What makes a good espresso?

It is kind of hypocritical to judge something if you have not provided a basis to judge it on. This is my guideline. Most people strive to make the espresso taste like the coffee smells. I am no exception.

An espresso should be very pleasant, a drink you can and would want to roll around in your mouth before swallowing. I emphasis this point because for the first 6-months I made horrid espresso that I thought was good, but it was like strong liquor; something you chug to prove how tough you are. 

There are no guidelines for espresso taste and aroma. You can find many different notes in coffee, and many people prefer some styles of coffee to others. That being said there is a standard for the oral sensation, the feeling it generates in the mouth: full-bodied, round and smooth; A good espresso should coat your tongue like condensed milk, and its taste should linger. Of critical importance is how coffee is extracted. I've taken beans just a little out of the desired extraction range and the flavours fell apart. Just a little under extracted for example can destroy things. The means of extraction is another thing.  The human race discovered that there was goodness in the coffee bean and the art over the past centuries has become to extract that. 

It's easy to forget that coffee comes from a fruit, since hardly anybody outside of coffee-producing countries ever gets to see the stuff ripening in its natural state. With my father working in the diplomatic agriculture sector, I have had the opportunity to chomp on a few of these little beauties while visiting coffee farms in Mexico. 

Coffee grows on spindly, bush-like plants, and its cherry-like fruit ripens over the course of several weeks to about nine months after the shrubs' jasmine like blossoms bloom and fall. When ready for picking, most coffee cherries are anywhere from a lovely blood red to a kind of deep, romantic burgundy, becoming sweeter as they mature. Some varieties are yellow when they reach their peak; under-ripe ones are an almost avocado green.

The fruit's skin is hard and snaps like a ripe paprika when you pierce it. Inside there's a sweet, sticky pulp layer that tastes something like watermelon, hibiscus, roses, oranges and vanilla beans all at once. Just note that there is hardly any fruit behind that thick skin and cracking the cherry too hard may result in some serious dental repairs. 

The flavour is very delicate and fleeting, and you'd have to mow through quite a few of these caffeinated suckers to fill up at snack time, so I recommend sticking to the brewed stuff instead.  For anyone interested in getting as close as possible to tasting coffee fruit, try “cascara”; this is a tea-like infusion made from the dried husks of the coffee cherries. “I Need Coffee” was the first place in Prague where I saw cascara on the menu. 

As for the bean, that is where the goodness is extracted; The original coffee was a stew from green (unroasted) beans, or rather, the whole fruit and the extraction process has been adjusted and perfected by discovering that if the beans were shelled and roasted, the caramel and chocolaty notes made a pleasant entrance. I can probably write a book on the different types, roasts and variations of coffee but right here I will stick to espresso and try to deviate only occasionally. 

There is a range of grades to which coffee roasters roast their beans. The classic filter coffee roast is medium and results in golden chocolaty coloured beans. Freshly roasted beans are ground just before the extraction process by adding hot water. The grind is generally quite coarse.  For espresso, the roast is usually a tone or two darker. These are known as French or Spanish roast; the grind is also finer and here comes the kick in the nuts for many. Espresso is a brewing and extraction method rather than a type of bean. 

Brewing coffee was time consuming. Each individual broth hat to be brewed and it took an average of 2-5 minutes to get a brew which closely resembles today's Arabic and Turkish coffees. 

In 1884, in Turin, Italy, a chap named Moriondo designed a device with which he could speed up the extraction from the coffee beans by pressing steam. The first espresso machine was patented and just over a century later, the espresso conquered the world. 

The espresso machine was a device designed to extract the goodness from the beans in as short a time as possible. If you are interested in the tasting notes of various types of coffee, I would suggest that you check out “coffee cupping” which is the art of observing the tastes and aromas of brewed coffee. 

Taste is subjective as to what we like, but talented and trained palates can really find a lot in the little bean.

The standard coffee extraction is the espresso (a single espresso shot). Although you can get double or triple espressos, if you are comparing quality, the single or double espresso are the standard. Regardless of which type of shot you order, if you are comparing quality across different cafes, you should always order the same thing (ie don't order a single at one cafe and a double at another).

Once again for standardization, I order a standard straight espresso each time.

My explanation of good espresso will be about straight espresso (no milk, no sugar) in an espresso cup.

Here are some characteristics of a quality shot: 

Temperature:
The espresso should be quite hot when served. If it is only lukewarm or warm right after it is made, then the barista did not heat the cup that it was served in.
It should be to the temperature where it is too hot to drink (for most people). It should only take a minute or so to cool off. 

Crema:
There should be a nice layer of crema on top of the espresso (a few millimeters thick, completely covering the espresso). This comes from the release of carbon dioxide when the espresso is extracted under pressure.
The colour should be golden-brown to dark brown.
The colour will not always be uniform, it will sometimes be slightly lighter where the shot actually poured in the spot on the crema.
The crema should remain for at least three to five minutes if not longer.
 
Taste:
The espresso should be bitter, but not too bitter (high levels of bitterness are more characteristic of espresso long shots).
It should be rich, but not too rich (again, high levels of richness are more characteristic of espresso ristretto shots).
It should NOT be sour. If it is sour, it has been sitting for too long before being served or was over-extracted.
It should not taste watery, this is usually a characteristic of under-extraction.
 
Smell:
Hard to describe for espresso and the aroma will vary a lot. One thing to avoid is a 'sour' smell, which usually indicates a sour taste, as described above, or that the coffee being used is inherently too acidic.
 
Consistency:
Espresso is going to be thicker and more viscous than regular drip coffee, but it won't be syrupy. When you are done your espresso, the drop or two that remain at the bottom of the cup, when dried should leave a distinct brown residue on the bottom of the cup.

These are just the guidelines that I go by. I love to stand corrected and I am open to discussion or debate. Any feedback will be welcome. Positive feedback is welcomed with open arms and negative feedback will be sneered at, countered and possibly be taken aboard. If I stand corrected, it implies that I have learned something new again and that can only be a good thing. 

OK, that was enough typing for today. I'm off for my daily fix. Have a fantastic Mothers day, for those of you who celebrate it today (like the French) and those who do not, make it count anyway.