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The Espresso Coffee is the basis of every coffee drink you are ever likely to order:
Cappuccino – one-third espresso, hot milk and frothy milk
Latte – one-sixth espresso, the rest hot milk
Macchiato – espresso with a small amount of milk
Americano – an espresso topped up with hot water
Mocha – hot chocolate topped up with an espresso
So, it is essential that whatever machine you use, that it is able to produce the best possible Espresso with a perfect ‘crema’. Espresso is a much more concentrated coffee than filter coffee, and it should have a half a centimetre crema or froth on the top of it. The test for a perfect crema is to drop a little sugar on the top. It is successful if it takes time to disappear and fall to the bottom. To find out in greater detail how the perfect Espresso and crema are produced, go to the Coffee Espresso Equipments page on the Roast & Ground website.
Now decisions need to be made as to the type of Espresso Coffee Machine that is required. With all Espresso Coffee Machines, water is forced at high-pressure through finely ground coffee. Therefore, ideally all the major parts of the machine should be made from materials that can withstand this pressure.
For the office market, there are two main types of Espresso Coffee Machines – pump-driven or steam-driven.
For espresso lovers, only the pump-driven Espresso Coffee Machines will do. With this type of machine, water is heated to around 90 degrees C and forced with 9 bar of pressure through 7g of finely ground coffee. The optimum temperature and pressure are considered to produce the perfect Espresso coffee.
The steam-driven Espresso Coffee Machines use a chamber that boils the water. The steam produced by the boiling water eventually forces the water through the coffee. With this type of machine the water is heated to above the considered optimum and the pressure used is not as great.
Recently, a third type of machine has emerged on to the market. The Nespresso type machines can be found in many High Streets and is probably more suited to the domestic market. The Nespresso systems are ‘pod’ systems. This is where capsules of ground coffee are placed in the machine to produce the Espresso. Some also have steam arms to enable the milk to be heated separately. The advantages of this type of system are that there is little or no mess and consistent coffee is always produced. The draw back is that you are tied to the machine’s particular pod systems. There are a number of different pod styles on the market and often one manufacturer’s pod system does not fit another’s. Also, the majority of pods or capsules are only available through the Internet.
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