Can you put espresso in a coffee maker? The answer would be a NO, you can’t put espresso beans or even ground espresso in a coffee maker. If you’re a coffee drinker like me, who’s looking for alternative ways to brew your espresso beans using your coffee maker, then this article is for you.
In the next sections, I will explain why you can’t put espresso in a coffee maker and share with you the ‘grind’ solution to put your espresso beans in a regular coffee maker.
Why You Can’t Put Espresso In A Coffee Maker?
Here’s a simple truth; you cannot use coffee beans that are grounds to make espresso in a regular coffee maker. Espresso grounds are exclusively finer grind than you can apply for a drip coffee brewer. The screen or paper filter in your coffee maker will be likely to clog and will result in overflow coffee.
Espresso beans are specially blended and roasted to suit espresso coffee, but you can use them to make coffee. The espresso beans are the coffee roaster’s recommendation that these ‘beans’ would make good espresso. Should you know that using espresso beans to make coffee changes the flavor of the coffee? It’s best to grind your whole beans labeled as ‘espresso beans,’ to achieve medium-coarse grounds.
It’s worth mentioning that ‘espresso beans’ are the same as coffee beans. It’s best if you ground them according to the required grind size of your regular coffee maker.
What Are The Grind Sizes
The flavor and aroma of espresso change because of the different coffee grind sizes and depending on your preferred taste. The duration of contact time between the ground coffee and hot water are the reason why the flavor of the coffee alters.
For you to thoroughly understand the grind levels, I will explain the different types of grinds.
The chunkiest grind sizes are the extra-coarse grounds. The coffee beans are quickly crushed in the grinder to produce chunky ground coffee. They are commonly used for a cold brew and cold press coffee.
Creating a coffee drink requires the extra-coarse grounds soaks under the water for an extended amount of time. For comparison, espresso is brewed for about 30 seconds, while cold brews need steeping for 12 hours or more.
Coarse grinds are suitable for extracting coffee flavor using a French press. The extraction happens when the coarse grinds interact with the boiling water. Coarse ground coffee has a consistency of sea salt and a bit of oil sheen on the surface. The coarse grounds are also used for percolators to brew coffee.
The medium grind is considered to be the standard ground that is usually found in the grocery stores. Medium grind coffee has a ground consistency like the sand, and they are best used to make drip coffee. They have a bit of a lingering flavor and aroma.
The finely ground coffee has little oil sheen on its surface. You will notice the grinds has a firm grip when you pinch them between your fingers. Finely ground coffee is best used for making espresso.
Extra-fine grounds appearance is like a smooth powder. You can use a burr grinder to produce extra-fine grounds by setting the grinds to the finest. Turkish coffee and Ristretto use extra-fine ground coffee.
Why It’s Essential To Choose The Right Grind
There are many reasons why it’s critical to select the right grind. They affect the flow rate of coffee, contact, and extraction time of coffee.
The consistency of grinds and the duration of the grounds in the water changes the taste and aroma of the coffee.
The less time the finely-grounds interact with water suggests the perfect contact time. The less time for the finely-grounds needed to be in the water means an ideal coffee extraction (extraction time) can be achieved. The grind size determines how fast, or slow, the water can physically move through the grounds (flow rate).
- Finely-ground coffee demands less contact time with water, therefore, resulting in a higher extraction rate (like espresso).
- Coarse ground coffee requires less exposure, which means more contact time with water, therefore, a slower extraction rate (like French press).
- It’s important to note that the finer-grounds are slower to pass through water, while the coarser coffee grounds can move faster through the water.
You need to manually grind your espresso beans to use for a coffee maker like as I’ve mentioned the reasons in the above statements.
What Are The Types Of Grinders?
Blade grinders
They are the most affordable type of coffee grinder. They are used to cut and slice the coffee beans into smaller pieces.
You can control the duration of your grind to achieve the correct fineness of your ground coffee. However, the grinder will produce uneven ground sizes, thus, creating a slightly inconsistent coffee taste. As a result, blade grinders provide inaccurate ground sizes than burr grinders.
Additionally, blade grinders generate heat because of the rapid spin motion that can also result in much bitter coffee and burnt aftertaste. Compared to burr grinders, these machines are too noisy when grinding coffee beans.
Manual grinder
They work as turning the crank to grind coffee beans. The duration of the grinds determines the size of the ground coffee. You can use manual grinders even when you are traveling or outdoor because they don’t need electricity to grind coffee beans. Additionally, most manual grinders are inexpensive to buy.
Burr grinders
They offer different grind settings that allow the user to choose grind sizes from the finest to coarsest coffee grounds. Burr grinder operates at a slower speed, which crushes and smashes the coffee beans consistently. Additionally, burr grinders don’t generate heat and static buildups, which minimizes ground coffee wastes.
Burr grinders create lower noise when grinding. It also does not clog the machine, which makes the grinding process mess-free. Though burr grinders are a bit expensive, they are quite reliable and sturdy. The burr grinders have two main types, the flat burrs, and conical burrs.
So, can you put espresso in a coffee maker?
The quick answer is no, you can’t put espresso in a coffee maker because ground espresso has a finely ground texture. However, you can grind your espresso coffee beans to medium-coarse grounds before putting them in your coffee maker. A little tweak into grinding your coffee beans is needed to suit your coffee maker’s grind size preference. Though the taste may be a bit different, you can still make a flavorful coffee out of espresso beans. Here’s how to learn more about espressos.
Conclusion
Some people might have gotten in a bad coffee situation since they did not know and understood that you could not simply put espresso in a coffee maker. Now that I’ve provided you the reasons why espresso and coffee maker don’t go together, hopefully, you will have no trouble making coffee anymore. Always bear in mind that the key is finding the right ‘grind size’ for your coffee.