Palouse Coffee Club
What is espresso?
Espresso is a concentrated coffee made by forcing hot water under high pressure through finely ground, tamped coffee. A shot takes about 25 to 30 seconds and fills about 25 to 30 ml, with a layer of light brown foam called crema on top. It is the base of the latte, the cappuccino and the americano.
How a shot is made
The barista doses ground coffee into a portafilter basket, tamps it into a firm, level puck and locks it into the machine. The machine pushes hot water through the puck. Tamping matters, Wikipedia's espresso article explains, because it helps water pass through the grounds evenly.
Shots come in sizes. A single uses roughly 7 grams of ground coffee, a double roughly 14, a triple roughly 21, and outside Italy the double, or doppio, is the standard shot at most cafes. Shots also come in lengths: a ristretto uses about half the water of a normal shot, and a lungo about double.
The quality of the shot turns on the grind, the water temperature, the pressure and the tamp. Change the grind and the flow changes with it, which is why espresso drinkers talk about dialing in. Coffee extraction explains what the water is pulling out of the grounds.
Espresso vs drip coffee
| Espresso | Drip coffee | |
|---|---|---|
| What moves the water | Machine pressure | Gravity |
| Grind | Fine | Coarser |
| Brew time | About 25 to 30 seconds | Minutes |
| Usual serving | About 30 ml | About 240 ml |
| Caffeine per serving | About 65 mg | About 95 mg |
| Crema | Yes | No |
Caffeine figures are the typical servings Wikipedia's espresso article gives. Espresso holds more caffeine per ml, but a cup of drip coffee is so much larger that it carries more in total.
Where espresso came from
Espresso grew out of Italian cafes wanting coffee made fast, one cup at a time. Luigi Bezzera of Milan filed a patent in 1901 for a machine that brewed individual servings, and Desiderio Pavoni, who bought his patents, began selling machines in 1905. Those early machines ran on steam at low pressure and made a darker, more bitter drink without crema.
The modern shot arrived after the war. Achille Gaggia's lever machines, sold from 1948, drove water through the coffee with a spring-loaded piston and produced the foam that Gaggia marketed as crema caffè. In 1961 the Faema E61 replaced the lever with an electric pump running at 9 bars, and pump machines have been the pattern since.
Espresso in Washington State
Washington has a long espresso history of its own. From the records we keep on the roasters we list, checked September 27, 2026:
- Espresso Vivace began as coffee carts in Seattle in 1988, the first at 5th and Union downtown. Its founder, David Schomer, a former Boeing engineer, is credited with developing and popularizing latte art in the United States, and he wrote the book Espresso Coffee: Professional Techniques in 1995.
- Dillanos Coffee Roasters started in 1992 as an espresso cart outside a convenience store in Buckley. It now roasts in Sumner, and baristas it roasted for and coached won the 2019 US Barista Championship.
- Zoka Coffee's baristas won the National Barista Championship in 2002 and 2005. Zoka opened in Seattle's Tangletown in 1997 and now roasts in Bellingham.
- Fidalgo Coffee Roasters in Burlington says its coffee is poured at espresso stands and coffee houses around Puget Sound.
Those carts, stands and roasteries are the local jobs behind a Washington shot. Why local roasters matter has more on that. For which roasters sell espresso blends today, see espresso roast.
Beans for espresso from the club
Choose the Espresso-friendly style in the plan builder, then any roast level. The quiz sets it when you answer "Espresso machine". Order whole bean if you have a grinder, since the grind is what you adjust to dial in a shot. Every box comes from a different independent Washington State roaster, $16.99 a bag. First bag free, you pay $7.99 shipping. The espresso subscription page covers the plan.
Related terms and sources
Related: crema, ristretto, espresso roast, coffee extraction, doppio, lungo, portafilter, latte art.
- Wikipedia: Espresso (definition, shot sizes, caffeine, history)
- Wikipedia: Doppio (the double as the standard shot)
- Specialty Coffee Association: Coffee standards (SCA-350, espresso machine specification)
- Washington roaster history: each roaster's own pages and cited press, checked September 27, 2026.