Espresso coffee? Espresso is coffee. A special kind of ...
A beverage (sould I say food?) that requires maniac control of the process.
Technically, espresso is, by a definition provided by coffee guru Kenneth Davids, author of Home Coffee Roasting: Romance and Revival: "coffee brewed from beans roasted medium to dark brown, the brewing process performed by forcing hot water through a finely-ground and compacted dose of coffee, at a pressure of 9 athmospheres".
Etymologically, espresso means a coffee cup that is prepared "expressly for you". And that includes both fast brewing and gourmet taste.
Geographically, espresso coffee was born in Italy, in 1903, when Luigi Bezzera assembled the first, rudimentary espresso machine that was able to push the water through the compact ground coffee with high pressure. But it wasn't untill 43 years later, in 1946, that Achiles Gaggia came up with a real espresso machine.
While Italians are spreading espresso technique worldwide as an art of simplicity, in accordance with the region that assimilates it, the genuine recipe originates in many hybrids.
The characteristics of Italian Certified Espresso
For one cup of Italian espresso you need:
- 7 g ± 0.5 ground coffee
- water temperature at exit vent 88°C ± 2°C
- coffee temperature in the cup 67°C ± 3°C
- water pressure 9 athmospheres ± 1
- percolating time 25 secconds ± 2.5
- viscousity at 45°C > 1.5 mPa s
- lipids content > 2 mg/ml
- caffeine < 100 mg/cup
- content of the cup (cream included) 25 ml ± 2.5
You can see that no sugar, syrup or additional flavour is mentioned. Now espresso performed "the American way" is more indulgent to spyces, garnishes and many ratios & varieties of milk.
Espresso machines use the steam that results from the brewing process to froth the milk for cappuccino espresso.
Why bother?
...you could ask. Nothing more, nor less, than the resulting black content of the cup, topped with a dark-golden crema, tasting sweet enough (not that adding sugar would be a mistake), and bursting out flavours when strolling it through the taste buds.