A double espresso is standard in most cafés. But at home there's still confusion: how much coffee goes in? How much liquid comes out? And why does the single often taste worse? We clarify the quantities, ratios, and the difference that matters in the cup. (You'll find the basics for preparation in our espresso brewing guide.)
What a double espresso is
A double espresso (Doppio) uses twice the amount of coffee compared to a single espresso and delivers twice the amount into the cup. Here's an overview of the standard values:
| Drink | Coffee amount (input) | Espresso amount (output) | Volume (guideline) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single espresso | 7–10 g | 14–20 g | approx. 20–25 ml |
| Double espresso (Doppio) | 16–20 g | 32–40 g | approx. 40–50 ml |
At Kaffeemacher, we usually work with 18 g of coffee for a Doppio. That's the amount most double baskets are designed for. Into the cup goes 36 g at a 1:2 brew ratio and 45 g at a 1:2.5 ratio, which we recommend for many coffees.
Grams, milliliters, volume — why they're not the same
A common confusion: 36 g of espresso is not 36 ml. Espresso contains crema, and crema has significantly lower density than water. In practice, 36 g of espresso corresponds to roughly 40–50 ml of volume in the cup. The exact amount depends on how much crema your coffee produces.
That's why we always weigh espresso in grams, not milliliters. A measuring cup is useless for espresso recipes. A scale that displays to 0.1 g precision is affordable in our shop and makes your espresso preparation immediately more reproducible. It's the most worthwhile investment you can make in your setup.
Why the Doppio almost always tastes better
We generally recommend the double espresso. Not because more coffee is automatically better, but for a physical reason.
A double basket is designed for a specific amount of coffee — its geometry, depth, and hole distribution in the bottom. When you fill only 7–10 g into a single basket, a thin layer of coffee forms that builds significantly less retention than intended. Small density variations in the puck, which don't matter in a Doppio, immediately become channels in a single: water pushes coffee particles to the side, the resulting gap lets water flow through faster, which enlarges the channel further. The result is often uneven extraction — over-extracted in some spots, under-extracted in others. The espresso then tastes simultaneously sour and bitter — a typical channeling problem.
With 16–20 g of coffee in the double basket, the puck is as deep as the basket intends. Water distributes more evenly, the puck resists small irregularities better. Extraction becomes more homogeneous, the flavor clearer. Many problems beginners have with single espressos disappear with the Doppio on their own — not because a miracle happens, but because the equipment is being used as it was designed.
If you only want to drink a small amount of espresso: make a Doppio anyway and drink half. Or use the rest for a cappuccino. The result is usually better than a single from the single basket. And most of the time, someone in the household or a neighbor will be happy.
1-basket espresso pro tip
A compromise is 14–15 grams in double baskets or large 1-baskets like the ones we have in our shop. Our single basket can hold up to 14 grams of coffee. With a 1:2 brew ratio, you then get 28 grams of espresso. This way, even the 1-basket espresso becomes a delicious shot.
Even extraction even with smaller doses. Perfect for precise shots with 58mm group heads.
Brew ratio: The number that really counts
The brew ratio describes how much coffee goes in and how much espresso comes out. At a 1:2 ratio, 1 g of coffee yields 2 g of espresso.
18 g coffee → 36 g espresso = 1:2. This is the standard range for most coffees. Lighter roasts often tolerate more water (1:2.5), darker roasts sometimes less (1:1.5 to 1:1.8).
A field study by André Eiermann (2024) shows where 1:2 fits in global comparison: He measured 106 espresso shots total in 85 cafés across 11 countries using a refractometer. Specialty coffee cafés averaged 9.4% TDS (dissolved solids in the cup). That's exactly where a well-pulled Doppio with 18 g and 36 g output lands. Commercial cafés came in at 6.4% TDS, super-automatics at 5.2%. So the 1:2 ratio isn't an arbitrary value — it's the parameter espresso bars use when they care about extraction quality. Those familiar with traditional South Italian espresso, by the way, work well below this ratio: Neapolitan espresso is often pulled considerably more concentrated.
One more thing about whether Doppio and single espresso taste identical at the same ratio: usually similar, but not necessarily the same. A thicker puck extracts in horizontal layers — the top coffee layers become saturated earlier and extract differently than the bottom layers, which still work in the full extraction window. If you switch between single and double baskets and notice a flavor difference at the same recipe: that's the reason.
Our recipes always specify coffee amount, brew ratio, and time window. With these three values, you can transfer any recipe to your machine.
Flow time: Single vs. double espresso
Must a double espresso run longer? Not necessarily. With double the coffee amount in the larger basket and double the water amount, retention and flow scale in practice accordingly. The extraction time often stays in the same window at the same brew ratio — typically 25–30 seconds.
If your Doppio runs significantly faster or slower than the single at equal parameters, it's almost always the grind size that's the problem. When switching between single and double baskets, you need to adjust the grind size because the cake thickness changes and so does the retention.
Our recommendation: Pick a basket size (preferably the double) and optimize your grind for it. Constantly switching between single and double baskets makes adjustments unnecessarily complicated.
Caffeine: Twice as much?
Yes, roughly. A double espresso contains about twice as much caffeine as a single because twice as much coffee powder is extracted. With 18 g of coffee, you land at approximately 120–140 mg of caffeine depending on the bean and roast — this value varies because caffeine content differs by Arabica variety and origin. A single espresso with 9 g of coffee accordingly contains around 60–70 mg.
For comparison: A cup of filter coffee (200 ml) contains 80–120 mg of caffeine depending on preparation. So the double espresso has slightly more caffeine than regular filter coffee, even though it looks much smaller in the cup.
Decaffeinated using the chemical-free Mountain Water Decaf process in Mexico. Chocolatey, sweet, and full-bodied — perfect for evening espresso.
Ristretto, Lungo, and Espresso: The variants
Besides the standard 1:2 ratio, there are two common variants often confused with the Doppio:
| Variant | Brew ratio | Output (at 18g coffee) | Flavor profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ristretto | 1:1 to 1:1.5 | 18–27 g | Shorter, concentrated, acidic-forward, less bitter. |
| Espresso (Standard) | 1:2 to 1:2.5 | 36–45 g | Balanced between sweetness, acidity, and bitterness. |
| Lungo | 1:3 to 1:4 | 54–72 g | Thinner, more volume, often more bitter due to longer extraction. |
The Ristretto isn't a "stronger espresso" but a different balance of flavors. Anyone who drinks a very small, very intense espresso in a traditional South Italian café is in this range — there they often work with less coffee but short output, which produces similar concentration.
The coffee amount stays the same in all variants. What changes is just the water amount — and thus the brew time and flavor. If an espresso tastes too sour, a bit more water (toward 1:2.5) can help. If it tastes too bitter, a bit less (toward 1:1.8).
Switzerland's most-drunk coffee drink isn't a Lungo — even though it comes into the cup in a similar volume. The difference lies in the recipe: with Café Crème, you brew with 12–15 g coffee in the double basket and a ratio of 1:8 to 1:10, the grind is noticeably coarser than for espresso. From 15 g of coffee, about 120–150 g go into the cup in 25–30 seconds.
If you prepare a Café Crème as a Lungo — same grinder setting, just more water — you get an over-extracted, bitter coffee. A good Café Crème needs its own grinder setting, ideally a second grinder. Everything about the history, brewing recipes, and the question of whether coffee cream is really necessary is explained in our detailed Café Crème article.
