Just to dispel a myth: Is espresso a type of coffee or bean?!
Just to dispel a myth: Is espresso a type of coffee or bean?
Answers:
Espresso means coffee that has been “pressed out.”
It alludes to the process of forcing steam through finely ground, dark roasted coffee beans; it is a method of brewing coffee with steam by the cup in a matter of seconds.
During the Industrial Revolution, Europe and America concentrated in producing large quantities of coffee to store it indefinitely with huge urns or samovars.
Italians chose to leverage on technological advances to adopt a method of brewing coffee with techniques from the Age of Steam. Patented by Desiderio Pavoni around 1910, this method was used to service hotels, restaurants and cafes at crowded railway stations.
Whilst the formula for a good cup of espresso is pretty well known, elsewhere the whole thing is very loose and undefined. There are rules that the makers and imbibers of espresso follow just as there are rules for making a fine smoke Virginia ham. (1)
Good espresso should be strong and on the bitter side. It is an addictive liquid which sugar, steamed milk and a sprinkling of chocolate or cinnamon can turn it into something akin to dessert.
Bad espresso has an ingrained bitterness caused by forcing too much water which draws out the coffee’s acidity. (Ideally, three grammes of liquid coffee, a demitasse cupful, should be pressed out of six to eight grammes of ground coffee beans.)
In Italy, it is a given that espresso is requested when a cup of coffee is ordered. What Italy lacks in importing high quality coffee, it was able to take a low grade freshly roasted and ground but not exhaustively extracted coffee and turn it into a pretty good cuppa.
Traditionally, espresso variations in Europe include steamed milk and other civilizing condiments like sugar, chocolate or cinnamon.
The nomenclature of cappuccino out of Europe varies to suit commercial needs. The traditional three grammes of espresso filled with steamed foamed milk could instead be sold with more milk than espresso.
Espresso Variants
Cappuccino refers to the dress of the Capuchins, an austere order of Roman Catholic Franciscan Monks wearing white capuce (cowl) over brown robes.
Latin European records of travels describe features of white tops over brown bottoms. This description was applied from pigeons to South American Monkeys, named after the Capuchins.
Cappuccino attributes its naming characteristics to the white steamed milk over dark brown espresso. The beverage should have a higher percentage of coffee in a cup to steamed milk when compared to the other popular espresso beverage, café au lait. Condiments used with espresso are identical.
Café au lait (latte in Italy, cafelatte in Spain) is another popular espresso-based drink. The tradition of pouring equal amounts of hot coffee and hot milk into a cup predates the espresso machines. Usually the only addition to a cup of café au lait is sugar to taste.
Source(s):
Espresso people.com: What is espresso
http://www.espressopeople.com/guides/esp...
London Espresso
http://www.londonespresso.com/coffee_mac...
Espresso
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/tchen3/e...
Other resources: Open Coffee.com
(1) Excerpts from “Molto Espresso” by C. Linebarger.
http://www.opencoffee.com/ineedcoffee-hi...
http://www.opencoffee.com/espresso-and-c...
From the various comments:
Pouti.. and newgi.. have it concisely.
Scott.. has a fair grasp of where the confusion lies.
It is a coffee, but you realize coffe comes from beans right? Coffebeans.
A type of cofee....
A type of coffee but not a type of coffee bean.
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.
Espresso (Italian)[1] 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/espresso...
:)
Type of coffee
coffee is a bean????
espresso is the size of the grinding and the method of brewing it
Espresso is an especially dark roast applied to ordinary coffee beans. When you see different flavors at the store like "French Roast" or "Italian Espresso" - it is referring to the level of roasting applied to the coffee bean. Espresso also has a different level of grind because it is used with an espresso machine rather than a coffee machine.
Espresso Is A Type Of Coffee.
It's The Way That The Coffee Is Made, Not The Type Of Bean It Uses. I Think You Could Use Almost Any Type Of Bean To Make Espresso.
It's coffee from coffee bean.
Espresso is a method of brewing coffee by passing steam over finely ground coffee; as the steam condenses, it extracts the flavor into an intense, strong cup of coffee, typically served in a demi-tasse (half-sized cup), often with a sugar cube and a strip of lemon zest. The word "espresso," by the way, is Italian, and it means "express" or fast -- many people believing that this is because of the effect a cup of espresso has on the person who drinks it.
The confusion you allude to arises because most coffee-bean providers offer an "espresso roast," which makes many people think espresso is a type of bean as opposed to a type of beverage. Traditionally, espresso uses coffee beans that are roasted to a very dark color, to bring out a pleasing bitterness and toasty flavor.
Coffee beans are identified by three characteristics: the species, the geographic location where they're grown, and the roast. There are two species of tree that produce coffee beans: caffea arabica and caffea robusta. Arabica beans produce a more flavorful, higher-quality beverage, but the beans themselves are smaller and therefore it takes more effort (meaning it costs more) to produce a pound of coffee. Robusta beans are bitter and less flavorful, but much larger, so they are used by the big coffee conglomerates; most robusta beans are furthermore grown on the West Coast of Africa, while arabica beans are grown all over the world. If you're buying whole beans from a boutique like Peet's, you'll almost certainly be buying arabica beans.
The next important differentiator is the origin; coffee from Yemen tastes slightly different from coffee from Kenya, which in turn tastes different from coffee from Sulawesi, Costa Rica, Kona or New Guinea. Learning the differences between these sources of origin is a fun hobby, and far beyond the scope of this answer.
And finally, there's the roasting level. At its simplest, you can roast coffee beans light, medium or dark; the espresso (or Italian) roast is one of the darkest, with only French roast typically darker than espresso. A nice medium roast is sometimes called Vienna roast, though individual coffee roasters will come up with proprietary names just to confuse things. (Is a "full city roast" darker or ligher than a "continental roast"? You'll have to look at the beans to tell.)
So when you order an espresso, you should be getting a dark, astringent cup of heavily-flavored coffee with a thin layer of foam on the top -- not foamed milk (that'd be a cappucino), but the foam from the steam condensing as it runs through the coffee grounds on its way to your cup. It could be made from arabica or robusta beans, which could have been grown almost anywhere on the planet, but it'll almost certainly be one of the darkest roasts available, either a French or an Italian roast.
a type of coffee not bean