Why Modern Espresso Is So Ugly 

The more I learn about coffee, the less I know.

This guy looks exactly like someone who would be passionate about coffee

1. How incredibly specific is this video? 2. How exactly did I end up here?

I can't focus, he looks too much like a mix between Jeff Goldblum and Steve Buscemi!

Thanks for this perspective, James. At least now I can make an argument for why the espresso I make at home looks like crap - if only I could find a compelling argument for why it tastes like crap.

This is the most specific pretentious load of bollox that RU-vid has recommended me in MONTHS. Love it, left a like.

"Espresso is ugly now" *me sipping instant nescafe*

Watched some stuff of yours before Now I'm certain you're crazy Subscribed.

I'd heard how wild coffee aficionados can be, but I never thought it was *this* wild.

I don't drink coffee. I don't like coffee. I drink tea. Why is this on my recommended page? Why did I click on it? Why did I watch the entire thing?

I have been into espresso for over 20 years, active on coffee forums and it is exactly like you say. It started out with everyone using the "Italian" rules....you know, 7 to 8 grams, 25 to 30 seconds for 25 to 30 ml. This changed in the US first, they started using massive baskets and massive amounts of coffee and everyone followed. The coffee was impressive looking, lots of crema and lots of slomo video's. I folowed the "new rules". Slowly I moved back to lower amounts of coffee because I started using a lever machine and didn't like the huge doses. I haven't looked on forums for years and so much has changed....gone are the huge doses and thick crema's. Gone is tapping the basket with the tamper. Gone is the polishing twist. Gone are the convex tampers. Gone is stirring the grind. I'm sure it will all change again. What a great hobby this is!

From watching you and Morgan I have moved from a regular drip coffee machine to spending all my money in coffee products. I regret nothing.

I don't even have an espresso machine, why am I here?

Thank you! This explains a lot. I did my barista training 10 years ago and was taught to look for beautiful, thick drops of espresso. I was confused as to why this part of the process had changed so much. Agree that the range and expression in flavours is far more diverse but sometimes doesn’t hit the mark with the intensity.

Welcome back to "Why is this in my recommended?" I don't even know why I watched this, but for some reason this video made me happy. I don't know why this is, but I don't care. I'm warm with happiness now.

Psh! I know, right! Espresso these days sheesh. * goes back to sipping the instant 3in1 sachet i dissolve in room temperature water *

Having roasted coffee and brewed espresso for the last 15 yrs, I had a training session with my bar staff yesterday and many of these same details sprang to mind. Our throw doses have diminished over the years and our liquid volumes increased, to my tastes, producing a much tastier drink. While teaching a crew of very young baristas yesterday though, I felt like I was leaving a lot about espresso unexplored with them. I have watched espresso recipes change dramatically over these years and there are aspects of its various iterations that I miss enjoying - the lush viscosity, the wide variety of coloration, mostly. Limited by time, I don’t have the opportunity these days to teach my staff through the last decade plus of espresso transformation and somehow, it feels as if I am shortchanging them in some way for it. I truly enjoyed the mouthfeel of the heavy-dose ristettos of the past, but I do not miss the finicky nature of trying to make them actually taste great. I can teach them to pull great shots of our current roast profile and recipe with so much more ease than 10+ years ago. Good talk, Jim.

I honestly think high viscosity tastes better. I've been fortunate to come across it on occasions, but it's rare (nowadays I guess)! In some italian restaurants I've found the espresso to be almost sirupy. I love that.

I miss pouring espresso into shot glasses and watching the crema settle like a pint of Guinness.

I learned to make espresso at a tiny coffee shop in Ladue, near St Louis. It was called Laduzzi. That was 1997 I believe. The owner had a secret source of coffee beans that she would never disclose. I remember they were super oily. The coffee we made was unbelievably great. To this day I think it's the best coffee I've ever had. Maybe it's because it was my first espresso drinks. I just came back from Italy last week and I'm not so sure that it was better there. So, I do miss the old coffee from the '90s! Lol.

I love this scientific approach to coffee. It is nice to know how espresso was made, how it changed and why. More videos like this please. As always great material James 😁

This is a good video - however, just a quick, pedantic correction: water is electrically charged (not magnetically-at this level they are different interactions) via it's covalent bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms which results from a disparate sharing of the electrons in the outer energy levels.

I don’t know why this was in my recommendations, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

When I first saw one of your videos I thought you'd be very pretentious, but now I just think you're very good at explaining things. Really glad you made this channel to help people make better coffee.

"the color of coffee itself come from what are called melanoidins" I had no idea that coffee got it's color from Jedi powers.

Hey James, I have been a coffee professional for a number of years now, and I am incredibly interested in your thoughts on a few things. For starters, I think epsresso now IS beautiful. I have worked in shops that still operate the 'old' way. Heavy baskets (22-25g), thick shots and plenty of tiger striping. In fact, this was my first ever cafe job. The beans we got were over-roasted, I theorize that the roaster used the "once it stops popping it must be done" method- way past second crack. I have also worked in cafes that are certainly more modern, where everything is a science. I felt so much more accomplished and proud of my shots at the more modern place, knowing how to bring out sugars and acidity in my spro, being able to adjust to each orgin and blend and finding the best representation of the beans I am using. One major difference though, is that we used exclusively open-bottom filters in the more modern cafe, while the first used the split design you feature in your video. Seeing espresso extracted from one of these open bottom filters is incredible, and beautiful. Far more so, I think, than the split design.

As someone who never worked in the coffee industry I always get fascinated by the depth of an art of making coffee. Makes me appreciate every cup of coffee that I get in my favorite coffee shops so much more.

I'll be in my corner with my teas. ᴴᵉˡˡᵒ

I learnt what an espresso (modern or old-school or whatever) is from this video Never knew someone could feel this strongly about how a beverage looks like as it is poured

Three years too late to the party but it would be great if you could do a 'How to' on these old school espressos. Useful for posterity!

What kind of posh upper/middle class incredibly specific issue did I stumble upon? WHERE AM I???

I worked for David Schomer as a barista and roaster for a couple of years, and he's still pulling the same style of shots, but without the robusta now haha. Instead of changing with the times to the new modern style of espresso (which he refers to as lemon juice), he has slowly refined his own recipe. I'm glad he hasn't changed, as Vivace is now the outlier and I appreciate the variety. While pulling those shots is finicky and takes a lot of practice to get them consistent, when done right they are rich, sweet, and complex.

i like how you zoom in on important parts. thats when i scream at the family to shut up.

I'm impressed that coffee is the #2 traded commodity and the top addictive substance on earth and we're still figuring out how to optimize it's brewing. A friend of mine can talk the science of coffee for hours. It's fun. Great video!

100% agree with you, James. Also re-educating is something that is worth talking about. Bare with me now. I'm Italian (from the deep south) and as you may know, I grew up drinking that beautiful thick, rich, possibly-not-so-flavorful espresso. Then, once I started digging deeper into the world of coffee and started experimenting with what you're calling "modern espresso" I was blown away by the flavors in the cup. I now live abroad and every time I go back to my hometown I bring some lovely coffee to my parents/friends. Last time, for instance, I brought a really tasty Ethiopia. Of course, when I pulled the shots, they didn't look as pretty as they do with Italian roasted beans, and the people there were put off just for that alone. For so many years the standard of espresso has been all about the way it looked more than the way it tasted and it's going to take some time before the average person will accept it.

I thought I loved coffee but this chap is on another level!

“Looks very pretty.” Shows a picture that looks like my reheated coffee that I microwaved for the 3rd time.

Great explanation of the physical phenomenons, with water being a polar molecule and wanting to latch on to things… except - it’s not magnetism. what you’re describing fall under electrostatic interactions.

I love the way this guy talks - well-enunciated, eloquent, great accent.

Thanks James! I've been extracting professionally now for about 4 years, and I am often insecure about the look of my pours and the crema in the cup. But it most often tastes damn fine! Nice to know why! Cheers!

Oh, this was such a good video! Great opinions, lots of information, perfect length. I have been thinking about this topic too, actually. Too much, probably. I use mainly a medium roast 100% arabica and I can mourn the look of them, with a pale golden thin crema. But in the end, the flavour is more important and wins out.

Thank you for the very informative video, James! I've never been big on coffee or espresso, but your passion and knowledge is infectious. Great job with the editing and highly educational script: as someone with little background knowledge, your opinions were compelling and the information presented for each point was easily digestible.

You put into words what I've been feeling/searching for. I love the dark, rich, velvety look of espresso, but no matter what shop I visit, I don't see it. You and probably most other people (and maybe even me too) would argue that the lighter, thinner espresso tastes better. But I like the look of what you're calling an over-dosed, under-extracted shot so much that if I found an espresso shop that served it that way, I'd be a regular. The look of the shot is so important to me that I'm happy to settle for a slightly lower quality shot for something that looks beautiful. But since nobody I know of is pulling shots that way, I must be the minority.

I don't drink coffee and don't want to, I just enjoy watching someone talk about something they know a lot about.

Learnt a fair few things in this, thanks James top stuff mate

Now we need you, Binging With Babish and Cocktail Chemistry to collab for the ultimate cross-over episode

Mmmm I like espresso the way it is currently, I'm a flavor guy

Great video! The improvements in measurement, roasting, and extraction may produce a sweeter and more balanced shot. But that shift in focus has lost sight of not only the beauty of espresso, but also the tactile sensation of sipping a fluffy, velvet ristretto. The coffee industry has lost sight of that experience since the 2007-2009 golden age of espresso. Modern commercial espresso shots are fashionable and tasty, but leave me unsatisfied.

Every time a picture pops up, i feel like im in school and the professor is showing something on a powerpoint. p.s. i really hope i can try make more old fashioned coffee just to try it ^w^

I have to say that I’m a bit torn here. The way Espresso is made in Italy made me want to start brewing my own shots in the first place and I’ve always sought to replicate the beauty of a honey-like textured, dark drip rather than a “modern” one, simply because I prefer the soothing taste and mouthfeel of a darker roast over the complexity of a modern, light roast. In fact, I have even come to be appalled by the ubiquitous and, to my mind, unnecessary fruitiness of modern roasts that have abandoned and neglected my beloved Robusta in favour of making their sour extractions “100%-Arabica”, a term that has evolved to mistakenly stand for quality. Nowadays, it’s almost become an Odyssey for me to find a roaster who actually still works with Robusta beans, which is a shame, at least in my opinion.

"Modern espresso is so ugly" *sip my cup of Earl Grey tea* but that's none of my business

espresso is all about TASTE, not looks. looks are for instagram.

Loved this video! I started making coffee in 2006 when everything was visual. I don't think I ever stopped to ask why coffee doesn't look as good, or why I was so obsessed with making "good looking" espresso until now. I have a lot to think about, hahah

I'm no professional barista, but I've been pouring a double everyday for like 12 years. I don't deviate from my 14gr/25sec pour. Maybe I'm wrong, but I equate a good espresso to a good exposed photograph. In photography you play with shutter speed, aperture, ISO. In coffee I keep two constants (amount and time) and play only with grind. I've thought about changing amount or time, but I'm too lazy. I'm getting good coffee the way I do now.

This was a fantastic look into something I really hadn't thought about...when I had my first espresso at 15 and what I had the last time at the exact same coffee shop were night and day from one another 15 years apart. Thanks for making me look in the cup a little differently.

When I see people using fully-automatic machines where the flow is so high from the capsule pods like water and they call it espresso.....literally hurts my portafilter-locking heart X( !!

Great video. Lots of nostalgia with the tiger stripes old maple-syrupy pours. Thanks!

More is not better, in my opinion. I still stick to the traditional 7 grams of coffee. Or 14 for a double. Love your videos!

I am selling coffee for a big company in LA for years now - they are trying to push the “new wave” style while I offer my customers the old school option we have and I can see how every time the majority gravitate towards the old school style dark(Italian)roast or medium to dark, the brighter notes are harder for the old generation to adjust too and personally I feel that with the espresso machine extraction a darker roast yields more delicious notes that are understandable for most palettes.

I really appreciate the depth of knowledge and clarity of presentation in this video. I'm personally torn between the two styles because my best-looking shots are never as delicious and yet when I make a really tasty shot without that super thick look, I feel like I've just missed the mark slightly. I roast all of my own coffee and it's amazing how much the look and flavor can change from batch to batch with only slight variances in roasting time. Part of the fun is chasing the perfect shot which tastes and looks great, even if only for the sake of experimentation itself. Thanks for the great video. Cheers!

Thank you for this. I have a coffee-trauma from my youth. At my first position after uni (very early 90s), I was tasked with making and serving coffee for the board of the huge international company I worked for (yes, young women made coffee and young men had real jobs...). My then boss decided to to put me on the spot in front of his all male chronies. He said looking at the cups of coffee I was carrying (no trolley), some of which had bubbles on top (no crema...) : Which of these is the best cup of coffee? Give it to the CEO. I gave the cup closest to me to the CEO. My then boss said aloud to the management team: She doesn’t know coffee. She gave me the one with the most foam. They all laughed at me, stupid little girl (early 20s). So I stepped toward the CEO and said loudly that I gave him the hottest cup of coffee. That what they had in their cups is automatic drip-filter coffee and the foam on top of any of the cups was likely leftover dishwashing liquid from poorly washed cups. Then-boss looked down at his foamy cup of brew and went red, then purple. One week later, I had a new job. With the CEO (hottest cup) as an executive assistant. My new assistant also got a dishwasher and espresso machine. I could have gone in a completely different direction... Side note: I worked in that company for more than a decade, until the year we were downsizing his division. He was called into my office and I was about to tell him how it was going to be done. I offered him coffee and my male assistant brought him a beautiful cup of hot espresso with a light, creamy head of foam. I caught the look in his eye but I didn’t react. Gave him the difficult news he came for and got on with it. When he left my office an hour later, I closed the doors and did a three minute victory dance. Sometimes bitter is also sweet. Thanks for all your great videos!

This explains why I experience espresso very differently from when I first started drinking it. I miss the dense, syrupy consistency from pre “modern” days. Most espresso these days is thinner or more liquidy. I won’t argue with your assertion that it tastes better. I wonder if the reduced visual attractiveness of espresso shots has in some small part helped feed the craze for latte art.

Really good way of explaining everything. I recently started learning about the basics of coffee. Got a course on SCA done. I have a question. All the research I have done on the internet has showed the perfect ratio of coffee for espresso is 13 grams for a single shot. My trainer taught me that its 20 grams and 40 grams extraction. There is not single or double espresso anymore. How right is it?

Conclusion: Darker, stronger espressos taste worse, but look better You’re welcome

I've been working on a specialty coffee farm and training some basic baristas skills and even though I know the appareace doest relate to taste, taking a gorgeous espresso, full of beautiful tiger stripes just feels good

I want an espresso machine after watching your vids the last week or two. Subscribed. D.

To me that was really interesting and also satisfying to listen to. :) The way to discover such neat little detail in how things work, is just precious by itself. Thank you!

I am really a huge espresso lover but ....(you wanted to hear comments :-) ) Compared to the fact that it's just an espresso some people make a fool of themselves. Do they brew espresso because they like and are able to control everything like weight, pressure, temp. flowrate, grinding degree with some "techincal gimmicks". Sometimes I am afraid that espresso brewing is a magnet for control freaks , measurement engineers or fusspots. I judge my coffee not by measured data .

Hey James, I don't know if you will see this, but, I wanted to share my experience in regards to old school vs. modern espresso. The Los Angeles market has seen a huge boom in terms of expansion and accessibility to quality coffee, there is a coffee shop nearly everywhere. The vast majority tend to push very fruit forward and citrus espresso, which I also enjoy, but, the roaster I work for sticks to the old school espresso. Our barista training involved learning to manual dose by filling the basket and then softly removing the extra grounds with your fingers, exactly as in the cutaway videos you used here. We are then taught to look for tiger stripes when the shot is pulling, and, stop the shot right before it blondes, a very strict 1:1 ratio, 20g in and 20g out. The thing is though, the coffee blends so well with the milk, it stands out nicely and cuts through alternative milks too. I have learned to appreciate this espresso and now enjoy it, just as much, if not more than modern espresso.

Watching this video was a two-stage process. Like many, my first reaction was simply "Why?". But then something in me relented and I found myself surrendering to this rather odd monologue on coffee foam. One day, when I am as old and bitter as yesterday's Arabica shot, I may ask myself what I would give for these 10-ish minutes that, as a young man, I have just squandered. But today, my friends, the sun is up, the sky is blue and burning this time in such a spectacularly pointless way feels entirely delicious.

I do not know why I'm here but you sir are very interesting and you clearly know your shit.

I really appreciate that this video was conceived from a nostalgic memory. These moments throughout my day tend to be my favorite. There are interesting discussions and I applaud James for bringing them forward.

I dont even drink coffee, but this showed up in my recommendations and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Imagine being so passionate about coffee that you would rather it taste like shit than look visually unappealing...

Dang man, you really like coffee.

I totally dig physics (even though I'm an artist), so I really appreciate your chemistry-based molecular approach to describing why things happen during the process. Thank you!

I know nothing about making espresso first hand, I just enjoy drinking it immensely. And my homemade Italian espresso (with a moka pot) is a far cry from an espresso but listening to rants like this about coffee in general have greatly improved the taste of my finished product at home. Keep it coming! 🙌🏼

While I enjoy your videos, I am taking aback by the irritating music/noise in the background. Perhaps I’m just too old to appreciate the modern ADD lifestyle sounds that permeate so many videos today.

I love James always acts like he is walking in a mine field every time he puts a contraversial tag to a video. I think he knows much about the coffee community as he knows about the coffee itself and trying to focus people to talk about the main topic and not some side argument he slipped randomly. Coffee community or coffee snobs are some of the most nit-picking, whiney people i have ever met and James my friend you are just a breath of fresh air among them. Keep up the work for not indulging them to some meaningless arguments that most of them would LOVE to engage

I’m a fussy millennial, with first world problems, and too much time on my hands. Have I landed on the right video? I’m really enjoying all of Mr Hoffman”s videos that are being recommended to me though.

I think I like your rants most of all. Also, those glasses are extremely stylish

Nowadays I notice more people with home espresso machines using the bottomless extraction basket rather than the standard dual spout ones. I'll admit the single shot ones do look prettier the way they pool to the center with a creamy silky look

OMG, I see a Timemore Chestnut grinder in the background!

I would assume that part of the reason the foam doesn't taste very good is because oxidization is more likely to occur in the more aerated part of the brew and oxidization is what makes espresso expire in the first place.

As Italian I understand the aesthetic vision of the old days espresso. I think it still exists in Italy maybe thanks to a sort of legacy to continue with small parts of robusta in the coffee blends that gives that kind of appeal to the shot. I personally prefer that old school coffee actually, thus the lighter roasts are interesting in terms of fruitness, etc.

I know precisely noone will read this, as this is a 2.5 year old video, but then again - would no one really be interested in what it would take for it to be possible to draw the yea old good looking shots featuring the new gooder taste?

"There's better there's worse, this is not the time" ahaha Your manner, fantastic as always

It's coffee Jim, but not as we know it.

The hair! The glasses! The accent! Realizing that he knows more about coffee than Juan Valdez comes almost as a shock. In one of his videos he pointed out that you don't buy an espresso machine for home use (he doesn't have one) so you can drink a cappuccino every day, you buy one so you can have a hobby, and a fairly time-consuming one at that. So I bought an espresso machine. I've never liked espresso and wonder if I ever will. But it is a great hobby, a puzzle really, with no solution.

James rounding off this video with a demonstration would have been great. Please go back 3 years and edit. Thx

I definitely love your glasses, so much better than 12 years ago! 🔍🔎

I do not think Expresso is so ugly, it is not even ugly, I think James Hoffffffffman is full of it.

Great video. If you want a good hybrid of the old school and new school, get a shot of Hairbender.

After watching some videos on this channel I'm beginning to suspect this man likes coffee.

Excellent video, I appreciate your incredible specificity going so far as to the molecular structure of coffee and water. I look forward to more wonderful explanations of the coffee world.

Whilst coffee is a matter of personal taste, I now understand why espresso tastes awful in the UK, at least to me. Over the last 15 years a small group of baristas has taken over what good coffee should taste like - excessively acidic pale roasts that are only suitable for adding milk and sugar to hide the thin sour taste. The way trendy barista cafes brew espresso has nothing to do with a proper Italian espresso. James, you may not like the ‘solids’ and thicker texture of a 22 gm short pull, but it is exactly what I want. Too much science and not enough art and the use of taste buds. Try using a proper dark sweet fire roast like the ones you can buy in San Francisco or Milan - hard to find in the UK. The nearest substitute that I can find is Monsooned Malabar (dare I admit it Whithards is reasonable but excessively expensive or for a less aromatic brew San Francisco blend on Amazon). I just wish I could get a decent espresso at one of London’s designer coffee bars instead of a mouth full of acid.

As a novice coffee enthusiast and aspiring scientist, I found this vastly interesting!

I wouldn't focus on the beauty of the pour, as much as the beauty of the finished result. I believe a "modern" shot will look just as beautiful as an older shot in the cup. And there is definitely a correlation of the appearance of a coffee to its actual taste. I can usually know what to expect before tasting. And yes sometimes ill go ahead and throw a pack of sugar in it.

I'll take a better tasting cup over how my coffee may appear.

Had no idea espresso had 'changed' or that there was a modern version. Was there a specific discovery, person, or period of time that spawned the 'modern' espresso?