How is espresso different from “Regular Coffee”

Welcome to the wonderful world of Espresso. Many folks think of Espresso as just a form of strong coffee, and in some regards, they might be considered right. However, for those of us living in the world of espresso, it is far more. I would tell you that espresso is a whole other drink entirely and once used to drinking espresso, or any other espresso drink, you will have a hard time going back to anything else. Regular coffee will start to taste and feel like water.

First things first, I am going to put in a disclaimer. This page serves as a high level view of espresso. This will not tell you everything there is to know, nor will it be “strictly speaking” the most accurate. There will be plenty of time to get into theory and stricter definitions later.

That all being said, what exactly is espresso? What are the differences between espresso and “regular coffee”? And what makes espresso so special? The biggest technical difference between espresso and “regular coffee” is going to be the pressure at which it is brewed, while the most obvious difference is going to be the volume and strength that it is served.

Just to get it out of the way, let’s start with the most obvious difference, volume. Espresso is typically served in a single or a double shot. For reference, a shot is typically considered to be a single ounce. This isn’t exactly accurate, as we should be measuring mass not volume, but this definition will serve our purposes for now. There are a few variations from this ounce rule. For example, alongside espresso there is also a ristretto and a lungo. These are technically different drinks, but for the time being I will consider them a “type” of espresso that varies in terms of volume produced by an ounce or two.

Technically and culinarily speaking, espresso is a different drink altogether from “regular coffee”. To define our terms “regular coffee” in this context is just plain drip coffee, you could even consider it to be a “pour over” depending on your preference. How are these drinks different? “Regular coffee” is pretty simple, you take fairly coarse ground coffee, put it in a filter, and for lack of a better term, dump some hot water on them and wait for the water to trickle through. In doing so, you are letting gravity do all the work, that is to say, there is no additional pressure added. Nothing special happens, just percolation. The water just falls though the grounds, not unlike steeping tea.

However, espresso is a fair bit different. By definition, espresso requires 9 bars of pressure. To put that in perspective, 1 bar is close to the amount of atmospheric pressure you might experience at sea level. To make espresso, we need 9 times that. Which means we are going to need some additional hardware (an espresso machine). Further to that, it also means we are going to need to grind our beans a little finer so we can pack our coffee tighter together in order to provide that pressurized water some resistance. But why does espresso need 9 bars, and why is that important? Believe it or not, coffee beans have gasses and oils that get released in trace amounts when making regular coffee, every so often you might even see some of the oils sitting on top of your coffee once brewed. The 9 bars of pressure leveraged while brewing espresso is the magic number that not only forces more of these oils and gasses out, but also emulsifies them into the drink, making for a smoother, more luscious drink. In addition to the gasses and oils, forcing water through more tightly packed coffee makes for a higher extraction translating into a stronger brew.