Espresso and soup? A strange but helpful analogy You might be wondering what soup and hot coffee have in common besides being a hot liquid. That is about it, but the analogy here should help clarify what an espresso bean is. Most people have fond memories or an active passion for coffee and soup. But for coffee and soup, there needs to be clarity about how to get to the end product, granted more so for espresso. Espresso is like bouillon. It’s small and concentrated and usually diluted to make the end product. Drip coffee is like a finished stock. It can have minor additives, or it is great on its own. So what precisely makes a bean so qualified to be honored as an espresso bean? Well, for the most part, it is the roast level. For espresso, you want to be at a medium to dark roast. Lighter roasts do not do well in espresso shots because of the coffee’s short extraction time and acidity. Darker to medium roasts are better at getting fuller flavors out at the short extraction time. The typical flavor notes of espresso of chocolate and other darker fruiter flavors play along much better with flavored syrups than, say, the brightness and acidity of light roast. Much like there are many kinds of stock and bouillon which all serve a different purpose, so there are with coffee. So why, then, the moniker of espresso coffee? Well, there are two options, one, the manufacturer has already pre-grounded the coffee to be made in an espresso machine. The second is that this is the recommended use of the coffee. Much like the recommended recipes on the side of the stock box, you buy it is the same idea here. In fact, it might be interesting if…