What is an Espresso?

Category: Kitchenware
Date posted: 3rd Sep, 2011
Tags: What is an espresso?

What is an Espresso? To coffee lovers the world round, an espresso is pure liquid gold! Its certainly not the instant coffee that has been freeze dried and presented to you in a jar. And it's not the coffee you get when you drip hot water through coffee grounds and filter paper.

So what is an Espresso?

An espresso is a concentrated coffee brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee.

Compaired to other coffee's an espresso often has a thicker consistency, a higher concentration of suspended solids, and crema - that layer of foam you see on the top of a fresh espresso.

As a result of the pressurized brewing process, the flavours of an espresso are very concentrated compaired to other methods. And good news for all you coffee holics out there, it has more caffine per unit volume than your cup of drip brewed coffee or instant coffee.

Espresso's are normally measured in terms of shots. The measurement of a shot was started by the act of producing a shot of espresso, originating from the older lever espresso machines, which require pulling down a handle attached to a spring-loaded piston, forcing hot water through the coffee at high pressure.

The glorious espresso can be drunk as is, or can be the base for other drinks, such as lattes, cappuccino, macchiato, mochas, and americanos. Most contain a shot of expresso, but if you need an extra caffene hit, you can ask for a double shot!

There is a little bit of debate as to who actually origionally coined the word Espresso - since coffee has been around for a very long time. You can go from England, to France, Spain, Italy, Canada, The United States and across to Slovakia and Czechia and if you used the word Espresso, they would all know what you meant.

So go figure, coffee is the universal language, but honestly, us coffee lovers have always known it!

So next time someone asks - what is an espresso? You can impress them with the answer!

See our range of espresso machines, with a warning - once you go espresso, you never go back!

Sunbeam Espresso Maker