Learn the Difference Between Brewed Coffee and Espresso

Coffee is a caffeinated drink made from brewing roasted, ground coffee beans with hot water. The two most common types of coffee plants used are Coffea arabica (which makes arabica beans) and Coffea canephora (or Coffea robusta). The seeds of coffee plant berries, which are bright red in color, are where coffee beans come from. The beans are then roasted then ground to produce coffee.

Coffee is categorized by its roast. Dark roasts are made from beans that have been roasted for longer, while lighter roasts are roasted for shorter durations of time. Roasting coffee burns off oils and sucrose from the beans which means dark roasts tend to have a bolder, less acidic flavor.

Espresso is a method of preparing coffee as a small concentrated shot. Espresso shots are created by pushing hot water through finely-ground coffee at high pressures. The first espresso machine was patented in the late nineteenth century and it quickly became a staple of cafes and restaurants throughout Italy in Europe.

A single shot of espresso is made up of three parts: the bottom layer (the heart); the middle layer (the body); and the top layer (the crema). The crema is a thin layer of golden brown liquid that contains proteins, sugars, and oils that hold most of the espresso shot’s taste. Espresso can be enjoyed on its own in a small sippable shot, with some extra hot water to make an Americano, or used as a base to create a number of espresso drinks that use steamed milk, including cappuccino, latte, or macchiato.

meaning that they contain the same amount of caffeine by volume. While a cup of drip coffee and a shot of espresso are synonymous in some ways, there are some key differences between these two brewing methods.

1. 1. Espresso brews quicker. The process of making a cup of brewed coffee takes a little bit of time. Coffee machines can produce large batches and keep them warm, but a single pour-over or French press batch will take at least five minutes. The espresso brewing process involves blasting water at high pressure through the finely-packed espresso beans. This means that each espresso shot is poured in a little under thirty seconds. Most espresso makers will also often be able to pull two shots at once, making a double shot espresso in a fraction of the time that it would take to make two cups of coffee that has the same caffeine concentration.
2. 2. Coffee is less bold. Espresso has a very bold, strong flavor because of its highly-concentrated brewing process. Regular coffee tends to be brewed from lighter or medium roasts, which gives it a fruity, slightly acidic taste. If you were to make espresso from a citrusy, fruity coffee blend, those flavors may overwhelm the taste of the coffee bean.
3. 3. They have different mouthfeels. Though espresso and coffee are both made from ground coffee beans, espresso has a thicker texture than coffee due to its high amount of suspended and dissolved coffee particles.
4. 4. Their strength by volume varies. A twelve-ounce cup of regular drip coffee and a two-ounce espresso shot both require around the same amount of actual coffee grounds to make. This means that while both have around eighty to 120 milligrams of caffeine, the concentration of caffeine is very different. This is also why some get confused and think that espresso has higher caffeine content.
5. 5. They use different roasts. Baristas traditionally use darker roasts when making espresso. The acidity is burnt off in the roasting process, so darker beans tend to have sweeter, more chocolatey tones that complement a concentrated shot. Dark roasts can be used to make drip coffee too, but the more complex flavors in medium and light roasts come out nicely in a longer, slower brewing process.
6. 6. Espresso is more finely ground. Espresso machines require very finely ground beans to form each espresso cake. Some espresso machines will grind the beans themselves. Grinding for regular coffee depends on the type of coffee brewing method. A French press requires a very coarse grind so that the metal mesh can properly filter out the grounds. Filter coffee is typically ground into finer grains.

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