CREMA 101: Does Crema Matter? 

Dude. I just got like… a FANCY cafe job here in NYC after doing “catering coffee” for a few years. Your videos are so well made and incredibly helpful. Thank for your these.

Man, im from mexico, i work as a barista and there is not many information about cofee here unless you pay a lot of money, your videos have been very helpfull for me

I love how your new lab looks like the exact opposite of James Hoffmann’s brew lab.

That "Can I order a double espresso?" was far too friendly and upbeat for the average coffee drinker getting their fix before work, but the espresso rejection and indignation were spot on. I remember my barista job back in the early 90's in the San Francisco financial district. There was a line out the door at 7:00am and few of those well-heeled clients were chatty or happy. Lol. Great video, by the way.

Wow the production quality of your videos has really shot through the roof, content is as always still amazing 👌

That was extremely well explained, demonstrated, and presented. You backed up your thesis with history, logic, and reason. And, it was entertaining. Well done. i hadn't even heard of your channel before watching this video, and you just earned yourself another subscriber.

The Zoolander reference absolutely SENT me lol! Another great video lance!

I’d love to see more about the history of espresso style brewing in the early 1800’s you referenced. I had never heard that before

Dang Lance, just as this video inspires 'experimentation' and 'playfulness' with espresso coffee, your channel and video style has too! Love the new studio and style. Keep having fun man! We will too!

"Try Everything essentially is what I"m getting at"... yes, love it!! I appreciate you, and the work you do. Thanks for another great, and informative video.

Great to see you demystifying aspects of what makes great espresso! I've had amazing lighter roast shots with little to no crema, and poor tasting darker roast shots with heaps of crema, there's so much we don't really understand about what difference crema makes to a shot. Also when you talked about 9-bars being the modern definition of espresso pressure - I've been using a modded Gaggia Classic Pro for a couple months now at 6.5 bars and the shots I'm getting out of that are awesome... half tempted to go down to 5 bars to see what that's like. Thanks Lance!

And once again you have me chuckling less than a minute in - love it!

i love your voice in this crazy coffee world. thanks for helping us noobs expand our passions. haters mean youre doingg something right, they cannot be expelled.

Dude, this new video is awesome! So much great information. Production and audio quality are also massively improved. Keep up the great content!

I’ve tried several coffee beans on my moka pot and the beans which have given the most crema is the Starbucks French Roast, dark. The beans are very darkly roasted, so you’re right as far as that goes. The problem with moka pots is that the crema stays in the pot and barely any goes out into your cup.

The jump cut when you drank the 'Concept Coffee' is worthy of a thousand likes!

I love learning and laughing at the same time 😂 great content Lance! I have started watching/listening to your videos while I work or do anything around the house 😂

whoooooa a "does it matter" series covering crema and other coffee "myths" would be incredible.

Lance - best coffee content out there. I'm really loving the new product quality too with a couple of genuine laugh out loud cuts. Keep up the good work, mate.

Great video Lance and loved the humor throughout! Keep bringing us great coffee content!

this skyrocket quality image, info, edition and speech. great content!

That intro could be the title sequence for a CW show. Top notch as always 👌🏼

Super video and production values. Loved how you worked the eyebrows into this one 🙂. The Hoff recently suggest trying some shots with the crema removed - a very different experience. I am sure there will lots to learn about crema in years to come. Thanks for the video.

i love seeing the videography slowly getting better and better

my favorite part 5:49; but in all seriousness, really appreciate the production that went into this vid!

Thank you for making these videos Lance. Incredible work. Keep em coming!

10/10 intro omg

Hi Lance, great Vid. I like my Crema from an other standpoint. When tasting very present Acids I like to take a sip of the Crema for a firstv try. It works mostly well for the blueberry notes. But it has to be a lightly roasted Coffee to give best rersults. So there is not a lot of Crtema to start with. As I prefere to stir my Espreso there is always a little on the spoon to tsate. I say have fun with your Coffee and enjoy it how you like it.

That montage. *chef*kiss*

"Crema for ants" is exactly how much crema I like to see in my double shot!

The cut at 5:50 😂 Thank you for that. I might bee too tired, but I'm laughing so hard going through your content. 😂🎉

Thanks for talking about this. Very informative! Totally enjoyed the initial part of the video - the editing and the science experiment. Was a bit too dry at the last part but definitely made strong points there. Love it!

Wow. Fantastic video. I love how non dogmatic you are. As a side note… I remember some tube where James Hoffman actually scraped off the creama as an unpleasant flavor. I love all of your videos and would welcome anything that you discover and find interesting

Great video! We come for the content, but the thumbnail, the opening, and the intermittent silliness were really funny.

I always love open minded discussions about scientific topics. To me, crema looks beautiful to the eye. But it does indeed taste bitter to me personally. The foam texture is fun but the actual taste of the crema I have never preferred. I’ll also add that I agree with others that, espresso right off the pull is not usually as tasty as when it sits for a while. By time it has cooled to taste in my opinion “the best” (sweetest, fruitiest, most distinguishable notes), the crema is long gone. Which isn’t inherently saying crema itself is bad. It’s just that, you can’t preserve crema all the way to the cooled “optimal” sipping time. Which maybe is a sad fact. Just my observations! :-) thanks Lance for a sick vid as always

I typically enjoy a dense silky crema on my espresso, but I’ve never even remotely associated it with quality. To me it’s just another aspect of espresso that can vary from style to style.

I flinched when you spilled the espresso

When I watched this video a first time, the dissatisfied customer opening scene sparked something in my brain but I couldn't put my finger on it. Revisiting it a week or so later, your 'crema for ants' delivery finally had me making the connection. :D That was some decent acting there! :)

Reminds me of an old video of Daddy Hoff who (in a guilty sounding voice) said to try skimming off the crema for a less bitter espresso/americano. Won’t lie, I do this here and there and I enjoy both ways. Totally agree, it’s anecdotal and not true sign of a good shot

Super great video! I love the new production quality; moving on up in the world my bro🤙💯

Thanks for this video, Lance. I love the experience of crema - it starts my day off right. Do you see differences in crema depending on the espresso machine used - lever machine vs. semi-automatic vs. flow control, etc.? I would like to see a more in-depth video on crema. Thanks for all your work!

The barista is just facing the wall mindlessly when the customer comes up to order 😂😂😂

The associations we typically make about crema and quality probably has a lot to do with the marketing and promotion during that time when espresso really started to take off. Crema was a distinct feature of pressurized espresso brewing, and so it was natural for people to assume that the more of it you have, the more you're taking advantage of what makes espresso special and different from other brewing styles. After all, espresso required these big complex machines that weren't like anything else used to brew coffee. They had to latch on to something readily apparent in the coffee that comes out of those machines, to sell cafes on this new expensive coffee machine. So like James's wonderful video about espresso promotional posters said, it was a stroke of marketing genius to call this foam we were getting on espresso as 'crema', like was the special cream that rises to the top. It was such a powerful image that we're only now starting to be critical about it.

That intro! You got me with the quick cut of “oh hey!” and “ants!” 😂

Never expected to get a deep dive about crema from Kenny Powers but here we are!

I do home roasting for my daily morning pour-over. It's known that coffee releases CO2 over a week or two after roasting. The abundance of CO2 in recently-roasted coffee is very apparent during pour-over preparation as foam forms on contact with hot water. Is there a difference in crema formation in espresso using freshly-roasted versus older beans? I wonder.

GET VIDEO! Keeping the great working up. Great history lesson also and like the history lesson in the videos.

I enjoyed your old videos, I Loved this 🥰. This video is awesome

Darkly roasted, gives the most crema... are you sure. My experience has always been that fresher roasted coffee had the best crema. However a weak crema will often indicate a dirty machine or one with too much cleaning chems still in it. In other words contaminants can reduce crema. They make the bubbles burst faster.

Great video! I like your nerdy coffee stuff. It’s surprisingly enjoyable.

Thanks for the video Lance always good! I’ve been brewing some great tasting stuff lately :-) always trying new things!

When you teased this video I got so hype, I'm still v hype

At lower bars, there is a low cost widely distributed steamer and basket styled espresso machine for around $50 by MUSA company. I got one at a Target or Bed Bath and Beyond. I used it a handful of times and thought I would want it for the milk steam wand. I wound up liking the coffee better than its milk steaming capabilities. Of course it is a shoddy "portafilter," but results on par with a mokapot. Think that Lance Hedrick could push it to its outer limits of results though for some of the modern shots discussed lately.

Yes. Certainly. it's one of the things I like about espresso when it's poured. (Also, similar to the head in a beer when it's poured - part of the aesthetic)

I roast my own coffee. I gave it to my Italian friends to hear their opinion. As the first shot of espresso was prepared, the first thing they did was to put sugar on top of the Crema and watch it go down. I asked since I don’t use sugar on my shots and they told me it was a test to see if the shot was good enough. Again, their method and traditions. It was fun for sure…😎☕️ Btw, not sure if was the edit or you but it seems you did most of the video in one breath…😃

Awesome video , for me I need the crema. When I pull a shot and there is no crema it definitely tastes different. Maybe even a bit more bitter. 🤷‍♂️

I pulled a super long shot with over fine coffee and got pure clear yellow oil floating on the surface of the tiny dark liquid that came through

Whilst it's pretty universally accepted some aromatic compounds are extremely volatile in roasted beans (that smell wafting of a freshly opened bag...), it doesn't seem clear that some of these might be in the entrapped gases of the crema and get released in the mouth/nasal cavity when drinking FRESHLY extracted coffee. Not sure any lab study will provide a huge amount of clarity on the topic.

thumbs up for the magic of editing for your sip 👌

Your example of emulsifying oil and water using the nanofoamer got me thinking - could it be used to emulsify other things? E.g. might be good for quickly emulsifying salad dressing.

Great stuff Lance. As usual.

Awesome content, would be great to have a part 2 if any new information pops up

Great vid and so true. But for me i love the texture of crema and i feel like it opens my pallet for the next sip

Great video. Is there an inherent difference in the amount/presence of crema from decaf vs regular beans? I’m using decaf for afternoon drinks and, even though the shots taste good (with fresh, dark roasted beans) there is almost no crema in them.

Does the grind affects the quantity of crema?? Why a grinder cannot produce consistent grind, price aside.

In the beer world, foam has another role - it helps to protect the smell and taste from oxygen in the air. If the foam lasts longer, it means that we will have a longer experience with these factors, undisturbed by oxidation. So, there different types of foam, depends on beer style, yet - at least in a "craft world" we are expecting that it will and it will quite stable for some time. It was proven that some styles of beer benefits on this effect more than others but in last year it became kind of "general rule" to have a "good foam". Also the way foam stays on glass (the lacing effect) gives us some information about beer ingredients (like proteins and so on). It could be really good fun to test and examine how foam (or it's lack) could affect a taste of coffee. @Lance - do you think it is measurable, anyhow?

Next time I'm at a bar I'll ask for a "double espresso with a generous portion of a coarse dispersion of gas in a liquid continuous phase, please!"

great info and delivery. top job

I’m only 43 seconds in and this is incredible

aaaah I loved the original thumbnail ):

Serious question: do we even have any idea what pre-Gaggia espresso was like? Like, the typical dose and yield, cups used, etc. I've never seen anyone dive into this, let alone try to recreate what an Italian consumer might have had at the counter in 1932. It feels kinda silly to me calling out people for saying the INEI 9-bar shot is traditional espresso. I don't think it makes sense to try to one-up that label on authenticity grounds.

And so? How do we get more cream in our coffee? Thank you!!! Greetings from Argentina!!

Brilliant Lance. Thank you very much.

Will there be extended director's cut off this video? I don't consider it a Lance deep dive if it's less than 40 minutes 😞

Could you have used sparkling water? Yeah sure but it's not sparkling wine

laughed out loud several times, very funny

Thank you, I always learn so much from you. Have yourself a nice day. And I'll leave you with this statement which I say everyday. Make your life a masterpiece

Great video Lance! ☕

IKEA glass espresso cup? Am I on the same level as Lance with at least one part of my setup? 🤩

BTW should listen to Yo La Tengo’s “Emulsified “

You’re late to this topic. James Hoffman has already filled us in.

Lance’s inner Morgan came out in this video’s intro

Great content once again. There was an abstract in American Chemistry Society last year on the identification of compounds responsible for the mouth feel of espresso. I am wondering whether that’s linked to cream as well, e.g. higher concentration of mouth coating chemicals = more sustained crema

The intro was killer! 😂

That intro tho! 😂 Love the Zoolander reference!

please tell me you put a bucket under that shot. we all know espresso is a pain to mop off the floor. sometimes the tears help though

Give at this person THE OSCAR , and fast please....!!!😂 As for crema, i think it's overrated I like only a thin layer of crema and i swirl before drinking, just to brake the crema and feel the beverage first P.s. As for coffee competitions, that fact that they judge the espresso from the thickness of crema, makes me laugh P.s. The last sentence of the scene "The demanding customer" should be: "What you wanna do in your LIFE?????"

Intro made my day ! 😊

can I make good latte art with espresso with little to no crema?

thank you, excellent info

I like your intro, I can see Morgan's style rubbed off on you 🤣 I hope you don't actually have customers who pour out your espresso on the countertop...

Thank you for the Zoolander reference!

I like your big words, coffee man.

The Lance Hedrick Center for Adults Who Can't Espresso Good and Who Wanna Learn to Make Other Coffee Good Too

Thanks for brining interesting coffee content

The intro got me hahaha, "a crema for ants!"

I'm a heretic, crucify me if you must, but I always scoop off the crema and throw it away, the carbonic acid foam is just bitter and the espresso tastes better without it

9:15 - if you wanna get straight to the answer

New Editor❔ I like it❗❗❗

Comin in hot with the comedic coffee knowledge!