What’s the difference between coffee and espresso?

(WHTM) — Coffee and espresso may both give you energy, but they’re not the same thing.

Most people will go to Dunkin, Starbucks, or a coffee shop and order a type of coffee with the option to add an espresso shot. But you can also order an espresso by itself, so what is the difference?

Coffee

According to the Merriam-Webster, coffee is a beverage made by percolation, infusion, or decoction from the roasted and ground seeds of a coffee plant.

Coffee can come in three types of roasts: dark, medium, or light, and is usually served in 6-8 ounces (but don’t be ashamed to get a larger size).

Coffee can be made in a matter of minutes using a coffee pot or machine such as a Keurig but for a “perfect” cup of coffee using the drip method is preferred.

According to Giesen, the drip method process is, “You start with using a paper filter. Then, the ground coffee beans are added and after that, the water is poured over this, causing fresh coffee to drip from the filter. Finally, the coffee is collected in a jug, and voila.”

Espresso

Merriam-Webster explains that espresso is coffee but it’s brewed by forcing hot water through finely ground, usually darkly roasted, coffee beans.

Espresso only has one type of roast (dark) and the serving size is between 1-2 ounces.

For those who use an espresso machine, you know that espresso is made by using pressurized water. This makes espresso a lot quicker to make than coffee as it only takes around 30 seconds to make a cup of espresso.

Espresso is also found in the following drinks macchiato, cortado, cappuccino, latte, flat white, marocchino, Americano, etc.

The differences

• Coffee has three types of roasts (light, medium, and dark) compared to espresso (dark)
• Coffee is served in 6-8 ounces
• Espresso is served in 1-2 ounces
• Espresso brews in about 20-30 seconds
• Coffee takes 6-12 minutes to brew
• Coffee extracts using gravity/filter while espresso uses pressurized water
• The grind size for coffee is medium-coarse while espresso is very fine
• Espresso uses crema, while coffee does not
• Espresso has around 63 mg of caffeine in one ounce while coffee has around 12 to 16 mg of caffeine per ounce