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This is a coffee community, not an espresso community. Here's my evil drip brew machine and morning abomination
(lemmy.world)
I like espressos (especially mochas) but they take a bit of work to prepare a single cup. With drip brew, I can do very little and get unhealthy amounts of caffeination into my corpse. Also, I pour ungodly amounts of creamer into my coffee. That Mason jar is quite literally half coffee half creamer.
Espresso is a type of coffee. Some like Café Crème, some Americano, some Lungo, some filter coffee, some french press.
My recommendation for you: try the french press. Even more simple and mostly glass/metal instead of plastic.
I still can't get a consensus definition of the difference between Café Crème and Americano.
Little anecdote: I've been to Paris a fair bit, and always enjoy a big bowl of cafe au lait with my morning pastry. First time in Nice, the waiter mocked me for my order. "Café olé!" he shouted and did a little flamenco dance. In the south of France, he explained, they call milky coffee "café crème". So there you go.
In the UK an Americano is just a watered-down espresso, no milk or cream.
Café crema was the original name for espresso because of the crema it produced. Café crème is the French translation. Espresso became the more popular word.
Now it's when you make a long black / americano style drink but instead of adding water before / after pulling the shot, you run the full amount of water through a coarser grind when making the espresso.
Americano = water after shot
Long black = water before shot
Café crema = water through shot
Thanks for your input! Then this would be similar to a "lungo" or "allongé"?
My issue is more in the consensus side of things...
Some coffee places in Switzerland told me (with 100% certainty) that "Café crema" and "Americano" was the same thing, and the fancy espresso machine at work offers "allongé" and "cafe crema" as different choices...
Personally I've never heard of a cafe crème before, but one website says it's an espresso to which you add a bunch of milk. Another website says it's supposed to be less foamy than a cappuccino and less milky than a latte. Found a swiss Site which makes it sound even more complicated.
As for the others.. lungo and allongé are the same thing, which is usually an espresso but you let more water flow through the coffee. Usually at least twice as much. Americano is usually just an espresso to which you add a bunch of hot water. Usually to fill one of those bigger mugs till you get to like 150-200ml
In German café crème is the same as lungo / allongé (wich are the same word just translated) but in French café crème is lungo + milk. Apparently Switzerland takes inspiration from the former :')
I couldn’t have explained it any better; well done!
Upvote for French press, there is a double-walled steel version that keeps the coffee nice and hot.
Grind the coffee yourself and it's miles better than drip.
Eh I always end up with fines and they really bother me.
There are definitely quality levels of filter brewing too. From cheap drip machines that don’t get to the right temperature to really fancy drip machines can effectively simulate a pourover.
Just depends what you like really. Would say that a $20 French press setup will almost certainly produce better coffee than a $20 drip machine, but a better comp is a $20 pour over setup imo.