Is Crema Sacred?

We get a lot of questions about crema: What is it, how can I get more of it, where does it come from, etc. We're going to get Gail in front of the camera soon to talk about and experiment with crema, but first up let's reference James Hoffman's strongly posited belief that crema is, in fact, 'rubbish.'

What we love about this video is that he questions some of the basic ideas behind espresso, and when the pros who devote their lives to learning all there is to know about their passion start messing around with core 'truths', we all benefit from their innovations at some point. There's talk about how the crema is a chemical result of the espresso extraction process, and we've noticed that the crema from different coffee bean types is produced differently -- even roast types will have a different crema story, when pulled from the same machine. Ultimately, again, it's all about flavor and what you like in your coffee; we're going to do some experiments so expect more to come on this topic. You can check out what others are thinking about in this opinionated forum topic on Home Barista.