All our coffee is served with two shots by default. We’re not some fancy coffee shop, just a motorway service station that makes coffee to go. We have some regulars who order a decaff with an extra shot. I explain thats going to have three shots total, and they’re happy with it.
But I keep thinking, if you have three shots of decaff, isn’t that going to be as strong as a normal coffee? Whats the point?
Please forgive my ignorance
The difference between Italy and the rest of the world in terms of espresso culture is night and day. If you want a decent espresso in most of Europe you have to go to some hipster obsessing over every tiny detail - if you go to a random bar they will give you an espresso shot the size of a glass of milk. I always go for a lungo in Italy, but most espressos I get in other countries still feel a bit ridiculous to me.
On the positive side, the obsessive hipsters might actually be on to something - there’s a lot of potential for flavour in the espresso that is generally not explored in Italy. Italian beans tend to be very dark roasted, meaning that the brewing of the coffee is very forgiving but there is less potential for more exciting flavours. Then again, people who want a fruity cup of coffee are arguably better off sticking to other extraction methods.
And there’s certainly quality differences in Italy as well! Though I feel like it often boils down to the basics such as keeping the machine clean and preventing soap taste.
Sometimes I wonder if customer demand creates the over-extracted espresso you often see.
But when you go somewhere with barristas that give a damn, they’ll extract correctly, because they’re confident enough to discuss it.
I’ve still had no luck persuading my mum that filling half a cup with overrun is not how it’s supposed to taste.
But when I do a 36g shot, “it doesn’t taste right”.
I’m not a coffee drinker but my partner is. She says she had two decent cups of coffee in Italy (two weeks in Rome, Bolzano, and Venice) but every day in Australia she has better. Australians are complete coffee snobs.
It’s a completely different product. Italian coffee does not have much going on in terms of flavour beyond bitter, and the only way of liking coffee there is to learn how to appreciate that. It’s not easy for anyone who has learned to appreciate lighter roasts of coffee.
Eventually I learned to genuinely like it, but I also did live there for four years. And I would still use my Chemex rather than my Mocca at home 95% of the time.