by Katriena Knights

Created on: February 05, 2009   Last Updated: February 06, 2009

Once upon a time, coffee was just coffee. Then the proliferation of upscale coffee houses led coffee drinkers to learn a whole new vocabulary when referring to their favorite beverages. While many coffee drinkers have adjusted to the new terminology, some would be much happier to just be able to order a plain "cup of joe."

But even aspiring aficionados sometimes need definitions to know what they're ordering. One important distinction that many people aren't familiar with is the difference between coffee and espresso.

So what is the difference between these two brews?

The answer is two-fold. Coffee and espresso both start with coffee beans, but differ in the way they're ground and the method used to brew the resulting beverage. These differences result in coffee drinks that look similar, but differ in flavor, thickness, and even caffeine content.

Traditional coffee is most commonly brewed through a drip method, and the coffee beans are ground fairly coarsely. In a traditional drip coffee maker-you probably have one in your kitchen-hot water is allowed to drain through the coffee grounds into the pot below. The process is moved along by gravity alone. Brewing a cup of espresso, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated.

"Espresso" means "fast" in Italian, and the brewing of espresso is, indeed, faster than traditional drip brewing. The ideal time for brewing an espresso shot is about twenty-five seconds, as opposed to the few minutes it takes drip coffee to complete.

The coffee is ground much more finely, as well. Rather than the coarse texture common to ground coffee, espresso is ground almost as fine as powdered sugar. This is because espresso's fine texture facilitates its brewing process.

To make espresso, these finely-ground beans are first pressed into a small, filtered basket. In a drip coffeemaker, grounds are left loose in the basket. Espresso must be pressed tightly, though, for optimum flavor. The espresso maker will force water through the ground beans under very high pressure. This results in a thicker liquid, and perfect espresso has a thin layer of foam on top, called crema, not unlike the foam found on a good glass of beer.

Because of the different brewing process, espresso has a much stronger, more intense flavor than traditional coffee. Most people assume that the stronger flavor means a more concentrated amount of caffeine, as well, but in fact the opposite is true. Drip brewed coffee actually contains more caffeine per cup than espresso.

While any kind of coffee can be used to make espresso, an "espresso roast" coffee is generally a very dark-roasted coffee, making the flavor of the espresso even more intense.
Many people enjoy their espresso shots straight up, but espresso is also the basis for all the various coffee drinks you'll find in any coffee bar today, from the cappuccino to the latte. Diluted with milk or water, the intense flavor of an espresso shot makes these drinks a very different experience from everyday coffee, one many people find not only desirable but downright addictive.

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