on the basket; you may grind it too coarse or too fine; you may not have it fall evenly on the basket; you may tamp it a little sideways; you may tamp with too little or too much pressure; your temperature setting on the machine may be inadequate for the coffee that you’re using; and so on. Espresso is difficult to make well at first, but once you learn how to do it, it is not that difficult to wake up in the morning and pull a good shot or make a nice milk drink in under two minutes.
When you brew espresso correctly, you know right away. The flow of coffee looks even, starting very slow, almost dripping, a chocolate-like pour that speeds up and lightens up very slowly over the course of 25-30 seconds. There is a bit of crema on the top. As you get more familiar with the process, you can make adjustments based on what you saw during brewing and what the espresso tasted like. The thing is, once you know your coffee, your equipment, and the basic techniques, there is little or no adjustments you need to make drink to drink. At this point espresso is not just delicious, but much faster than brewing coffee any other way in the morning.
Espresso alternatives
Many other ways of brewing concentrated coffee using a fine grind often get mislabeled as espresso. This section covers the most common and how they differ from good espresso.
Pressurized “espresso” machines
These are cheap machines that offer the illusion of espresso at home for a low price. In good espresso, the coffee grounds alone provide all the resistance to the flow of the pressurized water to make espresso, which results in the great mouthfeel and crema and body of a proper espresso shot. For this to happen, every aspect of the process must be correct: the coffee has to be fresh, ground at the right particle size, dosed evenly and accurately on the basket, tamped leveled and at the right pressure, and so on. With one of these things slightly off, the resulting drink is not great.
To overcome these complexities, these machines come with a basket that has one little hole only, and where coffee flows only once a certain pressure is reached within the basket. This enables to obtain a passable drink even if many aspects of the process are not correct, as the hole provides the resistance, not the coffee.
There are two problems with this. The first problem is that because the coffee does not provide the resistance, the body of the resulting drink is thin and some flavors are missing. It can be a good coffee if everything else is right, but if you have had good espresso, you will find it lacking. The second problem is that these machines are too cheap, have small boilers, only basic temperature regulation, and do not provide enough temperature stability between shots and within a shot for drinks to be repeatable enough.
You are better off buying fresh coffee and using a decent auto drip machine and saving your money for proper espresso equipment down the road.
Aeropress
The Aeropress is an ingenious device that can make a drink similar to espresso. You add fine ground coffee and about 2 to 3 oz of hot water to the chamber, stir it for 10 seconds, and then press it over the cup. The agitation and the pressing do a decent job of extracting good flavors, and because you’re adding preheated water, there is some notion of temperature stability (but you have to heat water yourself to a set temperature). This concentrated coffee makes for a decent cappuccino if you combine it with steamed milk from a french press.
There are two problems with the Aeropress. The first one is that the pressure is very low and subtle tastes and body are not comparable to good espresso. The second is that grounds get stuck in the wall of the chamber and over time scratch it. There is a good chance that bits of plastic end up in your coffee. An additional issue is that the brewing process is cumbersome.
Moka pot
Moka pots are very common in Italy, Spain, and South America. Water is heated on a chamber and the resulting steam pressure pushes the water up through the coffee grounds with a little bit of pressure. Coffee brewed this way is often called stovetop espresso. This method can make an acceptable coffee concentrate for americanos or milk drinks as well. I often use a moka pot if I want a cappuccino but I am travelling and do not have an espresso machine.
However, moka pots do not make good espresso. The pressure is much too low and the water temperature is not stable enough during brewing and difficult to control as changes to the stove flame do not reflect immediately in brew temperature. Additionally, many people use pre-ground coffee with moka pots, which makes a big difference in coffee quality.
That said, if you like milk drinks and do not have an espresso machine, a moka pot is a good way to make a latte or cappuccino (steaming milk with a french press), but it requires a little bit of babysitting to get it right. Maybe I will add a page on making moka pot coffee in the future.
Conclusion
You now know what is good espresso and how to make it. You are now ready to learn more about coffees, equipment, and techniques.
Questions? Reach out and I will do my best to answer them. See the Contact section.
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Great Espresso at Home 