This is an update to an old post which you can find right over here!
A question that people new to espresso ask all the time is "can I use any bean?" The answer is a bit complicated! We'll dig into what separates espresso and drip beans, and give a little insight into superautomatic appropriate beans as well. Read on to learn!
What's the Difference?
Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: Coffee is coffee. When we see beans labeled for espresso, it's not because it's a different kind of bean. Ultimately, the thing that extracts the flavor from coffee beans is brew method. What is important to understand is the ways in which brew method cultivates the natural flavors of the coffee bean. This is where that espresso vs. drip beans distinction comes into play. The espresso brew method is pressurized. This means that more delicate flavors are often smashed together when brewing without high end equipment and beans. Thankfully, modern third-wave roasters use high quality beans, and its easier than ever to access great equipment. With that said, espresso generally leads to more intense flavors, hence the distinction between beans for that vs. drip.
So with that in mind, it's important that you're intensifying flavors that you
want to. There are plenty of great roasts that work best with less intensity. Very rich, fruity roasts, for example, often work better in a drip or pourover brew. On the flip side, sugary, chocolatey roasts make for delicious espresso to a wide range of coffee drinkers. So to answer the "what's the difference" question, the difference is all in the flavor profile.
So Why the Distinction?
So that brings us to why a roaster would make the distinction in the first place. The simple answer is user error! You can use any coffee for any brew method, but when a roast works well for a specific one, it just works. As a roaster, you'd likely hate it if your wonderful new espresso was described as bland by a drip drinker. By contrast, a coffee that needs the extra oomph of pressure from espresso brewing may be less palatable in drip. Roasters want you to have the best experience with their coffee, hence the guidelines. We try to help too, offering brewing suggestions for every coffee we sell in the product description.
But this doesn't mean you shouldn't experiment! Brewing coffee is an art, and you may just find something wonderful. Just know that it's much harder to preserve delicate floral notes in espresso. On the other hand, it's sometimes hard to get straight chocolate notes to shine in a pourover. By understand the process of brewing and what each method adds to the coffee, you can make informed choices about what to buy for different methods.
What about Superautos?
You know we love our superautos, so how do they factor in? The biggest thing you'll want to be careful of in superautos is level of oil on the surface of the beans. Oily beans clog up grinders, so try to avoid darker roasts! Superautos work great with any coffee designed for espresso, and many other blends as well! The thing superautos don't do well is preserving the little notes on the edge of a brew. They're great for convenience, but not as precise as a semi-auto process. Because of this, we recommend roasts with simpler, stand by flavors. With that said, it's hard to go wrong and get something totally terrible for the method.
We hope that this provides some insight on the great "drip vs espresso" question, and we how you enjoy some experimentation!
