Why does espresso taste so different from any other method?

Want to talk espresso but not sure which forum? If so, this is the right one.
jethro10
Posts: 21
Joined: 12 years ago

#1: Post by jethro10 »

Hi,

I visit often, but don't post a lot since buying my wife an Orphan Espresso Pharos, and an Elektra Microcasa a Leva for our 25th wedding anniversary 6 months ago.
It's all going well, in fact great! not many coffee shops live up to our more recent brews.
but it's got me thinking, Espresso has a special taste, no idea what it is, but all other methods have a similar(ish) family favour, except espresso has something quite special. I assume the unique reason, is the higher pressures involved?

I've Googled to death, items like "why is espresso different", "what does pressure give to an espresso flavour"
But still no real idea. I assume pressure extracts something low/zero pressure methods miss?

So.... Anyone know what makes espresso stand apart from other more family/generic flavours?

thanks
Jeff

User avatar
rpavlis
Posts: 1799
Joined: 12 years ago

#2: Post by rpavlis »

When one makes espresso the coffee is pressed into a pellet. The particles in the pellet remain stationary with the hot water moving through the pellet. This produces a result rather like chromatography in chemical laboratory separation, in which components in the coffee "elute" at different rates. Materials that bind strongly to the coffee residue tend to be left behind, whilst those that readily go into the water come out earlier in the process. Many of the best flavours are in the material that is only weakly bound to the ground coffee beans. That is also why espresso tastes very different depending on how much extracting water is run through it.

You can often notice that a given cup of espresso tastes differently at different levels in the cup, this is especially noticible if one use a tall thin espresso cup. The top of the cup tends to be most bitter. To me there is a sudden point where some really bitter components come out, with 14 g of coffee, this tends to be after about the 35 mL volume point.

Most other coffee preparation methods do not have a tendency to separate components like this.

We all quickly learn, especially with lever machines which give us a lot of control, to make espresso just the way we like it. Most espresso drinkers tend to be rather independent minded, and that means they tend to disregard people telling them what they should like, they make it like they want it!!!

jethro10 (original poster)
Posts: 21
Joined: 12 years ago

#3: Post by jethro10 (original poster) »

Right, so basically, brewing methods that sit on the water for a while extract stuff that espresso machines don't get as their extraction is over in seconds, not minutes.

Thanks

Jeff

MerleApAmber
Posts: 100
Joined: 11 years ago

#4: Post by MerleApAmber »

Robert, thank you. Your description was an epiphany for me. Literally the addition of a significant morsel of information which resulted in a much improved global comprehension of the process; and it's result. Brilliant!