What Is 92 Degree Espresso and How Are Café Drinks Built?

A standard espresso is pulled by forcing water at 92 to 94 degrees Celsius through a finely ground, evenly tamped puck at 9 bars of pressure for 20 to 30 seconds, yielding about 30 milliliters of liquid topped with crema. Every other drink on the café menu, from Americano to latte, cappuccino, mocha, macchiato, caramel macchiato, and Dirty coffee, is an extension of that single shot.

Ratios and milk texture set each drink apart. Cappuccino, for instance, pairs espresso with steamed milk and a thick foam layer, which is what its name describes. The Italian National Espresso Institute has set official certification for extraction parameters, giving brewers a defined basis for the traditional flavor profile.

Step into any coffee shop, and espresso is an indispensable presence on the menu. Many people's first impression of espresso is bitterness, but in fact, the espresso-based fancy coffee drinks are rich in variety and diverse in taste, so there is always one to suit your preference. To truly understand Italian coffee, you first need to know its family members. From the perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article systematically sorts out the characteristics, ratios, and preparation methods of espresso, Americano, latte, cappuccino, mocha, macchiato, caramel macchiato, and Dirty coffee, helping coffee lovers build a complete understanding of Italian coffee.

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Italian coffee is almost a standard drink in every coffee shop. When many domestic friends first encounter espresso, they often only retain an impression of "bitterness." In fact, the world of Italian coffee is far more than just espresso. If you want to find a cup that is not bitter and suits your taste, the prerequisite is to first understand exactly what types of Italian coffee there are. Next, Front Street Coffee will introduce several of the most common Italian coffees in coffee shops to help everyone understand this system more deeply.

When it comes to Italian coffee, espresso is an unavoidable part. The reason is simple—other types of Italian coffee are basically all extensions of espresso.

A standard espresso is made by forcing nearly boiling high-pressure hot water through a finely ground and evenly tamped puck of coffee under conditions of "92 to 94 degrees Celsius, 9 bars of pressure, and 20 to 30 seconds of extraction time," ultimately yielding about 30 milliliters of coffee liquid. Its surface is covered with a thick, dense layer of coffee oil foam, also known as Crema, with a color leaning toward golden and brown, though nowadays it also varies in depth depending on the roast level. Traditional Italians place great importance on the culture and quality of Italian coffee. The Italian National Espresso Institute has even established official certification for espresso extraction parameters, giving the brewing process a basis to follow and thereby more completely continuing the traditional flavor of Italian coffee.

In the Italian coffee term espresso, the "es" actually corresponds to the English "ex," carrying the meaning of fast and convenient. The coffee beans used to make Italian coffee are called House Blend, commonly known as blended beans or recipe beans. From the name alone, it is clear that they are made by blending coffee beans from multiple origins. Using blended beans helps balance flavor and stabilize output. To ensure the final extraction quality, before making Italian coffee, professional grinders are usually used to grind the coffee beans to a fine state so that extraction can be completed in a short time.

Because espresso has a rather intense taste, many people add granulated sugar or milk to neutralize the bitterness, which in turn gave rise to the trend of espresso-based fancy drinks. Fancy Italian coffees are combined with various flavoring elements such as syrups, cream, and spices to create a rich, layered, and varied coffee taste. For example, con panna, macchiato, caramel macchiato, cappuccino, latte, mocha, and Italian Americano all belong to the large family of Italian coffee.

Italian coffee is the foundational component of many coffee drinks. Let's take a look at the common types of Italian coffee!

Espresso

The most common type of Italian coffee is espresso. It usually uses dark-roasted coffee beans and forces out the coffee liquid instantly with steam pressure. It has a strong taste, prominent bitterness, and the smoky aroma characteristic of dark roasting. It can be said to be the spiritual symbol of the coffee world, and other Italian coffees have all evolved from it. In other words, if the espresso is not extracted well, it is hard for other Italian coffees to taste good.

Espresso is essentially concentrated coffee obtained quickly. Under the action of high-pressure steam at about 9 atmospheres, hot water quickly passes through the coffee grounds, fully releasing the essence of the coffee, ultimately forming a cup of coffee that is rich, aromatic, full-bodied, and bittersweet with caramel notes.

Front Street Coffee generally uses a double espresso (20 grams of coffee powder) as the baseline to make a cup of about 40 grams of espresso, with a very fine and abundant layer of coffee oil on the surface, also known as "Crema."

Americano

The common Americano in coffee shops refers to an Italian coffee made by adding a large amount of hot water to dilute espresso. It is said that this way of drinking originated during World War II, when American soldiers stationed in Italy were not used to the strong taste of espresso, so they diluted it with a large amount of hot water. It later gradually became popular and became another way of drinking Italian coffee.

The ratio for Front Street Coffee's hot Americano is 40 grams of espresso mixed with 180 milliliters of hot water, ultimately yielding a 220-milliliter Americano, with a ratio of espresso to water of 1:4.5.

Caffe Latte

In Italian, latte means milk; outside Europe, however, it refers to an Italian coffee drink made with milk and milk foam. A common latte consists of 1/5 espresso, 2/5 hot milk, and 2/5 milk foam. This Italian coffee has a relatively rich taste, and vanilla syrup, cinnamon, or caramel can also be added for flavor. Different regions also vary in their proportions. When Front Street makes a latte, it uses 40 grams of double espresso with 260 grams of milk and milk foam, and the milk foam thickness is about 1 centimeter. Of course, lattes can also be made with beautiful latte art patterns. After the milk and coffee are fully integrated, they highlight both the sweetness of the milk and retain the mellow charm of the coffee.

Cappuccino

Also made up of espresso, milk foam, and hot milk, cappuccino has a ratio of 1/3 espresso, 1/3 milk, and 1/3 milk foam. The proportion of coffee is greater, and the taste is stronger. The blended color resembles the robe of the Franciscan friars in Italy, so it was named after the Italian word for the Franciscan friars.

When Front Street Coffee makes a cappuccino, it uses a 180-milliliter tulip cup, first pouring a freshly extracted single espresso into the cup, then adding milk steamed to a dense, thick foam.

Mocha

Mocha originally referred to a type of coffee bean with a chocolate aroma, and later came to broadly refer to all Italian coffees with chocolate added. The common ratio is 2/5 espresso, 2/5 hot chocolate, and 1/5 hot milk. You can feel both the coffee aroma and the rich chocolate flavor at the same time, and the texture is smoother as well. Friends who like chocolate drinks might as well give it a try.

Front Street Coffee's mocha recipe is 40 grams of espresso plus 20 grams of chocolate sauce, then 260 grams of hot milk.

Macchiato Coffee

Macchiato is an Italian word meaning "marked." Macchiato coffee originated in Italy in the 1980s. At that time, some customers were used to adding a small amount of milk to espresso, but the milk would quickly be submerged by the coffee oil. So baristas wanted to distinguish pure espresso from espresso with a small amount of milk added, and used milk foam to "mark" a white dot on the coffee oil.

Later, people discovered that as the milk foam and espresso gradually merged, one could taste both the rich, mellow aroma of the espresso and the dense sweetness of the milk, with the two intertwining and blending in the mouth in a wonderful way. Traditional macchiato coffee was thus born.

Front Street Coffee macchiato recipe: 40 grams of espresso plus 1 spoon of fine milk foam.

Caramel Macchiato

This is Starbucks' star Italian coffee drink (unrelated to macchiato). A medium 355-milliliter caramel macchiato contains 1 serving of about 30 milliliters of espresso, while the remaining 300-plus milliliters are milk with milk foam, vanilla syrup, and caramel, giving it a sweet flavor.

Caramel macchiato: when making it, a large amount of milk and milk foam is used, not much different from a wet cappuccino or a latte with thicker milk foam. Vanilla syrup and smooth hot fresh milk, topped with dense, fine milk foam, mixed with rich espresso, then drizzled with smooth caramel sauce—the sweet, rich caramel macchiato thus becomes a good choice for coffee lovers to enjoy espresso.

Dirty Coffee

Many people ask, what exactly is the difference between Dirty Coffee and iced latte? Indeed, from ingredients to recipe to appearance, the two have too many similarities. But upon closer observation, you will find that Dirty is essentially a more fastidious iced latte, with the biggest difference lying in the choice of container and the detailed operations.

Dirty Coffee usually uses a glass cup that can show off the beautiful liquid, and no ice is added. What it emphasizes is espresso flowing into pure white milk, slowly seeping in and slowly blending to form a beautiful layered effect. As time passes, the pure white milk is gradually "polluted" by the rich Espresso, and looking through the glass, the drink becomes "dirty." Besides the visual dirtiness, it also includes the collision between cold milk and hot espresso, allowing people to experience the change from hot to icy in one cup of coffee.

The ratio for Front Street Coffee's Dirty is 150 grams of milk with 40 grams of espresso. First take out a pre-chilled glass cup, make sure there is no water in the cup, and pour in the cold milk. Then lock on the filled and tamped coffee handle, and place the glass cup containing the cold milk under the spout (or directly under the outlet if using a bottomless portafilter). The spout should not be too far from the liquid surface. If it is too far, the coffee's own gravity gives it stronger penetrating power and it easily "blends," so a distance of about 1 centimeter is recommended. Qualified espresso flows evenly and will slowly flow onto the surface of the milk and "float" on the liquid surface, slowly sinking and forming the dirty effect.

Drinking Dirty does not require stirring, and it should be drunk as soon as possible. You will find that the hot espresso on top has not yet been cooled by the ice, and the milk below has not yet been "polluted." That transformation from a rich, chocolatey hot coffee into a milky, icy, light coffee is truly wonderful.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.