Espresso Extraction Time and Amount - What's the Difference Between Espresso and Ristretto

Introduction

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I believe many readers will have the same thought after reading the title: "I feel something is wrong with the title! But I can't quite put my finger on it! Isn't 'extra strong' just 'concentrated'?"

What is Espresso Coffee?

Espresso first appeared in the early 19th century when Italy entered an era of speed—everything had to be faster, more efficient, and more mechanized. Coffee was no exception. Coffee that was extracted and filtered quickly under pressure became widely popular.

Initially, espresso didn't focus on flavor and quality but rather on quickly producing a cup of high-caffeine coffee for refreshment. Therefore, coffee beans with high caffeine content were chosen to make espresso. The higher the caffeine, the less flavor the coffee has. Coupled with unstable roasting and extraction techniques, the resulting coffee liquid was burnt, bitter, and intense.

As times evolved, people gradually became more refined, and demands for espresso gradually increased, with more attention paid to coffee flavor. With continuous upgrades in espresso machines, water temperature and pressure during extraction became more stable, and coffee bean selection focused more on variety and quality, striving to extract coffee flavor even with rapid extraction.

Nowadays, the pursuit of espresso has become even more refined. Beyond speed and flavor, crema and mouthfeel are also essential. Unlike pour-over coffee, espresso has an intense and quick flavor profile. It doesn't have different flavor stages at high, medium, and low temperatures like pour-over coffee. What people enjoy is the impact coffee brings to the palate.

What is Ristretto Coffee?

Ristretto (Italian for "restricted" or "narrow") can be understood as coffee with limited output volume within a restricted time. This coffee is a derivative of espresso—a specially concentrated version. Using the same amount of coffee grounds for extraction, ristretto takes less time and produces less coffee liquid.

Ristretto doesn't refer to coffee with more intense and mellow flavor. Instead, by reducing the coffee-to-water ratio, the concentration of ristretto becomes higher than espresso, and the flavor is more concentrated. However, the body is actually not as full as espresso. Isn't this contradictory? With higher concentration, why isn't the flavor as full? Next, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate the extraction process of both types of espresso to see what differences exist between their flavors.

How to Make Espresso & Ristretto

For this espresso making, FrontStreet Coffee used sun-processed Yirgacheffe blended with Honduras Sherry "Sunflower Warm Sunshine" coffee beans. Both espresso types were extracted using the same machine, grinder, grind size, water temperature, pressure, and coffee dose.

After calibration, the espresso extraction parameters were: 20g of coffee grounds to extract 35g of coffee liquid in 27 seconds.

After determining the espresso extraction parameters, the ristretto extraction parameters were: 20g of coffee grounds to extract 27g of coffee liquid in 20 seconds.

Differences in Flavor and Mouthfeel Between Espresso & Ristretto

Regardless of extraction method, the first components extracted from coffee are light molecular weight acids, followed by sweetness, and finally heavy molecular weight bitterness. Therefore, coffee liquid extracted from only the early stages tastes more acidic. Since heavy molecular weight flavors aren't extracted, the mouthfeel appears somewhat thin.

This is exactly the case with ristretto. The extraction time is shorter than espresso, so the extracted flavors are dominated by wine aroma and berry notes, with caramel-like sweetness, high acidity, and a clean mouthfeel with clear sweet and sour flavors. Espresso, however, can extract heavy molecular weight flavors, overall showing whiskey aroma, vanilla cream, and nutty, caramel aftertaste. The mouthfeel is full, and the flavor is more mellow.

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Important Notice :

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