How To Make The Perfect Espresso At Home

Espresso has always been my favorite type of coffee. Maybe because it's so pure - just a shot of hot coffee in a glass. I'm always reminded of the authentic Italian coffee bars of my hometown when I was a child. Wooden countertops, little stools, and elderly Italian gentlemen enjoying their daily (or more likely, three or four-time daily) espresso with a contented expression. The coffee was always served in a small glass wrapped in paper to protect against the heat.

At those authentic espresso bars, the centerpiece is the big, gleaming machine which dispenses the steaming beverage with a lot of hissing and grinding. Is it possible to replicate this at home? Let's checkout some different methods and see how close we can get.

For decades, people in Italy have used an aluminum stovetop espresso maker, popularized by Bialetti. This is the type also called a mocha pot. The mocha pot has three sections: the bottom is filled with water, which when heated forces the steam through the middle section filled with ground beans. It ends up in the top chamber as your delicious coffee. Home espresso! While the hot water is not forced at high pressure through coffee grounds as in real espresso machines, the result can be excellent, with a good crema on top. I'm personally fond of the newer versions made of stainless steel.

An even simpler way is to use a French press. You won't get a true espresso, but you can emulate espresso by finely grinding the coffee beans, pouring the water in right at boiling, and pressing rapidly. In this way you can get a good coffee which is a a fairly decent imitation of the espresso style. All told, a "French 'presso" is a slightly different drink but still good coffee.

But in the end, you might decide that the most convenient way to a get a real espresso at home is to use a machine. You should check out the different options available and make sure you get one that's right for you. The high-end ones can be expensive, but that can be because they do things like grind the coffee and heat and froth milk. These options aren't necessary to make an espresso. I do recommend getting a sturdy, solid machine, not just the cheapest available. Also, a pitfall on the cheaper models can be ease of cleaning - you might find that they get get clogged up or you have to take them apart to clean, which I find very annoying. But with some research, you should be able to find something for almost any budget to make a good espresso to perk you up in the morning.