caffe con leche—The Spanish version of caffe latte with equal parts scalded milk and a strong, freshly brewed coffee. Sugar is added according to taste.
frappe—A cold, frothy coffee drink usually made from blending espresso, milk, crushed ice, and sugar or sweet syrups that can give the drink a variety of flavors.
red eye—Mike’s drink when he’s on an all-night stakeout. A regular drip coffee with a shot of espresso dumped in. (I think of it as a much more sobering version of a boilermaker!)
unleaded—A slang term for a decaffeinated coffee.
half-caf—A cup of coffee that’s a 50/50 mixture of regular and decaffeinated.
single-origin—A single-origin coffee is one that comes from a single region or farm, as opposed to a coffee “blend,” which is a coffee that is created by a roaster or retailer who combines beans from more than one coffee-growing region. Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, for example, is a single-origin coffee that comes from the Yirgacheffe region of the African country of Ethiopia. It is a single-origin coffee. A roaster may decide to combine the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe with a coffee from Colombia and one from Sumatra to create a “blend.”
regular—In New York City, a regular is a cup of coffee brewed in a drip machine with milk and sugar added.
steamer—This beverage has no espresso. It’s simply a cup of milk that’s steamed to warm the beverage and increase its volume. It can be flavored with whatever sweet syrups suit your fancy: hazelnut, caramel, orange, French vanilla, peppermint, toasted marshmallow, toffee nut, and so on. (See the Coffee Syrups section.)
When coffee beans arrive at a roaster, they are “green.” The roaster then decides what style of roast will best bring out that particular bean’s flavor. Here is a basic guide to the spectrum of roasts and the terms often applied to them. Some coffee roasters even mix together medium- and dark-roasted beans for a delightful combination of flavors.
Light
Cinnamon, New England, Half City
Light to Medium
American, City, Brown
Medium to Dark
Full City, Vienna (or Viennese), Velvet
Darkest
Espresso, French, Italian, Spanish
In On What Grounds and Murder Most Frothy, Clare uses a small stovetop Moka Express pot to make herself a strong jolt of espresso-style coffee. Because affordable home espresso machines (remember, I said affordable!) cannot reproduce the kind of pressure that a professional, restaurant-quality machine can, I also use a stovetop Moka pot to make my espresso-style coffee at home. (Note to purists: I said espresso-style! I fully realize there’s no crema!)
The beautiful, eight-sided Moka Express pot is the same sort of inexpensive stovetop espresso maker that members of my Italian family have used for generations. The taste experience you’ll have with the stovetop pot is deliciously intense. Although not the same as a machine-made espresso (again, there won’t be any crema), the stovetop version produces a rich, satisfyingly bold jolt of java. This is also an excellent way to make strong shots of coffee if you’re planning to mix them with steamed or frothed milk and syrups to make caffe latte, café au lait, or cappuccino—or if you have a culinary recipe that calls for adding espresso.
The traditional eight-sided Moka pots come in 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-cup varieties. Note that a “cup” of stovetop espresso is not equal to a cup of regular drip coffee, which yields about 6 ounces of fluid. A “cup” of espresso made in a Moka pot will give you an intense little 2-ounce jolt (¼ of a measuring cup of fluid).
The beans: As any chef will tell you when you begin a culinary endeavor, the end product reflects the quality of your ingredients. You can’t make a decent cup of espresso with bad beans. So buy good-quality beans freshly roasted, and grind them fresh with a home grinder if you have one.
What beans? What roast? Espresso refers to the method of making the coffee and not the coffee itself. The dark “espresso roasts” are certainly a traditional way to go for that bold, dark, caramelized flavor with hints of bittersweet chocolate, and you’ll find them wherever a variety of coffees are sold. But you may find that a lighter roast is more enjoyable, giving you citrus, berry, or floral notes, depending on the coffee’s origin. Experiment with different types of coffees, blends, and roasts to see what flavors, bodies, and aromas appeal to your particular taste buds!
The stovetop method: Using a stovetop espresso maker is fairly simple. After a few tries, you’ll get the hang of the timing, so don’t stress over a few trial-run mistakes.
Step 1—Unscrew the top and bottom chambers. Remove the little basket (A) out of the bottom chamber and fill the bottom chamber with fresh, cold water. (Filtered is best.) You want to fill it just up to the base of the little steam valve (B). Don’t go over the valve.
Step 2—Grind the beans finely. You want the consistency of fine sand. Don’t grind them too finely—you don’t want powder—or you’ll make the beans bitter. Conversely, do not use coffee that’s been preground for a drip maker. The grind should be finer than a drip grind. If you don’t have your own grinder, then look for a coffee that’s been preground especially for making espresso.
Step 3—Measure the grinds loosely into your stovetop basket (A). For each cup, the measure is 1 to 3 level teaspoons of finely ground coffee—using the teaspoon from your measuring set. I use 2 level teaspoons per cup, which comes out to 6 level teaspoons total for a 3-cup Moka pot; 12 level teaspoons for a 6-cup pot, and so on. If you like your espresso milder, then add less coffee; if you like a stronger taste, add more. Don’t tamp the grounds in—just pile it up into a pyramid in the basket. NOTE: You should not try to make less coffee than the pot holds. If you have a 3-cup espresso pot, then you must make 3 cups every time—not 1 and not 5. If you have a 6-cup maker, you must make 6 cups, and so on.
Step 4—Tightly screw the upper pot down onto the lower one, making sure no coffee grounds are sitting on the rim to prevent a tight seal. Put the pot on the stove over low to medium heat. (If you make your espresso over heat that’s too high, you may overextract your espresso and turn it bitter. As with many things in life, you shouldn’t try to rush the process!)
Step 5—The entire brewing cycle takes between three and six minutes, depending on the size of your pot. The water will heat up in the lower chamber, producing steam. Because steam occupies more space than water, it builds pressure and forces the hot water up through the puck of coffee grinds in your filter. You will hear your espresso gurgling up through the pot’s “fountain” (C) and into the upper chamber. When you hear the gurgling slow, watch for steam puffing out of the pot’s spout, then check the upper chamber. If it’s filled with coffee, then you’re finished! Remove from the heat and pour into prewarmed cups. (To prewarm my cup, I simply use hot tap water. Fill the cup; let sit a minute; discard the water; wipe dry; and you’re good to go!)