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

Lungo

Thinner and more bitter than an espresso, with a dry finish.

  • Crema ≈ 8 ml
  • Espresso ≈ 62 ml
  • About 70 ml
Cross-section, drawn to scale, with typical amounts.

A long espresso. It’s the same dose, but you let up to twice as much water run through the puck. People mix it up with an americano, but there the extra water goes in after the shot.

Ratio1:3–1:4, coffee to shot
Recipe18 g in, 54–72 g out
MilkNone
Serve in90–150 ml cup
Time35–60 s shot
How strong it tastesHigh

How to make it

  1. Use 18 g of coffee, ground a little coarser than for espresso.
  2. Tamp and start the shot as normal.
  3. Let it run until there’s 54 to 72 g in the cup.

Tip: Harsh or ashy? Stop it a little sooner next time.

Common mistake: If you keep your espresso grind and just let the shot run, the extra water drags out harsh, bitter flavours. Go a bit coarser.

Variations

  • Over ice: a quick, strong iced coffee

At a café

It’s a lungo in Italy and on capsule machines. In a North American café it may go by “long shot”.

Lungo vs. americano: An americano is a normal shot with water added afterwards. With a lungo all that extra water goes through the coffee, and that’s where the extra bitterness comes from. See the americano

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