Lance does have some wonderful videos with great insight, I just wish he'd edit them down. There's so so so much filler and tangents and fuss. They're like 20 minutes when they could be 10-15. Then again I respect that he's doing his own way instead of copying James' immaculate production with clean aesthetic, which it seems like quite a few people are doing in the coffee YouTube world.
Basically no one outside of Italy (where the definition was created) takes a purist approach to espresso anymore. Certainly no one in barista competitions ever uses it for the last 20 years or so.
I can't recall the exact official definition but it's something like: 7g of coffee extracted under 9 bars of pressure at 94C yielding 14g of liquid.
It's extremely limiting, for example it's designed for dark roast and isn't ideal for medium/light specialty coffee where you might have to adjust the temperature and yield to get good results.
Modern high end espresso machines these days are starting to allow you to play with the variables and in the espresso community it's usually considered that anything over 6 bars is an espresso. Also, other techniques like pre-infusing at 1-3 bars before ramping up the pressure is common. Personally I'm partial to a long 20s pre-infusion at 1 bar before ramping up to 6-7bars. This yields a very sweet shot with a medium roast bean.
Oh for sure, I’m more arguing that it deserves a better name because as you note, it’s outside the normal for an espresso.
Pre infusion aside, the article starts at the low end of your definition but does have graphs that go as low as 4 bar.
That’s almost at the stage of being made using the pre infusion only, and perhaps I should try that as that’s down there.
I prefer a thick crema (for look and taste) but I’ll try drop the pressure down and see if I’m persuaded.
Regarding your long pre infusion - how much of the shot is being extracted after 20 seconds? I’d expect a good 5-10ml by that time but maybe your pressure is so low that little comes out.
> how much of the shot is being extracted after 20 seconds?
Basically zero, maybe one or two drops. You need to grind finer though and you need a grinder capable of that. A decent hand grinder is ok (e.g. 1zpresso jx pro or max) but for electric grinders you're into the $600+ range before you can do it, e.g. a specialita or a niche .
Pressure at the pump is not that relevant. What is relevant is the pressure at the point where pressurized water meets the coffee puck. And this pressure very much depends on multiple factors but let's say that the coffee ground level is one of the most important things. If you have a pump pumping water at 15 bars but you have a very coarse ground coffee in your basket, resulting pressure is _not_ going to be 15 bars. Similarly, if you grind the coffee at very fine levels then the resistance of the coffee puck will increase and therefore resulting pressure might very well end up being _more_ than 15 bars.
That said, another thing which plays a big role in the resulting pressure is the design of the brewing head and the design of your basket. Baskets can be either pressurized (they have a single hole through which the coffee will flow) or non-pressurized (they have a lot of small holes through all of which coffee will flow). You can imagine that the resulting pressure will depend on the type of the basket you're using.
Because cheaper appliances will by default use pressurized baskets, they will tweak the pump to some pressure level which they found to work the "best" for their type of machine and that level is exclusively much more than expected 9-10 bars. Nespresso will for the same reasons do the same with the difference that they make one step forward to take over the full control over the puck preparation process through their prepackaged pods.
Well you made some statements in your previous comment about pressure which suggested they were generally applied to espresso making. That simply isn't true.
Espresso machines without OPV are really a minority. Even single-boiler entry level machines like the Gaggia Classic or the Rancilio Silva have an OPV.
Parent comment seemed to suggest that (much) higher pressure produces better espresso and my comment had a sole intent, at the expense of simplifying some things, to give some grounds why espresso manufacturers might use higher than 9-10 bar pressure at the pump.
Gaggia Classic is a 350 EUR machine whereas Rancilio Silvia is 600 EUR machine. These are not entry level machines. They are entry level for someone becoming more interested in espresso but not for ordinary people. And ordinary people do not spend 400-500 EUR for a coffee machine if they think they are going to get the same for twice less money. Twice less money machines do not have OPV.
They are not going to explode but on such machines if you remove the portafilter straight after extracting the espresso, the puck will "explode" and is going to create a mess. In more expensive machines this is regulated through OPV and solenoid valve through which the pressure built up is going to be released.
Nespresso's taste is least likely to be anything anyone is looking for in a good espresso.
That high pressure causes some odd taste notes and it would cause channeling in the puck. Not to mention all sort of other issues which start already at ~11 bars.
I disagree and I've brewed many espressos many ways and I love a good espresso.
I found this article interesting because they talk about the complexity of espresso as being characteristic of a mix of extractions at different pressures. This is apparently different than the model they came up with to brew the perfect espresso. But they also note that 9-11 bars is too high and go as low as 7. Fascinating.
I’ve found there to be a distinct taste to Nespresso and go some way to avoid it (literally in some cases, it’s in cafes all over Europe). I’m not sure if it’s the coffee container or the high pressure and bean combo but it’s taste is not something I’d ever aim for.
I strongly believe that the Nespresso was designed to solve/create a problem to fit their business model.
In this order: Proprietary, good margin, small foot print (pods and extraction unit), easy to use, disposable.
That Euro cafe served nespresso coffee is different then the nespesso capsules for making espresso. I've had so I understand what you mean. The nespresso pod machines, it sure is a razorblade model but you can get quite and varied espressos.
i definitely don't drink a lot of dark roast espresso, but i think a turboshot has no problem producing adequate texture.