The espresso is something of a humble thing. Typically being barely more than an ounce or two in size, it’s bright and flavorful in a complex and interesting way. This means that it has long been used as a key part of a range of different experiments and culinary innovations.
Today, we’re going to look at a few of those innovations, and talk about why we like or dislike, them.
Espresso Romano
Given that espresso is a quintessentially Italian thing, it seems only reasonable to start off our little worldwide trip with a jaunt to Italy. More specifically, espresso romano comes from Rome, which you might be able to infer from the name.
The combination of flavors is really quite interesting – an espresso served with a wedge of lemon within it.
This might sound quite odd, but when you give it a little consideration, it makes a lot of sense! Fresh lemon has a sweetness that goes with the sour nature of the fruit. This, combined with the typically dark roast of Italian and espresso coffee, means that your drink can be a delicious slice of flavor to start the day.
Something that we would certainly insist upon is that you use fresh lemon for this. While it doesn’t have to be the most complex or extreme lemon that you’ve ever seen, lemon juice from a bottle just won’t cut it. That lemon juice is typically a lot more bitter, leading to an unpleasant addition to already bitter coffee.
Therefore, you want the hit of fresh, sweet acidity that so often comes with fresh lemon. Using a wedge of fresh lemon can be utterly delicious! We would advise you to express the juice of the lemon into a cup, add an espresso on top, and use the remaining wedge to stir the juice and coffee together. It’s a little odd, sure, but it’s also utterly delicious!
Cubano Coffee
Cubano coffee is a term that might be a bit hard to define, depending upon where in the world you’re reading this article from. The reason for this is that Cuba has a long and complex history of making fascinating and delicious cups of coffee – not all of them being espresso-oriented.
Instead, when you think of Cuban coffee, you might think of a Moka pot style contraption, making strong, short coffees that are similar to, but different from, espresso. That’s not what we’re talking about here.
Instead, we’re talking about the practice of pressing a puck of dark roast coffee into your espresso machine, and then compacting a layer of brown sugar on top of that. As hot water is forced through the portafilter, the sugar is dissolved before the brewing process begins.
This results in a really interesting cup of coffee, beyond it simply being a little sweeter than you might otherwise expect. Instead, the water absorbs less of the coffees sweeter notes, allowing the rich, dark roast notes to stand on their own. It’s interesting to taste the dark chocolate notes that some coffees have without the context of citrus or vegetal notes that those coffees may also have.
Mocha Cola
Mocha cola is a Brazillian invention, and it’s quite a strange one, at that. One of the main reasons that this is strange as you stand on the outside, looking in, is that Brazil produces a large proportion of the world’s coffee. There is a lot of farmland in the country within the coffee belt, and they’re responsible for a lot of the coffee drunk across the globe.
This doesn’t quite gel with the strange recipe of mocha cola that can obliterate some of the coffee’s more nuanced flavors.
Mocha cola is a summer drink and a sweet one at that. It’s typically had as a treat, the same way you might have a milkshake on a hot summer’s day.
The drink combined strong coffee with chocolate milk and cola. This flavor combination is extremely odd, with the intense notes of well-brewed and strong coffee standing up against the intense creaminess of chocolate milk and the potent sweetness of cola.
A number of Brazillian restaurants actually top this drink with ice cream or whipped cream, before serving it as a dessert. While this isn’t really the kind of thing that we might go for, it does have an inarguably refreshing flavor. It makes for a tasty kick on a hot day, with the specific blend of sugars and protein working to boost your brain and muscle function quite well.
Whipped Espresso
Whipped coffee is something that you’ll likely be a little familiar with if you were in the coffee world during 2020. ‘Dalgona coffee’ became an international trend, with people across the world creating their own spins on the classic recipe. Essentially, the idea is simple – coffee is whipped with sugar until very light and fluffy, before being mixed further with a cup of milk. This leads to a creamy, sweet, and refreshing drink that is quite unlike any others.
The thing that the specialty coffee world called out for after dalgona coffee made it big was a way to use espresso instead of instant coffee – no one really enjoys the flavor of instant coffee after they’ve had a glass or two of espresso.
The simple way to use espresso to make dalgona coffee is to replace the instant coffee that you otherwise would use with espresso itself. This can take the form of a tablespoon of espresso being combined with two tablespoons of granulated sugar. This would then be beaten to stiff peaks and added to the top of a glass of milk. The resulting beverage is creamy and sweet. Plus, it contains something far better than instant coffee.
Conclusion
As we said at the top of this article, the world of unique espresso drinks is infinite and complex. To be sure that you get a good sampling, we would suggest trying out a few different options. Why not start with the coffee drinks in this article – we’re sure you’ll find something you’ll love.