What “true” espresso is, and how Americans ruin it

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:15:00 +0000

Giorgio Milos, the master barista at the high-end Trieste, Italy-based illy – whose familiar red logo adorns cans of quality coffee in 140 countries – stands inside a trendy downtown coffee shop in New York City and sucks in his cheeks. Something is wrong with the espresso he has just drunk. It has some of the right components – a bit floral, a bit chocolate – but there's an astringency that makes him compare it to a green apple. "A good cup of espresso has to be balanced between sour, bitter, and sweet," he explains. "Maybe they are using old beans."

Those are scalding words for one of the best coffee shops in a city percolating with so many new ones that in March The New York Times decided to list the 40 "best." The irony is that until a few years ago New York couldn't compare to the Pacific Northwest -- where the specialty-coffee trade was born in the '60s -- or cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles or Chicago. In New York, drinking diner coffee was almost a badge of distinction. But now the market here for specialty espresso has grown so frenetic that even Portland's groudbreaking Stumptown and San Francisco's Blue Bottle entered the East Coast fray, suddenly turning the city into an all-star showcase of American coffee.

Salon.com > Ted Botha

What “true” espresso is, and how Americans ruin it