Say the word “espresso” and a wealth of images might come to mind: Small cups of thick, brownish-black espresso coffee. Gleaming black espresso coffee beans, their surfaces shimmering with flavorful oils and maybe just a touch of burnt sugar that was tossed into the roaster with them. Richly fragrant espresso grind coffee, ground to a powder so fine it can almost blow away with a breath. Espresso machines ranging from giant old-fashioned looking brass restaurant models to stainless steel modern devices in popular cafes to sleek little home countertop espresso machines. And, of course, espresso bars, those homes away from home for so many coffee lovers from early morning until late at night.

More than all these aspects, however, espresso conjures an air of romance. Take one sip of the rich, dark brew and you’re transported to Europe, where espresso making was developed in France in the 1820s and then refined by Italians in the early 1900s.

Espresso Coffee: The Essence of the Coffee Bean
Many coffee lovers consider espresso coffee the very essence of the coffee bean. It begins with fine Arabica coffee beans roasted until they are almost black in color, their essential oils emerging from deep inside to form a seductive sheen on the surface of each bean. Then, just before brewing, a single-cup portion of the beans is ground to a fine powder, which is packed snugly into a filter device that fits into the espresso machine with an airtight gasket. Inside the machine, water is heated to the ideal brewing temperature and then quickly forced at high pressure through the ground coffee. It all happens in a few moments, explaining the Italian name: “express” coffee, which explains why many English-speaking people erroneously call the drink “expresso coffee.”

The result is an intense, hot extract of coffee flavor, all the more pure and sweet because the water is in contact just long enough to coax out of the grounds only the essential coffee oils, leaving behind more bitter compounds that can develop through more prolonged brewing methods.

Unlike more conventional forms of coffee, which are intended for drinking, espresso coffee on its own demands to be sipped and savored slowly, unfolding on the tongue and then filling the mouth with its rich flavor. That intensity also lends itself, however, to use in many other ways, including different coffee drinks, to which it bestows rich, true coffee taste; and a wide range of recipes, from frozen desserts to baked good and even to barbecue sauces that call for a concentrated source of coffee flavor.