The Best Coffee for espresso?

We get asked a lot which coffee is best for espresso - a single origin or a blend?

There is absolutely no reason why a single origin coffee can't be used to make espresso but we should take a couple of factors into account.

First, the quantity of pure espresso produced in each shot is pretty small - around 32-40 grams. Second, although many people love to drink small shots of neat espresso, the majority of espresso is mixed with milk - sometimes quite a lot of milk such as in the UK's favourites which are café latte, cappuccino and flat white.

So whichever bean is used, the resulting espresso needs to be sufficiently strong and deeply flavoured to 'stand-up' in the milk otherwise the delicious flavours  of our coffee will be drowned out! Often, very full flavoured beans are roasted to quite a dark level to produce strong full bodied espresso.

The bean, roast level and flavour combinations (the blends) are endless and, in the end, it boils down to which flavours you love!