Espresso Exceptions: Our Coffee Double Standards

In this episode, I dive into an interesting coffee conundrum that's been on my mind lately: the double standard between how we approach filter coffee versus espresso-based drinks. I explore why many coffee enthusiasts (myself included) often encourage drinking filter coffee black to experience "true" flavors, yet we give espresso-based milk drinks a complete pass. Through a real-time tasting experiment, I compare straight espresso shots with milk-added versions to understand these differences firsthand.

I share my personal coffee habits—drinking filter coffee black about 90% of the time while having espresso only once or twice monthly. By examining the concentrated nature of espresso and its inherent bitterness, I challenge the coffee community's inconsistent standards and ultimately advocate for letting people enjoy their coffee however they prefer. Listeners will gain insights into the coffee culture's unspoken rules and perhaps feel liberated to enjoy their favorite brew without judgment.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:10 My Personal Coffee Preferences
• 3:07 The Double Standard Question
• 6:44 Tasting Straight Espresso
• 7:51 Analyzing the Espresso Experience
• 10:33 Adding Milk to the Equation
• 12:24 Comparing the Experiences
• 13:18 Final Thoughts: Let People Enjoy Coffee Their Way

Transcript

[00:00:00] We live right now. Today is April 16th, 2025. We're doing pretty good right now. It's Wednesday, early in the morning. We just trying to figure this thing out together. That's all we're trying to do. Figure this out together. Okay, let's see if we can play around with you. Get a little closer.

[00:00:31] We're just gonna be okay. So I got an interesting one to talk about today. I was thinking about topics and everything. And I was wondering, do we turn a blind eye to espresso based drinks or is there double standards going on here? Let me explain.

[00:00:52] I love coffee. I love most of everything about coffee. I mostly drink my regular filter coffee black. And I love it. I love the clarity. I love the subtleness of flavors. We do change one or two variables when you're brewing coffee or whatnot. I love it all. I really do love geeking out. I love just understanding what coffee is and can be and all that good stuff, right? And then I would say about 90%, I drink my coffee black.

[00:01:27] Sometimes I do drink my coffee with creamer. I don't think there's a problem with that whatsoever. I really don't. But when it comes to espresso, I probably have espresso once, twice a month, if that. Sometimes I forget about it. I really do. That's just me. It's not my particular jam all the time. I do love the process. I do love the rewards of actually brewing an espresso shot, the methodicalness of it, the routine and the understanding, the beans and how it actually pressurizes the coffee in order to make this beverage.

[00:02:09] It's heavy though. It can tend to be bitter. And yeah, I probably drink it black or straight up about 70% of the time. Other times I make my macchiato and I'm happy to go. One thing I've noticed with...

[00:02:27] I'm gonna stop saying specialty, just coffee. But let's just, for lack of better word, let's just call it specialty coffee. What I see a lot of times is that we want people to experience coffee in its best light, right? And at times I even do it too, to where I would love people to taste or drink their coffee black for a little bit. Not for a long time if they don't like it. Just to see if they can develop that palette of awesomeness in coffee as it is in its natural state, so to speak, right?

[00:03:07] And we're really big about that, especially filter coffee, right? We're really big about how telling people how to taste and not doctoring their coffee and putting cream and sugar in it is the old way of doing things and they don't really understand what's really going on when they actually drink their cup of coffee. But at the end of the day, it's their palette, it's their mind and it's their life. Do whatever they want to. Like I do whatever I want to, especially when it comes to coffee. And I'm sure you do that too, right?

[00:03:41] But as I think about this stuff a little bit more and also see things for what they are, I think something about espresso gets a big pass. As you see here and there, especially in cafes and competitions, you know, there's latte art, there's lattes, there's cappuccinos, there's whatever the hell else you want to do that is a milk based drink that's, it's not milk based, but it's espresso based, but milk drink, so to speak, right?

[00:04:17] And there's so many different ways to put cream in your coffee and in this case in your espresso. Why is that? Why are we okay with that? Why do we say that you don't have to taste your espresso in its natural state?

[00:04:38] Not even close to, not really even at all, compared to what goes on when it comes to filter coffee. Cause that's the way majority of people drink their coffee. Why do we have those double standards? That's what I'm really trying to figure out and understand because I think there's a disconnect there because at the end of the day, as long as that person is enjoying their cup of Joe, that's all that matters. Let's say they don't care about really trying to taste the black. That's perfectly fine, but we're gonna try a couple things without me just rambling and talking about all this stuff, right? We're really gonna try a couple things. So really just trying to push ourselves a little bit to see at least for me, if I understand this, I don't know if I'm the right person to talk about this anyway, but I'm talking about it. You may have comments about it. So that's perfectly fine. So let's go back to an espresso.

[00:05:35] Let's talk about how it's actually made. For my particular application, I do about 13 to 14 grams inside the cup, right? And then after I do that, I press down a very concentrated drink. And I think that's part of it. It is a concentrated drink. So that's why you don't probably get a lot of people actually drinking this espresso straight up, right? That could be it. But I've made three espressos, one probably actually two of them probably too bitter, but one is just spot on the way I made it on my Olympia creminia, okay? But let's just taste it. Let's just really see what we taste about the coffee because it's coffee, it is really coffee. It's just a brewing method that we are accustomed to knowing about and using. But a lot of people do drink it straight up. I usually drink it straight up. So let's go ahead and drink it straight up. I made this last night, so they're cold. We're gonna just drink it for what it is, okay?

[00:06:44] So, it's bitter, it's heavy. Ooh, it's kind of hard to decipher what I'm tasting. I do get some fruitiness in it, some acidity coming on the back end of it.

[00:07:02] Probably would have been better, a little bit hot or warm right after you actually get your espresso shot. But let's let it mellow in the palate a little bit. Let's just take it all in. It's still there, it still lingers. It's still something that is probably not as appetizing or appealing to people as much as a regular cup of coffee. Regular cup of coffee isn't that strong. You can taste it for what it is. You can make it strong, but it won't ever really get to the complexity of the heaviness and the muddiness. That even makes any sense for what I'm saying of an espresso shot.

[00:07:51] And I'm tasting it, I'm just wondering what did I do just now? Why did I do that? But it's okay.

[00:07:59] We're just experimenting here because at the end of the day, what we're really trying to do is wonder, we're trying to pick out why one thing is better or totally fine than others. And it could be the whole concentration thing because if you were to drink this each and every day as it is right now, would you want to? Sometimes when I talk about espresso or think about espresso, when I see what people talk about espresso is that...

[00:08:27] They tend to romanticize it, just as when people in World War II or whatever, people in the army have done when it came to dark roasted coffee.

[00:08:44] Especially in the sense of just straight espresso shot. You're a man, you're about your business because you actually can drink it straight up. You take all the bitterness and all that good stuff together, just like you would do in a dark roasted coffee. It kind of has that same type of appeal and type of similarities.

[00:09:08] So let's go ahead and take another swig of this and then we're gonna change it up. You'll see what I mean by that.

[00:09:17] Same thing, less fruit, same heaviness, bitter, mellows out quite a bit on the aftertaste.

[00:09:34] But again, I think this will probably be better. It holds actually one more because you can kind of just take it back and move on with your day. And I think that's the beauty about espresso too. You don't need like a whole cup of coffee. You can literally have a shot of coffee and you'll be perfectly fine with what you're drinking. You'll get your caffeinated fix and everything and you'll be good to go.

[00:10:01] But now what we're gonna do is that we're gonna actually turn this on its head. I do have some milk, but I don't wanna do milk. I'm gonna do creamer. If you do wanna do milk, you wanna do milk. No, let's do milk. Let's change it up. Let's go ahead and do milk because we're gonna put milk inside of this. We're just gonna mix it through. We're not gonna do any of the foam and all that or a latte art or anything like that. We're just, this is after it's actually mixed through. So let me go ahead and get all that stuff, okay?

[00:10:33] Hey, I didn't even see you. What's up big boy? That hurts, huh? Okay, okay, just wait. I'm almost finished, about five minutes. You sit down, Chair.

[00:10:57] So now we have the milk. I don't think this milk is 100% right. I think I did smell some openness on it. I'm gonna spoil it, but we're just gonna pour the milk, okay? Look, it's brown now, okay?

[00:11:19] You wanna taste it? No, okay.

[00:11:28] Okay, all right. So now we're going to drink it, okay? This is how people will normally drink it because they don't drink shots, all right?

[00:11:42] Go back over there.

[00:11:47] They don't usually drink shots. They just drink a milk-based espresso drink, right? And that's perfectly fine.

[00:11:57] So we doctored it. We literally for sure 100% doctor it. Did I put as much milk as a normal person? Probably, probably not. Probably a little bit less. Probably just wanna taste of the milk and the coffee together. It doesn't matter. It's your palate. But let's just drink this right now for what it is. And let's just see what we taste, okay?

[00:12:24] Okay, less bitter. The milk does cut through the bitterness.

[00:12:35] Now what we have here is to me, I've said it before, is an adult chocolate milk. There's no problem with that. That's perfectly fine. It's an adult hot cocoa. Well, it's not hot. It's cold actually. Cold cocoa. Cold cocoa. There you go.

[00:12:58] So I guess what I'm saying is that it does work. It does make sense. But this works just as good or just as the same as somebody putting milk, cream or sugar, whatever they want to, their own creamer and their own coffee.

[00:13:18] So let's really see it for what it is. It's perfectly fine for somebody to make a latte or just put creamer in their coffee and move on with their day. They're just enjoying it for whatever they're doing, right? And I think that's the biggest thing. That's the biggest takeaway. And all of this is that we like what we like and it's perfectly fine. So we'd like to doctor it. Great. We don't. Great. But we're all different. We all like what we like.

[00:13:55] I can drink 10 or 15 of these though. They're actually quite tasting. They're approachable.

[00:14:04] And let's not just give a pass for people who drink milk-based espresso drinks. Let's just let people be people. They wanna not drink their coffee black. That's fine. If they do, that's great too.

[00:14:23] So that's what I got for you. Let me know what you think. Have you thought about that too, how espresso usually gets a pass for milk-based drinks compared to a regular cup of joe of a filter coffee? Let's talk about it. Talk to you later. Bye.