Espresso is not a simple beverage. Specialty espresso even less so. What lands in the cup is a concentrate, intense and aromatic. For espresso to taste good, many small details need to be right. We have explained the basics of espresso preparation in detail here.
Especially with more complex specialty coffees, we need to adjust the espresso grinder significantly to get a balanced coffee. So how can we proceed to achieve a sweet and balanced espresso that we would actually want to have a second cup of?
Traditional espresso and specialty espresso
First, we need to clarify what we mean exactly when we talk about traditional espresso and specialty espresso.
Traditional espresso: darker roast, limited aroma Specialty espresso: medium to lighter roast, multi-layered aroma
We find supporters for both categories. If you prefer something „italienischer“ you're certainly in good hands with traditional espresso. Often roasting notes are in the foreground, the coffees have a lot of body, are heavy and have less acidity
In our understanding, specialty espressos are coffees that
- consist of higher quality, often more complex green coffees
- are as a rule roasted medium-dark to light and thus
- forgo intense roasting notes
Also interesting: was what exactly is specialty coffee?
What does this mean for extraction?
In our test, we tasted two coffees from our roastery together. The more traditional coffee is the Dreispitz, a 3-blend with equal parts Brazil, Nicaragua and India, roasted medium-dark.
The specialty espresso was the Leica, a honey-processed coffee from our Santa Rita Finca in Nicaragua. We roast this coffee significantly lighter than the Dreispitz.
Links: the Dreispitz – the darker crema gives clues about the roast level
Right: the Leica – the lighter crema indicates a lighter roast
Grinder setting and dosage amount
The recipe for extraction is:
19g ground amount, 54g extraction amount in the cup (or 27g per cup)
For the first extraction, we chose the same fine grind.
Extraction time
Interestingly, the Leica specialty espresso shot through the portafilter in just over 20 seconds.
The more traditional Dreispitz espresso, however, took more than 40 seconds until we reached 27g per espresso cup. So the darker espresso had twice the extraction time at the same grind setting.
Why?
Darker roast = more brittle = more fines = faster water absorption = more resistance to water = longer extraction
Lighter roast = harder beans = fewer fines = less quickly soluble = less resistance to water = faster extraction
And what does that mean for the taste?
Dreispitz in 41sec: flat, little acidity, dense, not very round, dull
Leica in 20sec: lots of acidity, little sweetness, somewhat watery, bitter
Wir we always recommend working with a gram scale. Especially when you're adjusting the grinders, scales make you fast and efficient.
What do we need to change now?
Specialty espresso Leica:
To unlock the potential from a light roasted specialty espresso made of dense beans, you really should grind very fine.
We set our Anfim Practica espresso grinder to almost the finest grind and thus increased the extraction time to 26 seconds.
The coffee was now round, sweet, the acidity integrated very well into the soft texture. We could now detect significantly more flavor notes and the aftertaste was long and sweet.
Traditional espresso Dreispitz:
Darker roasted coffees generally are more enjoyable when extracted a bit shorter. At just under 30sec we're in a zone with the Dreispitz where the coffee is really a lot of fun.
We ground significantly coarser, extracted for 30sec and the coffee tasted completely different.
The coffee was much more balanced, had a bright acidity, an acidity that positively brightened the coffee, supported by lots of heavy sweetness. The texture was syrupy/creamy.
Working with gram scales
On the left we see 19g Dreispitz in the basket, on the right we see 19g Leica. The darker roasted coffee (left) takes up significantly more volume in the portafilter. This makes it all the more important to work with scales and not rely on the naked eye alone.
So, experiment, push the limits of the grinder and the coffee, and only then judge the coffee. But in any case, we take away this: one size fits all doesn't apply to espresso adjustment.
