Many see espresso as the best way to drink coffee. That is, at least until recently. Especially when filter coffee became a thing again after the raised of pour-over coffee culture. Honestly speaking, there is no best method of brewing. But, there are certain differences between them.
What Makes Espresso Different from Brewed Coffee?
You may know the word “espresso” stated in coffee shop menu, or a bag package of coffee. Actually, it is not a certain coffee bean or even a type of roast. Espresso is a method used to prepare coffee.
Basically, when it comes to making coffee, there are some differences between brewing coffee and making espresso. First thing to know, an espresso machine is totally different from coffee machine. Espresso machine uses extraction method involving hot water with high pressure. Meanwhile, the grinding results in much finer coffee than how it is using pour-over method. Why coffee lovers prefer this is because the more intense drink made by the method.
You also find the extraction method taking much shorter time if you use it to brew coffee. It is because of the pressure and the water temperature, making it different from brewing coffee manually.
More About Espresso Crema
Espresso has one more thing you can only find on it, that is the crema. It is the foam layer on top of espresso. Actually, the foam of crema is similar with that in a pint of beer. If you want to learn more about crema, read book The World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffman.
Crema gives you things about espresso to learn. The most important one is knowing the freshness of the beans used in making espresso. During roasting process, the water is being under high pressure, making more carbon dioxide able to dissolve. Once the extracted coffee is poured into the cup, the liquid will come back with its normal pressure. So, the liquid will not be able to hold all the gasses. It then becomes small bubbles coming to the top, and this is what makes the crema. Now, freshly roasted coffee will certainly have more crema, since it produces more foam. If you find crema not so good-looking, it could be a sign of older coffee being used for your drink.
The strength of your coffee is also noticed from the crema. Darker crema means that the espresso is stronger.
Caffeine Contained in Espresso
Many questions about this: Between brewing and espresso, which method serves coffee that contains more caffeine? The answer actually depends on how you see the question. Commonly, your usual cup of coffee has more caffeine than espresso shot does. However, it is important for you to notice that it also depends on the size, in every ounce of espresso contained higher concentration of caffeine.
But then, at a time, people mostly drink one or two shots of espresso. That will be less caffeine for you still, than an eight-ounce mug of coffee.
Everything is About Personal Taste
Drinking espresso is about personal taste. Even it depends on your mood of coffee to drink at that time. Yet, you will taste completely different experience drinking brewed coffee and espresso shot.