Guides

Types of coffee drinks and how to make them

Pick a drink to see what goes into it, how strong it tastes and how to make it at home. No two cafés pour quite the same size, so read the amounts as typical rather than official. Coffee and water are in grams because you’ll be weighing them, and 1 g of water is 1 ml anyway.

Espresso

Espresso

Thick and intense. A good shot tastes sweet and a bit bright before any bitterness shows up.

  • Crema ≈ 6 ml
  • Espresso ≈ 34 ml
  • About 40 ml
Cross-section, drawn to scale, with typical amounts.

A small, concentrated coffee made by pushing hot water through finely ground coffee at about 9 bar. The tan layer on top is the crema. Every hot milk drink on this page starts with a shot, and so do most of the iced ones.

Ratio1:2, coffee to shot
Recipe18 g in, 36 g out
MilkNone
Serve in60–90 ml demitasse
Time25–30 s shot
How strong it tastesVery high

How to make it

  1. Grind 18 g of coffee fine and put it in the double basket.
  2. Level the grounds, then tamp them firmly and evenly.
  3. Start the shot and stop it at about 36 g in the cup, which should take 25 to 30 seconds.
  4. Taste it. Sour means you should grind finer next time, and bitter or drying means coarser.

Tip: Weigh the shot. The lines on a shot glass don’t tell you much once there’s crema on top.

Common mistake: Don’t change the grind and the dose at the same time. Hold the dose steady and move only the grind, or you won’t know what helped.

Variations

  • Light roasts: often pulled a little longer, around 1:2.5–1:3
  • Single: about 9 g in, 18 g out
  • Decaf: same ratio, though it usually wants a different grind

At a café

Plenty of cafés pull a double by default these days. In Italy, just ask for “un caffè”.

Espresso vs. ristretto: A ristretto starts with the same dose but gets cut off at about half to three-quarters of the liquid, so it ends up shorter and sweeter, with less bitterness. See the ristretto

You’ll need: Espresso machine, grinder and scale.