These 9 things you want to know about espresso

“Children who run around this café unsupervised get a free espresso and a puppy” is something you occasionally see on signs. Espresso, which manages to capture so much flavour and yes, also emotion in such a tiny cup: where something small can be great…

If you’re lucky enough to have a top-notch espresso machine at home, you’re one very lucky person. But even standing at a little bar, you can always rattle off some fun facts about espresso:

Magical formula

In an attempt not to drive the true connoisseurs up the wall with this article, we have an ideal diversion for them right away: spend a lovely hour or two poring over Chris Hendon’s formula for systematically improving espresso, and you absolutely should if this sort of thing is up your street:

Ds = 6:25 3 1010 m2s; k = 6 3 107 m7kg2 s1 

For the rest of us; enjoy a good chat over a cuppa!

Did you know that…

• Espresso means ‘pressed through and pulled out’? No wonder many baristas really do see it as their baby, such a perfect specimen. It also means ‘quick’ and ‘only for you’, which nicely reflects its individual character. It is crucial that the coffee beans are ground finely enough and that the pressure behind the water being pressed through them is high enough to achieve the ideal extraction (=flow-through) time. Your barista knows how best to bring out coffee’s intended sweetness, and always enjoys having a chat about it, just like a wine sommelier.

• Macchiato means ‘stained’? So, a spot of milk on your espresso.

• Corretto means ‘corrected’? And how do you correct it? With booze, of course. Add a splash of grappa and your espresso is finally right again.

• Ristretto means ‘limited’? Holding back the water during extraction – shorter extraction time, less water, more concentrated flavour. Some baristas find this disgusting, however, and prefer to use the same extraction time (as an espresso) with a smaller volume (finer grind). In any case, they don’t agree on the definition, and on the internet they fight tooth and nail about it…

• Gennaro Pellicia, the Master Taster of coffee chain Costa, had his tongue insured for ten million British pounds?

• When Starbucks opened its first location in Italy (only) in 2018, it promised to “take a humble approach”?

• If you order a latte in Italy, you simply get a glass of milk?

• The flat white probably originated in Australian establishments that didn’t have an espresso machine and simply added hot milk to filter coffee? Nice and ‘flat’, then—no foam involved.

• The Italians have the wonderful sospeso gesture? Sospeso means ‘postponed’, and it is a very common custom. You pay for two espressos, drink one, and the other is made when someone comes along who cannot afford one themselves. That’s love, in our opinion.

Read also

• The most bizarre orders baristas receive
• What you absolutely need to have at home, according to baristas
• How to: choose a plant-based milk