Caffè crema
What is caffè crema
To begin with ,caffè crema in the 1940s and 1950s meant something different from what we call caffè crema today.
Itused to refer to aregular espresso with crema on the surface. In fact, at that time, espresso as we know it today was not such a standard.
A couple of decades later ,caffè crema came to mean a drink that was actually an extended espresso. But a very extended espresso. Caffè cremahas a volume of between 120 and 240 ml. It can actually be two to four times the size of a classic lungo.
The history of the caffè crema
Caffè crema was born along the border betweenItaly and Switzerland and Italy and Austria sometime in the 1980s. Some Swiss rightly refer to it as Swiss coffee.
The reason for the creation of caffè crema was what many of our countrymen know very well. That it's just a little espresso .
Sothe espresso tried to adapt to the size of asmaller cup and caffè crema was born.
Caffè crema was also quite popular on the other side of the world in the 1980s - in Australia. Sometime after 1990, however, it was fully replaced by the still-prepared long black, which is actually an upside-down Americano.
How to make caffè crema
The base is a double espresso, which we extend by a big chunk . But in order to let up to 240 ml of water flow through the coffee bud , we'll have to play around with thecoarseness of the grind.
That's because we need all the water to flow through in about 25-30 seconds. Which is virtually impossible with a conventional fine grind. And of course, such coffee would be very heavily over-extracted and undrinkable.
Some talk about acoarseness similar to filter coffee. I might opt for a littlefiner still , but I'll leave that up to you, your grinder and your coffee maker.
Either way, definitely grind the coffee a gram or two less than for a double espresso. Coarser ground coffee of the same weight probably wouldn't fit in your strainer.
Another tip is to push the coffee in the strainer only lightly, or let the water run for a longer time - around 40 seconds.
The result should be a120-240mlcoffee drink , but with a crema like the one you know from a normal espresso.
Caffè crema is definitely worth a try. If only because the whole extraction process will be a little different from espresso. If all goes well, you may be very pleasantly surprised by the results.
Caffè crema can, for example, completely replace the dilution of coffee with hot water.