The Delicious Doppio: What a Double-Short (Ristretto) Pull Should Taste Like

For all those not completely fluent in coffee yet, here is the title translated: two shots of espresso that are cut off after about 10-15 seconds, extracting only the first part of the shot where most of the caramelized sugars and subtle flavors of the coffee are stored. This is called a "ristretto" (Italian for restricted) shot, or it is called a "short" pull sometimes. "Doppio" means double in Italian. That being said, let us move on to the article.

Many may be wondering, "so what's with all the negative reviews? What do these people want, eggs in their beer? Does any espresso taste good to them?" Well, friends, there is an answer to that question: yes. There is delicious espresso out there, and this is how it should taste, look and feel:

In the words of David Schomer, "espresso can be made to taste exactly like ground coffee smells, only more so" (Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques, 1998). A good shot of espresso should exhibit these characteristics:

-Dark, reddish brown crema that lingers
-Thick, velvety texture
-Natural sweetness from the caramelized sugars extracted from it
-Nutty overtones from roasting
-Complex flavors

Pulling a good shot of espresso requires so much more knowledge and preparation than most people realize. Every little thing matters in espresso, and affect it in different ways (both positive and negative). These factors include:

-Environment (humidity, temperature, etc, even though it's outside and the machine and beans are inside)
-Bean and ingredient quality (quality of the bean itself, when it was roasted, when it was ground, what kind of water used (filtered or not), etc.)
-Equipment quality (kind of machine used, weight of tamper (thingy used to pack down ground coffee), etc.)
-Barista training (do they know how to pull a shot that will come out with the description above?)

As you can see, there are some etceteras. This is because these are main factors, and those contain tons of sub-factors. There are quite a number of books written on espresso, so this article would quickly turn into a book if we went any further. There will be more posts in the future explaining sub-factors on a deeper level. Those posts will continue to help explain what we are looking for and why we are so particular about everything.

So this is all fine and dandy, but how do you know when you've found "the one?" Well, first of all, it should taste deliciously sweet and like you stuffed a velvet jumpsuit into your mouth. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration and does not exactly sound pleasant, but the espresso should encompass your mouth like a soft, thick blanket. It should not exactly dance on your tongue (unless you like a more acidic, less traditional style of espresso), but fill your mouth with a rich warmth and smooth, nutty flavor. Espresso should not ever taste bitter.