Are you supposed to only use espresso beans in an espresso machine?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “non oily coffee beans for espresso“
Are you supposed to only use espresso beans in an espresso machine?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “non oily coffee beans for espresso“
Espresso is a method of preparing coffee. It is not a kind of bean, nor a level of roast. Espresso means it is prepared under pressure.
A “good” roaster will prepare a blend of coffee that tastes good when prepared using the espresso method and will market it as such. A good espresso will taste good when prepared as an espresso, a milk based drink (latté, cap, cortado…) and as americano. When prepared as espresso it will have good crema, taste good as it cools, and have good flavours.
As Kirk A. Janowiak , explained in his excellent answer there isn’t really an “espresso” bean, grind or roast particularly. A “classic European Style Espresso” though is made with darker roasted, high ratio Arabica to Robusta blends usually to balance acidity but to also create the best crema on the pull. As he mentioned the single origins can but rarely do have this ability. Many beans have the acidic values to create a great tasting pull but the crema will not develop properly leaving a thin and watery drink.
Espresso bean choices are carefully selected for their ability to not only blend into a combination of other beans according to their flavor profile but in how they will act when extracted. The wrong bean can wind up burning when brewed or not extracting fully at the same timing as the others in the blend and will lend bitter or sour notes or a dead/flat cup too.
The fineness of the grind will have to be fine tuned to your particular machine and most vary to some degree. A slight difference in temperature, pressure or the way the pressure is released can all make a difference but the biggest differences come in whether or not your machine has a pressurized filter or not and how tight you tamp your powder. This makes most pre-ground “espresso ground coffee” unusable for getting the perfect shot. Not only that but a pre-ground coffee is almost always going to be stale by comparison to freshly ground and you will notice a very large difference when you compare the two.
I’m sitting in a cafe that specializes in authentic Italian espresso. And has numerous gold medals issued by the international institute of coffee tasters in Italy.
This is an organization that uses expert tasters in blind tasting for espresso from around the world.
So my answer will be based on what I know from this organization and how they taste and grade.
Espresso comes from the Italian coffee tradition. Technically espresso is a taste built around an extraction method. The extraction method was invented by the Italians.
Espresso, authentic world class espresso, is always a blend and it is always roasted a perfect medium.
With a blend you can create a complex, perfectly balanced taste using up to 21 beans (tasted this year). Although the sweet spot seems to be around 9 beans. No single origin can match the taste of a great espresso blend.
Having said that, one can always use whatever they want in the machine.
If the idea is to maximize the experience of an espresso, then a blend designed for the extraction method is best.
Remember that the other element of espresso is that less is more. World class espresso is designed to taste optimal at 7–8 grams per single shot. Much more is a waste and degrades the taste.
You can/may use ANY coffee bean you like in making espresso on an espresso machine.
There is no such thing as an “espresso bean.” Any coffee bean from any country, regional origin, variety or cultivar can be prepared to be best used for making espresso. You can use a bean from a single origin or variety or you can use a blend of different coffees. Most often, coffee used for making espresso is a blend of different coffees; the blend attempting to play on the flavor strengths of each different coffee to make a unified and balanced cup that is rich and complex in flavor. However, there are sometimes single origin espressos that really sing on their own.
There is no such thing as an “espresso roast.” This is purely a marketing term and usually refers to a fairly dark roasted bean, because espresso in northern Italy typically uses dark-roasted coffee.
About the only thing that is consistent among all of the variables that are used to determine what makes a good coffee for espresso is the level or fineness of the grind. Espresso is made with finely ground coffee beans—regardless of the origin or variety of the bean(s) or the level of roast. It needs to be fine but not too fine. A good barista “dials in” the grind level while simultaneously “dialing in” the proper temperature and the timing for each origin, variety, blend, or roast level of each espresso when pulling a shot.
If you are purchasing coffee that has already been roasted and ground for you, pretty much the only meaningful way to use the term “espresso” on the bag’s label is to identify the level of grinding so you know it is fine enough to use in your espresso machine at home.