What is Lungo? How does it differ from Long Black, Ristretto, and Espresso?

Because "Lungo" often appears alongside "Long Black," it frequently causes considerable confusion! For example, FrontStreet Coffee recently saw while surfing: "The difference between Lungo and Americano lies in the order of adding espresso and water," and "Long Black is an Americano made with lungo as the base," among similar statements.

From this, it's clear that many friends don't quite understand what kind of coffee Lungo actually is. So today, FrontStreet Coffee will break down what exactly Lungo is~

Long Black vs. Americano

The coffee that differs from Americano in preparation method is actually Long Black, most famous for its different order of adding espresso and water compared to Americano. Adding espresso first then diluting with water makes Long Black; adding water first then pouring espresso makes Americano coffee!

Besides this, they also have significant differences in concentration. Americano coffee adds more water, while Long Black adds less water. Precisely because Long Black adds less water, its coffee concentration is higher. (Since FrontStreet Coffee has already analyzed Long Black in detail before, this article won't elaborate too much - interested friends can click directly here: "What is Australian Black?") However, Lungo is a completely different existence from them!

What is Lungo?

Although it differs somewhat from traditional espresso preparation, Lungo, like Ristretto, belongs to the espresso family. Because they are all products made directly with espresso machines, without any additional ingredients.

If traditional espresso appropriately extracts substances from coffee (using 20g of coffee grounds as an example, it would extract about 40ml of coffee liquid), then Ristretto limits the amount of extracted substances - with the same amount of grounds, it extracts less liquid, but the concentration is therefore higher (using 20g of grounds as an example, it would extract about 30ml of coffee liquid)! Meanwhile, Lungo obtains more coffee liquid by extending extraction time - with the same amount of grounds, it extracts much more coffee liquid, but the concentration is reduced (using 20g of grounds as an example, it would extract about 100ml of coffee liquid).

This extraction method for Lungo obviously cannot be understood by people today. With the highly efficient extraction of espresso machines, extracting five times the amount of liquid from the grounds - how could this not be bitter? "Of course it would be bitter! If all substances from the coffee beans are extracted, the sufficient release of bitter compounds would inevitably make people put on a painful expression!" However, in the year when espresso machines were first invented, this approach was actually the correct choice.

We know that espresso machines didn't have the high pressure they have today when first invented - the pressure could only reach 1.5-3 bar. Such low pressure obviously couldn't fully extract the flavor compounds from coffee in a short time. Therefore, to increase extraction rate, people had to find alternative approaches. So at that time, people chose to extend extraction, using large amounts of hot water to bring out all the flavor compounds from the coffee. The result was predictable - the extracted coffee had low concentration and was bitter! However, the extraction rate was satisfied! And with the dilution of high liquid volume, the espresso flavor still had decent performance (for people at that time).

As times changed, coffee machines became more and more advanced, more and more efficient, and people no longer needed to use long extraction times to get an espresso with appropriate extraction rate. But this extraction method (long extraction time) didn't disappear! To distinguish it from today's espresso, people gave it the name "Lungo"! Lungo means "long, extended" in Italian. As you can imagine, Lungo was defined as the elongated version of espresso!

However, due to limited uses, Lungo was not widely adopted. Therefore, it gradually faded from people's memory, which is why many friends online today can't distinguish between Long Black and Lungo. If we make Lungo according to current extraction parameters, it would inevitably be extremely bitter. But espresso and people's preferences are constantly evolving, so we naturally can "iterate" Lungo as well - by modifying parameters, we can create a non-bitter Lungo that better suits modern tastes!

How to Extract "Modern Lungo"

Actually, it's quite simple. If long-time, high-efficiency extraction now causes coffee to be over-extracted, then we just need to reduce its extraction efficiency to ensure this coffee won't be over-extracted even during long extraction times!

Pressure, water temperature, and grind size are all parameters that can change extraction efficiency. For most people, the easiest to adjust is the grind! First, let's list FrontStreet Coffee's espresso extraction parameters used today: 20g grounds (Warm Sun Blend), Galileo Q18 grind setting 1.2, 94°C water temperature, 9 bar pressure, extraction time 30 seconds, yielding 40ml espresso (grounds-to-liquid ratio 1:2). Through measurement, the concentration was calculated at 9.7%, extraction rate at 20%. For extracting Lungo, we need to use a grounds-to-liquid ratio of 1:5. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee adjusted the grind. Finally, by reducing the grind by 0.4 settings, we extracted a Lungo with suitable taste! It took 44 seconds, with concentration of 4.3% and extraction rate of 21.56%.

Although it's not as concentrated, the应有的 flavors are well presented - the whiskey aroma and slight berry acidity are very obvious, and its crema is not thin! Overall, it's quite good. However, even with reduced extraction efficiency, it's still very prone to over-extraction! So friends who want to try it should be mentally prepared to drink bitter coffee~

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