How many ml are in 1 shot of espresso? What does a double shot of espresso mean?

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Understanding "Shot" in Coffee Culture

In a coffee shop, you might hear someone order, "Can I get a shot please?"

Shot? Is this some kind of new product?

In bars, the term "shot" refers to a small glass of spirits. This term became popular in the mid-20th century, when a "shot" meant the bartender would fill a one-ounce glass (shot glass) with spirits, and customers would drink it quickly and smoothly before leaving. Essentially, drinking these was for faster, cheaper alcohol consumption.

When "shot" is used in a coffee shop, it refers to espresso with a similar function. "A shot" precisely means one serving of espresso. The original positioning of espresso was also for quick, affordable caffeine intake.

How Much Is a Shot?

As mentioned earlier, a shot glass refers to a glass of approximately one ounce, or about 30ml capacity. Therefore, one shot actually refers to approximately 30ml of espresso liquid.

However, the concept of a "shot" in coffee isn't as simple as just the liquid capacity. For a long time, one shot referred to the standard extraction formula of that time—7g of coffee grounds extracted into 30ml of espresso. Another term commonly heard in coffee shops is "Double shot," which means double espresso—14g of coffee grounds extracted into 60ml of espresso.

When making a Double shot, a double basket (which we commonly use today) was used, then a split portafilter was used to divide the coffee liquid into two portions, collected in two shot glasses. At that time, there were no small scales to weigh the coffee liquid; it was entirely determined by volume, or in simpler terms, by visual estimation.

Looking at it now, this method has significant errors because the volume and weight of coffee crema are not equal. Therefore, if volume is used as the standard, espresso with rich crema will relatively have less liquid than espresso with thin crema. Consequently, modern espresso extraction now uses liquid weight as the standard.

What Is a Shot Today?

FrontStreet Coffee has found that most coffee shops today use double baskets as the standard for their products. Single baskets have almost disappeared. The extraction ratio for espresso has also been continuously shrinking. For example, previously one unit of espresso was 7g of grounds extracted into 30ml of coffee liquid, while today one unit of espresso is 16g of grounds extracted into 32g (approximately 45ml) of coffee liquid.

Like when FrontStreet Coffee makes standard lattes using the commonly used FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Blend in our stores, we use 20g of coffee grounds, with a 1:2 grounds-to-liquid ratio, extracting a double shot in 30 seconds—that is, 40g of coffee liquid poured into the cup as the base.

This creates an awkward situation: if we consider a single basket extraction as "1 shot," then the double basket extraction used today would be a Double shot. But if we measure by coffee liquid volume, if we consider the double basket extraction as a Double shot, then when a customer orders 1 shot, they would get approximately 22ml of espresso liquid, which appears even smaller in an already small cup.

So in this situation, coffee shops would consider the double basket extraction as one shot, and if a customer orders a Double shot, it would be two double basket extractions of espresso.

Important Notice :

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