Espresso Vs. Coffee
Espresso-a completely different coffee beverage
Espresso is approximately one ounce of a dark, smooth, heavy-bodied, aromatic, bittersweet coffee drink topped by a thick reddish-brown foam of tiny bubbles. The foam, or crema, that captures the intense coffee flavor is as important as the liquid coffee underneath.
Crema markedly alters an espresso in terms of its mouth feel, density, viscosity, wetting power, and foam-forming ability, making it the single most important indicator of espresso quality. If there is no crema, it means the oils have not been emulsified, and hence it is not an espresso.
Crema also captures the volatile vapors produced during the espresso extraction process. These aroma molecules account for an espressos aftertaste, and important quality indicator.
The remarkable thing about a properly made espresso is that maximum flavor is extracted from the ground coffee while much of the caffeine and excess acids are left behind. The high pressure extraction and the small volume of water that passes through he ground coffee are mostly responsible for this feat.
For more detailed information on espresso, read Anatomy of American Espresso by Dr. Joseph John, President Josuma Coffee Company.
