Espresso coffee and its three phases
Most, if not all, coffee preparations are always based on espresso coffee, except the filtering ones. This is one of the longest-lived and most popular drinks in the world, which in case you didn't know, has certain varieties, for example, long coffee, ristretto, Americano, cortetto, to name a few. Each one has its own qualities and adjusts to our preferences according to our tastes.
As we have explained in previous articles, there are countless factors that influence the taste of a cup of coffee, a very important topic that Incapto Coffee, has been divided into three stages: The one related to the field, the one related to the roasting of the beans and finally, the one that depends on how the drink is prepared.
This third stage is in your hands, why? As experts in the area, we want to explain in detail what you need to know to improve the taste of your cup. That is why we will not overlook the attributes of an espresso coffee and its different phases during the extraction of the drink.
Because, on some occasions when we see a “long” coffee in the traditional style, that is, use a large glass or cup and stop it when it is practically full. We only stop to think about the bitter notes, who will have that cup. So our main objective is to encourage you to do an experiment at home and try each of the stages of espresso.
Origins of espresso coffee
Before getting into the matter, we would like to tell you the history of the popular espresso. It all started when it was used as a concept for the first time in Italy in 1990. Its name translated means fast. At that time, applying pressure to coffee to extract the drink in less than a minute was a novelty.
But since we are talking about its origins, we are going to delve even further into the past. It turns out that the term 'espresso' entered the Italian lexicon around 1920. In fact, the writer Alfredo Panzini's dictionary indicates that the espresso coffee, is prepared in a pressurized coffee maker or filter.
For this Italian, the coffee houses of the 19th century were places where one could breathe tranquility, something that changed in 1935, when they were transformed into bars for workers. The more popularity the preparation gained, this encouraged workers to frequent these establishments, in search of that cup of large amounts of caffeine.
Although Italian coffee culture has not been harmed by globalization. But this does not mean that world consumption has not been affected by the Italians. To explain better, the export of espresso has been a success within the industry. Being the base of many preparations.
Other things that we would like to clarify is that not all espresso coffees have Italian nationality. The variations are impressive.
Prominence of the espresso machine
Machines have evolved a lot. Even today, none of them compare to the first coffee maker that was invented to make the first espressos. However, the goal and concept is the same. Make a quick coffee to consume immediately.
In case you didn't know, in the 30s and 40s, it was recorded decreases in coffee consumption In Italy, the causes were attributed to shortages caused by the war and restrictions on imports. But all was not lost, the “espresso ideale” machine brought with it improvements attributed to important brands, such as Francisco Illy and Achille Gaggia.
Later, in 1947, a giant step was taken with the Gaggia manual pumping machine. With this coffee maker you could get more pressure on the coffee pod. In short, thanks to the essential oils and colloids, the result was: The cream. This being the most important touch of an espresso coffee.
How to improve making a perfect espresso?
The time has come to explain, in a very simple way, the formula for a good espresso coffee. These are some basic notions, to begin to understand what we are taking. From there, depending on the coffee we have, we can modify the parameters, but at least we start from a base.
That said, the first step is to prepare an espresso. To do this we will need between 7 and 9 grams of ground coffee, to obtain 25 and 30 ml of drink, extracted in 25 and 30 seconds, using water with a temperature of approximately 90°C and applying the necessary pressure, which will depend on the type of pump in our coffee maker. For example, a professional machine rotary pump will need a pressure of 9 bars. If we have a coffee maker with a vibrating pump, we will require a pressure of 19 bars, ideally.
If you decide to use the super automatic coffee maker of Incapto Coffee, you must regulate the amount of water, coffee and of course, the degree of grinding of each cup (fine, coarse or medium). Now we are going to divide the 30 ml of an espresso coffee into three phases, with the purpose of knowing how to differentiate the flavors that predominate in each of the cups.
How to do the test?
For this, we must put the machine in configuration mode, pressing the espresso button and then, lifting and pressing again to decide how I prefer the length. The first phase will be the first 10 seconds. Including the pre-infusion, that is, counting from when we press the button.
In the second phase, this will go from 10 to 20 seconds. While the third and last, will be from 20 to as long as we prefer.
The moment of the tasting
Once the process is finished, we have our three cups. So let's proceed to test each of them.
The first cup has the most intense flavor and, in turn, has greater concentration and acidity. The second turns out to be sweeter because the coffee's own sugars have begun to caramelize during extraction. The third and last cup will be characterized by being more bitter and with a higher caffeine content.
We could say that the ristretto, It is the result of the union between the first two cups, while espresso coffee is born thanks to the first two with the only difference that takes a few milliliters of the third.
If we decide to make a long one, approximately 60 ml, the flavor that will predominate in our drink will be the bitters, provided by the third cup. We are sure that after this explanation, you will now know what type of coffee you are consuming, as well as be able to differentiate its flavor.
