What determines the "best" way to make a drink (extract?) from a given bean/blend? When do I run them through my espresso machine, and when do I run them through my drip coffee maker? I had THOUGHT that espresso is made from beans which have been roasted more than typical full-city, i.e. "espresso roast", but have read that one can make perfectly wonderful drinks in an espresso machine (espresso?) using less extensively roasted beans, and that "espresso" does NOT necessarily mean espresso-roasted beans! Conversely, many enjoy beans labelled "espresso" or "espresso roast" brewed in their drip/French press/ etc. machine.
So - I buy Counter Culture Espresso La Forza, run it through my espresso machine, and enjoy it greatly. Similarly, I buy Rwanda Koakaka, run it through my drip machine, and love it. So far so good. Now I wonder how the Rwanda will be if run through the espresso machine. or how the Espresso La Forza will be dripped. I try it and it's pretty good. Nevertheless, I wonder what the dedicated home baristas reading this do and WHY. If the vendor call it espresso, when do you drip (or French press) it? If the vendor calls it coffee, when do you espress it?

oper8nrun wrote:What determines the "best" way to make a drink (extract?) from a given bean/blend?

Espresso is a method of extracting coffee under pressure. It's not a particular bean, grind, or roast level. Many folks on this site enjoy espresso made from somewhat lighter roasts and single origin beans.

Use vendor recommendations as a starting point for your explorations with different beans, roasts, and methods of brewing. Then brew your coffee the way you like to drink it. There is no one "best" way that works for everyone's taste buds.
____
John

As RapidCoffee notes, espresso is not a roast or a blend, it is a method. The unique feature of the method involves extracting coffee at high pressures (about 9 bar). At these pressures the oils in coffee are emulsified and create what is known as crema - a foamlike suspension of emsulified oils and solids.

Here's how Ernesto Illy describes it:
"Espresso--the word refers to a serving made on request expressly for the occasion--is brewed by rapidly percolating a
small quantity of pressurized, heated water through a compressed cake of finely ground roasted coffee. The resulting concentrated liquor contains not only soluble solids but also a diverse array of aromatic substances in a dispersed emulsion of
tiny oil droplets, which together give espresso its uniquely rich taste, smell and "mouthfeel."

Here is a link to his article "The Complexity of Coffee" where the above quote comes from:
http://www.illyusa.com/pr/coffee.pdf

Here are a few other descriptions of espresso.

Francisco Illy:
"a romantic, remarkably aromatic, and complex liquid. It is at once a solution of sugars, caffeine, acids, and proteins; a suspension of tiny particles of coffee beans and minute bubbles of gas; an emulsion of oils and colloids -- all concentrated into a small volume and covered with a light, brown-colored foam known as "crema.""

David Schomer:
"a polyphasic colloidal foam made by forcing pressurized brewing water through finely ground, tightly packed coffee."

Cheers,
Ken

Avoid making espresso from City Roasts or lighter (light or medium brown beans); the minimum usable roast is a full city (a shade darker than medium brown, no oil visible). In my opinion, very dark roasts (brown - black and glistening with oil) are also less suitable for espresso than for the cup; but Starbucks has a zillion customers that say otherwise. That's about it when it comes to what cannot usually be put in an espresso machine. Otherwise, it's simply tasting the possibilities and deciding where a given coffee or blend performs best.

Yes indeed, espresso is a technique, a system of coffee preparation.

That said, most roasters create coffees specifically for the espresso technique. For Counter Culture, our espresso blends are tributes to some espresso tradition, whether the Neopolitan/Seattle style (like La Forza) or the Tuscan style in Siena (Toscano) or the Milanese Northern style (Aficionado).

That's not to say single origins aren't well suited to the espresso machine, they are and many folks (including me) put other coffees through the espresso machine all the time. The only caveat here has to do with perceived acidity: those coffees that display a pleasant fruity acidity when prepared as a french press or drip can come across with too much intensity in the espresso machine. To deal with this problem, we sometimes roast longer (not necessarily darker) those coffees intended for the espresso machine. It seems to take the edge off, and ramp up the sweetness and body while still preserving true origin character. All of the Toscano components and many of the components of our other espresso-intended blends are given this treatment; the others are sold with roast profiles developed with slow-brew coffee in mind. Again, though, many are magnificent extracted under pressure. My current favorite is PNG Red Mountain....

Peter

PeterG wrote: To deal with this problem, we sometimes roast longer (not necessarily darker) those coffees intended for the espresso machine. It seems to take the edge off, and ramp up the sweetness and body while still preserving true origin character.

Peter,

If this isn't a state secret, what roast profile are you using, and how long is the roast?