Source: http://www.italianamericanrecipes.com/coffee/overview-of-espresso-and-espresso-machines/

What do you think of when you hear the word “espresso”? Perhaps,

”Express – train; fast black, iron horse of rocket fuel!”

Or,

”Strong. Hyper-caffeinated. Bitter. What, me try it?” (is you a man or is you a mouse?)

Also, maybe,

”I like my coffee black, but not that black!”

Wrong. Espresso, when correctly made, is none of these things.

Espresso is a traditional coffee drink invented by the French, but perfected by the Italians. You can associate the word “espresso” with the English word “press”, for that is the fundamental action pertaining to both the ground coffee – which is pressed into a compact disc – and the machine used to make it, which forces or “presses” hot water through the disc of coffee. The result is a demitasse (very small cup) of all of the best characteristics of the coffee bean with none of the less desirable ones.

A well “pulled” shot of espresso is not bitter. The flavor is full, complex, and remains on the tongue for 10-15 minutes after drinking it. That flavor can be fairly accurately compared with the wonderful aroma present when the seal is first broken on a container of coffee. If your espresso is bitter blame the barista, not the drink.

Afraid of the shakes? Don’t be. Surprisingly, given the concentrated nature of the drink, a shot of espresso has only about half the caffeine of a normally brewed cup of joe. This is because the heated water is forced through the coffee too quickly (ideally in around 20 seconds) to liberate all of the caffeine present in the grind.

All of this wonderfulness requires a special type of machine to make. As already mentioned, an espresso machine’s express purpose is to press heated water (about 200 degrees) through a disc of pressed coffee. How is this accomplished? There are 3 basic designs: steam driven, piston driven, and pump driven.

Mechanically, the simplest is the steam driven machine. It employs steam pressure to force water through the coffee. Since there are no moving parts, this design is normally used for lower-priced home espresso makers. This principle was also used in early commercial machines but was abandoned by professionals when a better design came along in 1945.

That design is the piston driven machine. In this design, a long lever is pulled by the barista (hence the phrase “pulling” a shot) to drive a piston, which in turn forces the heated water out of a cylinder and through the coffee. A later refinement of this design was to interject a spring into the process between the lever and piston. The lever compresses the spring, which in turn drives the pistion. The purpose is to better control the pressure of the water (ideally 9 ft-lbs) as it is forced through the coffee.

An even better design was introduced in 1961, the pump driven machine. This design uses an electric pump to force the water. The benefit is more accuracy (and no arm-strain!).

Good espresso also has a “head”, like a beer does. The head is made up of concentrated oils from the coffee. It is dark reddish-brown, and should have enough body to support the weight of a teaspoon of sugar for about 2 seconds before it sinks into the drink.

The coffee itself is, of course, rather important. It should be of a medium roast; a dark roast has had too many of the oils and sugars cooked out of it. It also needs to be ground exactly right. A proper grind can be described as the consistency of talcum powder. The best bet is to have your espresso professionally ground at a good shop. They have the right equipment and know-how to make a perfect grind.

Need water quality even be discussed here? You don’t drink tap, so don’t brew tap. Enough said there.

Espresso is complex in both nature and process. It requires special equipment and exacting technique to make properly, but is well worth the effort. If you’ve never tried it, drop by a reputable coffee house and let them convince you. Chances are you’ll be hooked.

Source: http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/08/25/american_espresso/index.html
By Ted Botha

Giorgio Milos, the master barista at the high-end Trieste, Italy-based illy – whose familiar red logo adorns cans of quality coffee in 140 countries – stands inside a trendy downtown coffee shop in New York City and sucks in his cheeks. Something is wrong with the espresso he has just drunk. It has some of the right components – a bit floral, a bit chocolate – but there’s an astringency that makes him compare it to a green apple. “A good cup of espresso has to be balanced between sour, bitter, and sweet,” he explains. “Maybe they are using old beans.”

Those are scalding words for one of the best coffee shops in a city percolating with so many new ones that in March The New York Times decided to list the 40 “best.” The irony is that until a few years ago New York couldn’t compare to the Pacific Northwest — where the specialty-coffee trade was born in the ’60s — or cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles or Chicago. In New York, drinking diner coffee was almost a badge of distinction. But now the market here for specialty espresso has grown so frenetic that even Portland’s groudbreaking Stumptown and San Francisco’s Blue Bottle entered the East Coast fray, suddenly turning the city into an all-star showcase of American coffee.

So the darkly suave Milos is visiting from the birthplace of espresso for a year to gauge the state of coffee in the United States, illy’s largest customer outside Italy, and he has quickly learned how seriously Americans take their coffee. Call it a storm in a demitasse: He elicited a frothy response when, while blogging for theatlantic.com in May, he commented that American baristas not only need more training but are using so many different, unorthodox methods to pull shots you’d wonder if they’d ever sipped the drink in its country of origin.

“What is called espresso here sometimes really isn’t espresso,” he wrote. (The response from readers made him qualify that, saying that any drink pulled on an espresso machine is ‘technically’ an espresso, but baristas shouldn’t be playing fast and loose with the traditional water-coffee-temperature-time formula.)

One barista from San Francisco huffed that Milos’ article was culturally irrelevant and “American baristas no longer look to Italy for context.” Americans, he said, are creating their own traditions, such as making espresso with single-origin beans – i.e. beans that come from one farm or estate, to highlight the characteristics of that place – while Italian espresso is made from blends that often include some lesser-quality – i.e. Robusta – beans. In illy’s blend there are no fewer than nine bean types.

“It’s not bad to do something a bit different,” Milos says of the concoctions coming out of coffee shops across the country. “But in order to create something new, you have to follow the baseline, to know how to do something the real way. Then try to do something different. In Italy we have a saying: Learn to walk before you run.”

Another respondent pointed out that Milos hardly has room to talk. The last time he competed in the World Barista Championships – which was won in June by American Michael Philips – he came in 27th.

“A competition is not real life,” Milos counters, although he admits he did not perform his best.

But at least one self-identified veteran of the coffee business was on Milos’s side, saying that “the ultra-ristretto, staggeringly bitter shots being pulled by the likes of Vivace and Vita [both in Seattle] have nothing to do with espresso other than being a fascinating misuse of the machine … It’s undrinkable swill fit only for burying under a half-liter of foamed milk and flavorings (and THAT, friends, is America’s unique contribution to coffee culture).”

Coffee is the second-biggest traded commodity after oil , and America buys 22 million of the 130 million bags of coffee beans produced worldwide annually. On paper at least – and according to the Specialty Coffee Association of America – the formula for making an espresso across the 50 states is meant to be exactly the same as in Italy. Water: 1 oz. Coffee: 7 to 8.5 g. Temperature: 200 degrees F. Time of extraction: No more than 30 seconds. But plenty of baristas from Brooklyn to San Francisco, from Chicago to Miami, are using as much as 20 grams of coffee in an ounce of water, which, says Milos, makes an espresso look syrupy and sexy but is too overpowering to taste.

“Here in the U.S. the coffee they use is good, but the way they prepare it is bad,” he says. “Fifty percent of the result of a good espresso is in the hands of the barista. And if consumers can’t recognize that, we lose.”

The former No. 27 international barista is spending 2010 in America to train not only baristas at illy’s Universitá del Caffé (New York’s UDC is one of 10 around the world) but also consumers. Even though Starbucks might have taught Americans to buy cappuccinos and lattes – and pay more than three bucks a pop – Milos believes consumers have never learned what those drinks should actually taste like. It’s one thing ordering an espresso or a macchiato, another thing altogether being able to tell whether you got a good one.

A good espresso, he says, will depend on what coffee beans you use. But the final product should be judged on five qualities. There should be bitterness (but not too much), sourness (in balance with the bitterness), a bit of sweetness (which usually comes from some Central American bean), good body (which will depends on the preparation and the coffee used), and an aroma.

“I can’t say what kind of aroma,” he adds, “but it has to be aromatic. And that aroma will depend on the coffee that was used.”

Following Milos’ mantra to walk and not run, we do exactly that: We walk to four coffee shops that make up part of New York’s burgeoning West Coastlike, post-Starbucks generation. Added flavors like hazelnut creamers are anathema and there are a limited number of espresso-based beverages that all get pulled individually. “Regular” coffee, when served, often comes brewed to order, from a super-high-tech Clover machine or an elegantly simple Chemex drip. Milos judges the shops on one drink alone: espresso.

At Abraço, a hole-in-the-wall on East 7th Street, Milos smiles the moment he walks in. This is his idea of what a coffeeshop should look like: small, brisk service, no delay in getting the espresso to you once it’s been made. He looks at his demitasse like a wine connoisseur might a vintage, then takes his first sip. “Better than some, a bit too concentrated. Very pronounced acidity. Not the best I’ve had but it left a good aftertaste.”

Mutters one of Milos’ friends, “For him that’s a rave.” Milos admits that he does not hand out praise a lot, but he is not a regular consumer and, as a coffee taster, it is his job to be critical. (Several places in the U.S. that he has a good word for are RBC in New York, Intelligentsia’s outpost in Los Angeles, and Caffé Greco (which serves illy) in San Francisco.)

At Ninth Street Espresso’s store on East 10th Street, the black dribbles down the side of Milos’s demitasse aren’t a good omen. Presentation is part of the experience. Milos sips, then says, “The real tasting is the second sip.” He sips again, and decries the brevity of the flavor experiece. “Nothing remains on my tongue,” he says. He swirls the remainder around in his cup like he’s looking for an answer, and analyzes the crema, the “cream” of slightly frothy coffee that must top a properly-made espresso. “It is good, not too dark brown, the bubbles very small, and it has those red stripes we call tigerskin. The barista was good, he tamped the right way. The volume seemed right.” But ultimately unsatisfied by the shot, Milos leaves the store unhappy.

The presentation at Café Grumpy’s Chelsea outlet is better, but once the crema has worn off his espresso Milos reckons there is only about half an ounce of water. It is barely enough for a second sip. “This is real double ristretto. Aggressive. It’s overextracted. You can taste bitterness at the end. Maybe the time of extraction is too long. It’s better than Ninth Street.”

Our last stop is Stumptown, the superstar Portland transplant in the Ace Hotel on 29th Street. It is the one place where Milos has been before, several times, because he likes the vibe, but each time he’s come away hoping for a better espresso the next visit. When he gets his espresso there is a white stripe across the crema instead of the tigerskin. “See that? It’s burnt. The machine is probably too hot.” A second espresso arrives. It’s also burnt. “This is less than one ounce. Very concentrated, very sour, very salty.”

We leave Stumptown, Milos giving it the worst rating of the places we have visited today. As we exit onto the street, however, we both notice the same thing. There is a line of Stumptown fans going out the door and onto the sidewalk. He might not like what he’s buying, but they keep coming back for more.

Source:http://www.travpresso.com/626/the-history-of-espresso.html

If you are an avid coffee drinker then chances are that you probably know all about the varieties, types, flavors, and prices of various coffees that you drink on a regular basis. However, if you’re not that familiar with espresso then you may be in for a surprise. Espresso is quite different from coffee products because there is a very different method of making the liquid. Here are some interesting facts about the history of espresso, though, that you may not have known previously.

Developed in Italy

Did you know that espresso was actually developed more than ten centuries after the coffee beverage became popular? In fact, regular coffee and coffee beans weren’t found until about the 9th Century. On the flip side, espresso was actually developed from the beginnings of coffee, but it wasn’t until the early 20th century that people began producing a beverage that is known today as espresso! Indeed, espresso was developed in Milan, Italy around the early 20th Century and the drink was actually made by hand even though it was very time consuming to do so. This resulted in a machine being made specifically for the creation of espresso beverages. In fact, workers in cafes and coffee shops throughout Italy who dealt with using espresso machines to make espresso were regularly known as “baristas,” and becoming a barista was actually a job often given to young people, just as a job at McDonald’s or another fast food restaurant might be considered a starting point for young people in America to work.

The Switch to Machines

As mentioned, espresso was originally made by hand. However, there are a couple things that lead up to the beverage being made in a machine. First, the spring piston lever was designed to emit pressure on a certain something, and this machine was used to make espresso since espresso was made through the use of pressure and hot water. Although before the machines typically made espressos beginning in the 1940s, steam pressure was mainly the culprit and the method that people in Italy used to make espresso by hand!

Needless to say, however, coffee beverages that didn’t include espresso were popular long before espresso was being made. Just as there are all sorts of different flavors that coffee can be made with, though, there are also many different flavors that can be added to the espresso beverage. For example, some cultures usually add a bit of cinnamon to the espresso mixture and cinnamon is actually the most widely used spice for espresso as a whole. On the other hand, some of the other spices and herbs that are used with espresso include peppermint, mint extract, vanilla, and a brown sugar mixture just to name a few.

It’s indisputable, though, that the finding of espresso totally transformed the popularity and consumption of coffee beverages worldwide! Granted, many people are thankful for this change, but the fact of the matter is that espresso and coffee are considered two different drinks altogether although one was derived from the other!

The quality of true espresso assumes indispensable etiquette and serving of the coffee, in a so-called “coffee ceremony”. The value, according to the Certificate of the Italian Espresso, is the ware in which the coffee is served.

Ideally, what should be used for espresso (“ristretto”, “normale”, and “lungo” is a white cup made from thick-walled porcelain, covered with enamel proof. It should be the elliptic form, truncated inside, with a space of about 75 ml. Such a cup, at the expense of the big thermal capacity and the unique shape, gives a chance for the drinker to value the magnificent foam, fine aroma, and the warmness and softness of the espresso.

Despite the fact that the cup contains 75 ml, the maximum serving under the Certificate is 50 ml for “Lungo”. For “normale” it’s 30 ml, and for “Ristretto” it’s 25 ml. The most appropriate dosage is “ristretto”, because in the first 25 seconds under pressure the coffee blend extracts all the best substances: glukonats, proteins, minerals, vitamins, aromatic oils, and all other unnecessary substances remain in the filter.

How does a barista preparing Italian espresso define whether a product corresponds to the accepted standards? First of all the taste – a well trained expert can give a good estimate of the contents of a small cup thanks to their excellent senses of perception. However, if he doesn’t want to try too many coffees in one day, there are also other ways to define the quality.

For example, true espresso is made with a quality machine at a speed of 1 ml a second. So, in order to prepare, for example, “lungo”, only 50 seconds is required. Therefore, the design of a good espresso machine guarantees that when using correct grinding, you will receive 25 ml of a drink with all the best components of coffee present.

If the preparation takes less than 15 second, it means that the hot water did not take with itself all the necessary parts for good coffee, leaving a part of them in the final mix that leads to an unbalanced, more bitter taste. If the preparation lasts longer than necessary, then some unpleasant and caustic elements are getting into the coffee.

From here we can say that the coffee shouldn’t be too bitter or sour. A light hint of charcoal would be acceptable in some blends, whereas an aroma with a smoky flavor would be inexcusable.

No matter what type of blend is used, however, there should not be any one element dominating the others. The taste of an excellent espresso should be well balanced and memorable. This harmony and refinement is the gamut of taste that will spread in your mouth with many nuances, will set off a light bulb in your head and give you an incredible aftertaste.

In order for the taste to be roundish and “playing”, it’s not enough to just take good coffee and correctly roast it. It’s necessary to draw up coffee blends with a different parity of flavoring parameters.

Italians jealously protect recipes of the best blends, and the matter is not only one of selection and the variety of brands. There are many other important points – from the way of gathering the coffee beans to the method of storing and processing the beans.

The way coffee is grounded and on what equipment it’s prepared is very important. If the grinding is too coarse, extraction will be weak and all the aromatic and other flavorful and useful substances will remain in raw materials and thrown out, and the taste of the drink will be rather mediocre. If the grinding is too fine, and the espresso machine does not provide the necessary pressure, water hardly passes through the pressed coffee.

It also might be dangerous for the barista, because in the attempt to clean up the portafilter and to see what happened, coffee can splatter around the room, splashing the unfortunate barista with hot brown water.

Hence, in order to say that you personally tried real Italian espresso, you should check that the bar or restaurant where you drink coffee works under the mark of the Certificate of Italian Espresso. To such institutions there are strict requirements:

* Use of certified mixes of coffee

* Use of certified equipment

* Use of certified personnel

What does the document of the Certificate of Italian Espresso represent? These are strict requirements for coffee, developed by the Italian Espresso National Institute and approved by a certified committee in accordance with the standards of ISO 45011, namely Certificate CSQA No. 214 from September 24th,1999.

The certificate states that Italian espresso is made of a blend of roasted beans of varied origin prepared in a special device so that the drinks made had a well distinguished organic taste corresponding to the requirements of the scientific censor analysis.

There should be an intense taste with notes of flowers, fruits, and roasted bread and chocolate – this scale can very depending on the name of a coffee blend, but the taste should invariably be oily, strong, and velvety. All the flavors should give a good aftertaste, and the aroma should remain for a few minutes.

Another important point is that there shouldn’t be any artificial flavors! The taste of true espresso doesn’t require masking. To distinguish the additives in a coffee is possible, by recognizing a strongly pronounced non-coffee aroma (usually it’s imitation caramel, Irish Cream, or almonds), and a strong chemical aftertaste.

If the institution serves you coffee in pods, make sure that the pod is pressed in a special filtering paper instead of a plastic case. Besides the distinct smack of plastic, such a product is also bad for your health. There’s a reason such coffee pods are officially forbidden in all of Europe.

In Italy, a country where secrets of coffee blends and long-lasting traditions of preparation are passed from one generation to the next and are kept close guarded, the Italian Espresso National Institute (Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano) was created.

This organization was created to develop standards for true espresso, and in order to have rigid control over production of Italian coffee manufacturers in order to avoid lowering the quality standard of espresso.

When we drink coffee, we, of course, don’t think about any standards. We’re just happy to be enjoying the taste. But let’s take this time to talk about the taste a bit more in-depth. It’s possible to tell the difference between true espresso and expensive but low quality espresso, if we pay attention to certain signs.

The first one is the aroma. By the way, if you’re brewing, for example, Turkish coffee, and the air is filled with a wonderful smell, take note that the aroma itself is not in the cup anymore.

The majority of the aromatic substances have evaporated in the first minute of preparation. And if the coffee has begun to boil, it’s not coffee at all.

The second sign would be the crema. It should be dense and homogeneous, with a light brown velvet color.

Finally, the most important sign would be the taste itself. Imagine the taste of sugar. So sweet! Now the taste of lemon. Very sour! And now imagine the taste of say, a peach. It’s sweet and sour at the same time and even a little bitter, but in any case it’s very fragrant. There’s no one aspect that dominates, but somehow it’s delicious in a special way.

(to be continued)

Espresso is a way of preparing coffee that uses high pressure hot water that goes through a filter then to the ground coffee. In this method of preparing coffee, the filter removes slightly harmful substances such as cafestol and kahweol.

Use the filter,and your stomach and heart will thank you if you’re older and have medical conditions that involve either organs. The filter also helps to keep the caffeine in the the coffee ground. The result is coffee that has a rich aroma and a pleasing taste. In my experience, only espresso coffee brings out the full smell and taste of the coffee beans used.

An excellent espresso follows these four rules.

According to the National Institute of the Italian Espresso, excellent coffee, in addition, should also:

Have a taste that isn’t sour or bitter. This is a good indication that the correct proportion of arabica and robusta ground coffee were used in preparation of the espresso. A taste that is neither bitter or sour also indicates that the beans used were of a high quality.

Adding “flavoring” to espresso is completely unnecessary. The true taste of espresso doesn’t require masking. Additives are present if there is a smell or taste that is similar to caramel, Irish cream, or almonds coming from what appears to be hot espresso. Additives are a cover-up for improperly brewed espresso and therefore should be avoided.

The container for espresso is also important to consider. Espresso like all coffee is hot so the best material for serving it has to insulate the heat from the hands that will handle the container. The white porcelain cup is the best container for espresso. Its thick ‘walls’ insulate the majority of the heat given off by the hot espresso. Porcelain cups are usually covered with a layer proof enamel. This ensures that the porcelain cup is not weathered or stained by the various organic acids that it’s exposed to in the coffee.

I know some people will appreciate the…creativity that goes into something like a square porcelain cup and will succumb to using one, I will still advise that you don’t since the shape will make it more difficult to stir. The elliptical shape of the traditional porcelain coffee allows the coffee to cool more quickly so a square cup will be hot longer. Besides, square cups are just odd looking! Don’t they remind you of a bad Bauhaus experimental piece?

Although the typical porcelain cup can hold 65-70 ml of espresso, the maximum amount that a cup should be filled with espresso is 30 ml. This allows to coffee to cool more quickly and reduces instances of spilling.

These specifications on espresso preparation come from the National Institute of the Italian Espresso, which is based in Italy. In Italy, coffee brewing is considered a serious profession. Preparing of special blends of espresso is an art that has been polished for centuries, by the Italians.

If you are looking for an expert on espresso, he or she will most likely be Italian. The National Institute of Italian Espresso gives rigid guidelines to manufactures of coffee and coffee equipment to ensure that a certain standard is kept across the board. The manufacturers generally adhere to these standards because they know it’s not just the National Institute of the Italian Espresso that holds those standards, it’s the Italian people. The National Institute of the Italian Espresso also provides training to people who wish to learn how to prepare the legendary drink.

Well, folks, we’ve come to the end of today’s journey. It’s been a long one but one I hope has been educational as you continue on your journey on becoming coffee connoisseurs.

Thank you for reading.