I occasionally give talks on the history of coffee. When I get to the 60's, I usually say something like, "Berkeley thought it was making a political revolution. Instead it made a culinary revolution."

I'm new here on the site, and I wish I would have found it a year ago. I didn't know about American espresso style until last year when I moved to California from Germany. When I tried to make an Italian espresso using American blends, everything turned out wrong. It took me a while to understand the difference in style, and you explain it well here: double shots only, too much coffee, and weaker blends. Your question from April addresses my problem from the opposite direction, and has been helpful to me in understanding the differences.

In Germany, I worked at an Italian restaurant as a barista for more than 10 years. The restaurant was owned by an Italian family from Calabria (most of the staff didn't speak German) and they took espresso very seriously: my first year I was only allowed to make espresso for German customers. It was a big honor the day I was allowed to make an espresso for an Italian customer!

Here are a few thoughts from my experience:

I would like to suggest trying a blend from Kimbo, an Italian roaster. I was very happy to find it available in the US on amazon. Kimbo was already one of my favorite roasters when I lived in Germany, and I had a lot of options to choose from. The specialty coffee store in my city has a huge selection of Italian blends (actually, all the options are Italian, I haven't seen anything else) and lets customers try shots of any blend they request. For me, Kimbo coffee works great: it's mild but flavorful, makes excellent espresso, and is great for all milk creations.

Also, the grinder is very important: It shouldn't have a doser of course and something programmable (like the Macap M4D) is really nice. Strong tamping is obligatory, and a tamping station is a great thing to have. With the right grind, portion and tamping you will automatically see your coffee run through for 25 seconds.

In Germany I have an original 1963 Faema E61 and have experimented with all kinds of beans and grinder settings. I practiced with a kitchen scale to make sure I was tamping with 20 kilos of pressure. Whenever I try a new blend, I continually adjust my grinder, pulling shot after shot until I find the right grind to make the espresso flow perfectly in 25 seconds. The grind changes though, based on air humidity, so the grinder adjustments are an ongoing process.

The coffee from the Faema E61 is, as you would imagine, fantastic. In the US, I'm using a Rocket Giotto and getting great results. Since I already learned to make coffee that I love with the Faema, I have a standard that I'm going for with the Giotto. I think, even more then the numbers, the vision of what you want, counts. Despite the "rules" (7-9 grams, 20 - 25 ml, E61 head, 20-30 seconds etc.) there are days that I feel like having a ristretto and others when I'd like a 9 gram 35ml lungo.

I have a lot of Italian friends and traveled frequently to Italy. The Italians I know don't talk about coffee in numbers or technical terms. They don't talk about Arabica or Robusta; espresso can have crema or not; bottomless portafilters are unheard of. A delicious coffee is all they want, not knowing that there could be any other styles.

sbrussel, if you're ever in the Bay Area I'd be happy to invite you over for an espresso!

il_macchiato wrote:I'm new here on the site, and I wish I would have found it a year ago. I didn't know about American espresso style until last year when I moved to California from Germany. When I tried to make an Italian espresso using American blends, everything turned out wrong. It took me a while to understand the difference in style, and you explain it well here: double shots only, too much coffee, and weaker blends.

As a general rule (with many exceptions), Italians expect sugar to be part of the preparation, while American aficionados want their espresso to stand on its own with a distinct array of flavors. When you start with those different expectations, American and Italian roasters will choose different beans and roasting profiles and will put different priorities on freshness.

I use the qualifier "aficionados" for American customers, because the more typical American has entirely different requirements, which I think are less relevant to an H-B discussion.

il_macchiato wrote:I'm new here on the site, ....

In Germany, I worked at an Italian restaurant as a barista for more than 10 years. The restaurant was owned by an Italian family from Calabria (most of the staff didn't speak German) and they took espresso very seriously: my first year I was only allowed to make espresso for German customers. It was a big honor the day I was allowed to make an espresso for an Italian customer!

....

Beautiful post, Oliver. I enjoyed reading it "un sacco". Keep posting here.

il_macchiato wrote:A delicious coffee is all they want, not knowing that there could be any other styles.

Bravo! A philosophy to live by!