espresso vs coffee beans

[progmom]

So I was at Trader Joe's, looking for espresso beans. Very helpful employee offers her help. Tells me there is no difference between espresso and coffee other than how finely it is ground.

Now...if that's the case, and all Trader Joe's coffee is whole-bean....why do they sell an espresso roast?

Is there a difference in the roasting process between beans used for coffee and the ones used for espresso?

Very confused.

Thanks.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. All coffees are made from coffee beans

It's the roasting that makes the style.

So, espresso beans are still coffee beans. They're just roasted differently, and then, of course, for making espresso they're ground finer than regular coffee.

[progmom]

5. my subject was poorly phrased

i do know that they are all coffee beans. i was just making sure i was right in thinking there were different roasting processes for coffee vs espresso.

thanks!! :hi:

[In_The_Wind]

the roasting process is longer for espresso

[progmom]

3. thank you - i thought so

she was insistent that i was wrong. :grr:

[In_The_Wind]

16. the grind is important

not all espressos are the same either



what happened to *the customer is never wrong*?

that was a way of life ~ I remember it!

[MADem]

2. The italian style cafe usually has a stronger flavor

It is almost burnt. Even if you prepare say, a french roast, as a cafe (espresso), it comes out tasting milder.

There isn't only a difference in the roasting process, but there is also a difference in the taste depending on the particular beans. Blue Mountain coffee doesn't taste anything like Puerto Rican coffee...but it is all good!

[Kathy in Cambridge]

4. Lavazza espresso tastes rich, not burnt

french roast can have that bitterness to it..but some french roast doesn't.

[progmom]

6. i will check out Lavazza

thanks! :hi:

[Kathy in Cambridge]

8. Lavazza Qualita Oro. In the Gold can.

costs between $5-6 at Italian food store, but more elsewhere.

http://www.espressozone.com/lavazza-qualita-oro.html#

[MADem]

9. Do they sell that in the US now? n/t

[Kathy in Cambridge]

10. They sell it in every Italian market-and Whole Foods

It's cheaper in my local Italian market.

[Jara sang]

11. You mean Whole Paycheck

;)

[Kathy in Cambridge]

12. That's what we call it too, except it's not much more expensive

than some of our local supermarkets. x(

[MADem]

14. Hahahaha!

That's why I go to Trader Joe's--they have some very good fair trade coffee there as well!

[Jara sang]

17. Have you ever had the meatless meatballs from Trader Joes?

Those are friggin' good.

[MADem]

20. Yep, and the flash frozen chicken, and the shrimp, too!

Handy if you cannot always buy fresh!

[progmom]

21. flash frozen chicken

saves my ass on a regular basis!

:thumbsup:

[Jara sang]

7. I only drink tea.

Coffee is for heathens:P

[progmom]

19. bah

bah, i say!

[BrotherBuzz]

13. Dark roast is what you want

Graffeo's (San Francisco bay area) would be my roasting house of choice if it wasn't so expensive these days. Back in the cheap days I was a regular customer and got to know the master roaster quite well. He explained to me that the dark roast is so smooth because the temperature needed to achieve it drove the bad tasting oils off, while the light roast only brought them to the surface. We would talk coffee while we chewed freshly roasted dark beans straight from the oven - you can't do that with the light roast.

[Zomby Woof]

15. Espresso is roasted very darkly

True, the finer grind is more suited for espresso... I give the beans an extra 10-15 seconds of grinding just for that reason. So the name "Espresso Roast" is marketing. They roast it very darkly (as it should be) and they label it for espresso brewing.

Italian and French roasts work just as well for espresso. Experiment, and remember, if it works, it works, no matter the label.

[progmom]

18. thanks, ZW

i will experiment!

[MADem]

22. Here is a coffee I would not buy

Expensive, and you KNOW where it has been!!!

Monkey Poop coffee: http://www.aboutcoffee.net/2003_07_20_bcearc.html

Rich coffee lovers are going crazy for a new kind of coffee, made from the coffee beans that have been through the alimentary canal of the Indonesian monkeys. You can get a cup of such coffee in exclusive American cafes for five dollars. Mark Mauntanos, an importer of this expensive product advised, about 230 kilos of this coffee is delivered to the world market during a year. Experts say, the people of Indonesia have known such a drink for hundreds of years. They noticed that the monkeys, which live in the palm-woods in Sumatra and Java eat coffee beans, but do not digest them. The Europeans, who studied the nature of the most developed apes stated that they selected only the best coffee beans, which went through their intestines undigested.

[tammywammy]

23. Espresso beans roast

It's usually a blend of coffee (from various countries/locations as oppsed to a single origin coffee) and it's roasted darker. An Italian roasted coffee is the darkest roast (also a blend). French roast is the lightest of the three, but still a very dark roast (and also a blend).

Espresso grind, is a very fine, though not powdered like Turkish. If you use a coffee press, the best way to drink coffee, you need a coarse grind. And a cone filter is ground slightly finer than a flat bottom filter. It has to do with the amount of time the water is going to interact with the coffee. A shot of espresso takes 18-21 seconds to pull, thus a short time spent mixing with the water, so it needs to be fine to be able to extract the flavor, but not over-extract it either.

Also, you can also use other coffee beans to make espresso shots. It'll give your latte/cappuccino a slightly different flavor. At one coffee shop I worked at, we offered espresso made with French Vanilla flavored coffee (BTW I'm not a fan of flavored coffee).


And then there's the "mild" coffees. They're classified "mild" by the type of beans and how they're roasted. I prefer Mexican and Central/South American coffees, as they tend to be smooth, and not earthy like African and Indonesian coffees.

(Can you tell I worked in the coffee industry for 4 uyears :P )