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Espresso

Espresso brewing, with dark reddish-brown foam, called crema.

Espresso (Italian) is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing very hot, but not boiling, water under high pressure through coffee that has been ground to a consistency between extremely fine and powder.

It was invented and has undergone development in Milan, Italy, since the beginning of the 20th century, but up until the mid 1940s it was a beverage produced solely with steam pressure. The invention of the spring piston lever machine and its subsequent commercial success changed espresso into the beverage we know today, produced with between 9 and 10 atmospheres, or Bars, of pressure.

The qualitative definition of espresso includes a thicker consistency than drip coffee, a higher amount of dissolved solids than drip coffee per relative volume, and a serving size that is usually measured in shots, which is about 1 - 2 ounces in size. Espresso is chemically complex and volatile, with many of its chemical components degrading from oxidation or loss of temperature. Properly brewed espresso has three major parts: the heart, body and, the most distinguishing factor, the presence of crema, which is reddish-brown foam which floats on the surface of the espresso. It is composed of vegetable oils, proteins and sugars. Crema has elements of both emulsion and foam colloid.

As a result of the high-pressure brewing process, all of the flavours and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are concentrated. Some people prefer a single or double shot of espresso instead of one or two cups of coffee to get a quick shot of caffeine. Because of its intense and highly concentrated ingredients (including caffeine) espresso lends itself to mixing into other coffee based drinks, such as lattes, cappuccini, macchiati and mochas.

Brewing Process

A professional operator of an espresso machine is a barista (Italian for a bartender), and the act of producing a shot of espresso is termed "pulling" a shot. The term derives from lever espresso machines which require pulling down a handle attached to a spring-loaded piston, which forces hot water through the coffee at the requisite pressure. To pull a shot of espresso, a metal filter-basket is filled with either 7-10 grams of ground coffee for a single shot or 12-18 grams for a double shot. The espresso is then tamped, lightly or heavily into a firm puck of coffee. The portafilter (or group handle) holds the filter-basket and is locked under the grouphead's diffusion block. When the brew process begins, pressurized water at 90±5 °C (200±9 °F) and approximately 900 kPa (130 PSI) is forced into the grouphead and through the ground coffee in the portafilter. Water cooler than the ideal zone causes sourness; water hotter than the ideal zone causes bitterness. High-quality espresso machines control the temperature of the brew water within a few degrees of the ideal. The serving temperature of espresso is significantly lower, typically around 60-70 °C, owing to the small serving size and the cooling effects of the cup and the pouring process.

This process produces a rich, almost syrupy beverage by extracting and emulsifying the oils in the ground coffee. An ideal shot of espresso should take between 17 and 26 seconds to arrive on a professional-grade machine (optimum at 22 seconds), timed from when the machine's pump is first turned on (unless the machine has a "pre-infusion" stage, which may add about 7 seconds to the process). Varying the fineness of the grind, the amount of pressure used to tamp the grinds, or the pump pressure itself can be used to bring the extraction time into this ideal zone. Most prefer to pull espresso shots directly into a pre-heated demitasse or shot glass, to maintain the ideal temperature of the espresso and preserve all of its crema.

Freshly brewed espresso must be served or mixed into other coffee beverages immediately, or it will begin to degrade due to cooling and oxidation. Temperature and time of consumption are important variables that must be observed to enjoy an ideal espresso; it should be consumed within 2 minutes from when it is served.

A recent North American brewing trend came with the introduction of the bottomless portafilter, that is, a portafilter without the bottom half, exposing the basket and causing the espresso to bypass contact with the portafilter during extraction. The bottomless portafilter serves as a tool to analyze evenness of grind distribution and tamping, as more volume of espresso will flow from low-density areas of the coffee puck. Some prefer the taste, citing the portafilter's capacity to preserve crema.

Coffee Roast

A frequent misconception about espresso is that it is a specific bean or roast level. Any bean or roasting level can be used to produce authentic espresso. While some major North American chains push dark roasts as their espresso roasts, some of the winning blends used in the World Barista Championship have been what is classified as a medium or "City" or "Full City" roast, with little or no visible surface oil on the beans.

The popularity of different levels of roast in espresso varies greatly. Espresso is typically a blend of beans roasted anywhere from very light to very dark. In Southern Italy, a darker roast is preferred but in Northern Italy, a more medium roast is the most popular type. The current trend in espresso coffee is matching the roast level to the bean type; this means that the most popular roast style is moving away from being associated with roast color, and more associated with what will produce the best flavour extraction in the cup for each region and type of bean.

Baristas

Barista is a term originating in Italy; it literally translates to "bar man" or "bar person". In Italy, it is the person who professionally prepares espresso based drinks, as well as other non-coffee based beverages including those with alcohol, in cafes or "bars".

In North America and other parts of the world, the title Barista has been in long use, especially in Italian-style cafes and coffeehouses, but the use of the term gained mainstream popularly when Starbucks started to call their counter staff by this title, prior to and around the time they began their expansion outside of Seattle. In the late 1990s and beyond, the term barista became synonymous with the person in a cafe who specialized in preparing espresso-based beverages for customers. Along with this came the term "home barista" to distinguish the home espresso enthusiast who took care to practice this craft to a level that sometimes matched, and sometimes surpassed, the levels exhibited in many cafes.

In Italy and other parts of Europe, the barista is frequently considered a career position, often with skills and training passed down generation to generation. In other parts of the world, the job of the barista has been frequently seen as an employment choice for young people, one to get them started in employment, but frequently it is not seen as a career choice.

There is a current movement both outside of Europe and even within parts of the continent to build pride and professionalism among baristas, encouraging them to consider their work as a serious craft, worthy of the respect granted to other food preparation artisans. In some ways this trend is meant to follow the traditions in places like Italy, France, and Portugal where the barista is considered a respectable career decision. In other ways, this trend is part of what is seen as the "Third Wave" in coffee, where transparency in information sharing is paramount, and open discussion of ideas, concepts, opinions, and education are shared, even amongst competing businesses in the world of coffee and espresso. (Background: Third Wave Article) The trend is part of the bigger process in specialty coffee to promote coffee as a culinary drink, not as something "regular" or average.

The barista movement includes the creation of the Barista Guild of America, and the development of Barista Championships, competitions that build from regional events in a wide variety of countries (including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden and many more) and culminate in the annual World Barista Championship. In response to the shortage of Baristas companies are starting to create machines that an untrained person can create a drink by merely pushing a button. One example of this is the Aroma 3500 machine from HLF Italian Design in Italy.

Drip Brew

Drip brew is a method for brewing coffee which involves pouring water over coffee contained in a filter. Water seeps through the coffee, absorbing its oils and essences, solely under gravity then passes through the bottom of the filter. The used coffee grounds are retained in the filter with the liquid falling (dripping) into a collecting vessel such as a carafe or pot.

Paper filters are commonly used for drip brew all over the world. One benefit of paper filters is that the used grounds and the filter may be disposed of together, without a need to clean the filter. However, metal filters are also common, especially in India. These are made of thin perforated metal sheets that restrain the grounds but allow the coffee to pass, thus eliminating the need to have to purchase separate filters which sometimes cannot be found in some parts of the world.

Drip brewing is the most popular method of coffee brewing, owing to the overwhelming popularity of the automatic drip brewing coffee machine. There are, however, several manual drip-brewing devices on the market, offering a little more control over brewing parameters than automatic machines. There also exist small, portable, single serving drip brew makers that only hold the paper filter and rest on top of a cup. Hot water is poured in and drips directly into the cup.

Brewing with a paper filter produces clear, light-bodied coffee, which is free of sediments, but lacking in some of coffee's oils and essences, which are trapped in the paper filter.

A less familiar form of drip brewing is the reversible or "flip" pot commonly known as the Napolitano.

Coffee Percolator

A coffee percolator, caffettiera, is a type of pot used to brew coffee.

Coffee percolators once enjoyed great popularity, but percolators were supplanted in the early 1970s by automatic drip coffee makers, and more recently by the French press, as well as a renewed interest in espresso coffee. Percolators still have a following since the coffee has a distinctive quality that some particularly appreciate.

There are two basic types of percolator: the first forces boiling water under pressure through the grounds into a separate chamber, while the second continually cycles the boiling brew through the grounds using gravity until the required strength is reached.

The most common type of percolator used today (other than the electric gravity type percolator used in most American households) is known as an espresso coffee pot or, in some regions, especially Italy, as a Moka or Moka pot. In Italy, Spain and Portugal, the moka pot is the most popular way of brewing coffee at home, and its usage has spread to the USA. They are also known as a macchinetta or little machine.

This type is shown below right, and is comprised of three sections, all usually made of metal, which screw together such that the steam pressure created in the pot is contained during use.

Water is placed in the lower section (marked A) and the raw coffee grounds in the mid-section (marked B) with the spout reaching below the water level. After the top section, initially empty, is affixed, the pot is placed on a heat source. As the water reaches boiling point it turns to steam and eventually creates sufficient pressure to force all the water from the lower section up the tube at once, through the grounds — which are held in place by a metal filter either side — and through a second tube until it hits the lid of the pot and is collected in the upper section (C), producing a strong, concentrated coffee. Gaskets and safety valves are fitted to ensure a tightly closed unit, allow for pressure to safely build up in the lower section and provide a necessary security release if this pressure gets too high.

The resultant coffee can be very strong but there is no crema. A variation of this type of percolator has no upper chamber, but ejects the brew directly into a cup via the upper tube — this will have a crema.

These coffee pots are normally made of aluminium or stainless steel.

The Bialetti company of Omegna, Italy has done the most to popularize this method of brewing and has developed a new model that claims to extract some oils and flavors similar to coffee brewed in the true espresso fashion.

Gravity Type

The second type of percolator consists of a pot with a small chamber at the bottom, which is placed closest to the heat source. A vertical tube leads from this chamber to the top of the percolator. Just below the upper end of this tube is a perforated chamber.

The percolator is prepared for use by placing the desired quantity of water in the pot, and a corresponding amount of a fairly coarse grind of coffee in the top chamber. It is important that the water level should be below the bottom of the coffee chamber.

After the percolator is placed on the heat source (such as a stove), the temperature rises until the water in the bottom chamber boils. While some models may feature a one-way valve at the bottom of the tube which forces some of the boiling water up the tube, most operate on the simple principle of rising bubbles forcing liquid up the tube. The hot water is distributed at the top over the perforated lid of the coffee chamber. This water then seeps through the coffee grounds and leaves the coffee chamber through the bottom, dropping back into the lower half of the pot. The rest of the colder water at the bottom is meanwhile also forced up the tube, causing this whole cycle to repeat continually.

As the brew continually drips through the grounds, the overall temperature of the liquid approaches boiling point, at which stage the "perking" action (the characteristic spurting sound the pot makes) stops, and the coffee is ready for drinking. In a manual percolator it is important to remove or reduce the heat at this point, as most coffee-drinkers agree that it should never be allowed to boil; an adage to this effect states, "Coffee boiled is coffee spoiled". Brewed coffee left on high heat for too long will also acquire a bitter taste.

Some coffee percolators have an integral electric heating element, and should obviously never be used on a stove. Most of these automatically reduce the heat at the end of the brewing phase, keeping the coffee at drinking temperature but not boiling.

Turkish Coffee

Turkish coffee (sometimes also referred as Greek, Arabic, or Armenian Coffee, depending on location) is coffee that is prepared in a specific way. It is common throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Armenia and Balkan countries. The method of preparation is believed to have originated in Damascus, located in present-day Syria, and to have become widespread during the Ottoman Empire - hence the eventual appellation 'Turkish coffee'. Coffee culture is highly developed in the Balkans region, where this kind of coffee is the dominant method of preparation. It also remains a traditional beverage served in Greek, Cypriot, Armenian, Balkan, Arabic and Turkish restaurants around the world.

HOW TO MAKE TURKISH COFFEE

You need finely ground turkish coffee and a "cezve" , a small pot with a long handle.

Place one demitasse (small coffee cup) full of fresh water in to the pot for each serving.

For each serving put one teaspoon heaped with coffee .

Add sugar immediately right after the coffee accordingly, for medium sugar; place one teaspoonful of sugar per cup.

Stir the mixture thoroughly over low heat.

When the coffee froths up, pour a little of the foam into each cup.

Return the cezve to the heat and as soon as the coffee froths up again, pour it out into the cups.

Never stir the coffee once it is in the cups and be sure to sip it gently so as not to disturb the grounds.

You are also not supposed to pour milk into the the coffee after it is made or add sugar into it.

As with other ways of preparing coffee, the best Turkish coffee is made from freshly roasted beans ground just before brewing. A dark roast is preferable but even a medium roast coffee will yield a strong aroma and flavour. The grinding is done either by pounding in a mortar (the authentic method) or using a mill (the more usual method today), and the end result is a fine coffee powder. Beans for Turkish coffee are ground even finer than the grind used in pump-driven espresso makers; therefore, Turkish coffee should be powdery. It is the finest grind of coffee used in any style of coffee making.

For best results, the water must be cold. Therefore, if sugar is desired, an easily dissolvable form should be chosen.

The amount of water necessary can be measured using the cups. The coffee and the sugar are usually added to water, rather than being put into the pot first. For each cup between one and two heaped teaspoons of coffee are used. In Turkey, four degrees of sweetness are used. The Turkish terms and approximate amounts are as follows: sade (plain; no sugar), az şekerli (little sugar; half a levelled teaspoon of sugar), orta şekerli (medium sugar; one levelled teaspoon), and çok şekerli (a lot of sugar; one and a half or two levelled teaspoons). The coffee and the desired amount of sugar are stirred until all coffee sinks and the sugar is dissolved. Following this, the spoon is removed and the pot is put on the fire. No stirring is done beyond this point, as it would dissolve the foam. Just as the coffee begins boiling, the pot is removed from the fire and the coffee is poured into the cups.

Utensils to prepare Turkish coffee (handmade from Crete)

A well-prepared Turkish coffee has thick foam at the top (köpük in Turkish), is homogeneous, and does not contain noticeable particles in the foam or the liquid. This can be achieved only if cold water and a low heat are used. Starting with warm water or a strong heat does not leave enough time for either the coffee to sink or the foam to form. It is possible to wait an additional twenty seconds past boiling, which makes a homogeneous and delicious coffee, but the foam is completely lost. To overcome this, foam can be removed and put into cups earlier and the rest can be left to boil. In this case special attention must be paid to transfer only the foam and not the suspended particles.

There are other schools of preparing Turkish coffee that vary from the above. One such method involves starting with hot water alone, then adding and dissolving the sugar. The product is in essence sugar syrup, with a higher boiling point than water. The coffee and cardamom are added, and the mixture is stirred. It is then brought to a boil and just before serving is removed from the heat for a few seconds and returned to it, being brought to a brief boil a second time. This double (and sometimes triple) boiling is an essential part of the process, both ceremonially and—as connoisseurs claim—on the palate.