Coffee 201: Espresso
About a year ago, I authored a series on coffee, which covered my thoughts on the basics of coffee and how to get the most out of your home brew. In light of the new year, I thought I'd step it up a notch and cover a bit about espresso.
When most people in America think about espresso, they really think about espresso based milk drinks like the Starbucks latte. Although Starbucks (and most other American specialty coffee stores) calls it the latte and serves them in cups with Italian names, the drink is actually pretty much an American invention bastardized from the Italian cappuccino, traditionally served only as a morning drink. Thanks to American franchising fairly recently this bastardized drink has migrated to Europe and points beyond to the extent that you can often find it world wide. For most of Europe, and especially Italy, coffee means espresso which translates to a 1-1.5oz serving with a few variations.
When most Americans think of espresso, they think of something which should never be consumed without copious amounts of milk, which is unfortunate because really good espresso can be a transcendental experience. Americans think of espresso as a miserable concoction unfit to drink by itself and for the vast amount of espresso served in the US, this is pretty close to reality. The reason is because the challenges associated with producing good espresso are pretty steep. It's beyond the scope of this post to tell you how to do this at home, but I will say that most devices designed for the home that claim to produce espresso, really don't. Although some of them will produce a highly concentrated form of coffee, that's not what espresso really is. Real espresso is produced under specific conditions which involve very precise coffee bean grinds, under a very narrow range of temperature and pressure. A slight variance of any one of those three things and instead of coffee bliss you get coffee dreck. When they are all in alignment you get a concentrated drink which has all of the great flavors from the coffee bean, but none of the bad ones. The production of good espresso requires the right equipment, the right beans, and the right set of skills. The 3rd requirement is the biggest hurdle which is why most American specialty coffee houses have gone to super-auto machines which produce espresso with the push of a button. The problem is even the best super-auto machines on the market today can't do what a skilled barista can do with a machine which has a lower level of automation.
Now this isn't to say that you can't get good espresso in the US, because you can. However, the places where it can be found are few and far between. Most big cities in the US are lucky if they have one or two coffee houses that can produce good espresso. If you live in someplace like Seattle, San Francisco, NYC, Chicago, or a few other places you may have several. So how do you know if you are having a good espresso or not? Well, it's one of those things that is very hard to describe. Until you've had a really good one, it's impossible to tell the good from the bad. The best description I've seen for espresso is that it tastes as good as coffee smells. It should not taste sour or bitter. It should coat the inside of your mouth with the essential oils from the coffee bean. The taste and smell should linger far after the shot has been consumed. It should put a smile on your face and take you to a special place when you close your eyes. If you've ever had this experience, you know what I mean. If you haven't, you should.
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Back in the '80s I think it cost only 30 bucks.
I regret letting it go at a yard sale. 
Way back in the 80's.
I'm sort of over fancy coffee. I've had/made it all. Now I'm crazy happy boiling coffee on my stovetop with an old school percolator.
