What is a Ristretto coffee

A Ristretto is a short shot of Espresso coffee (also called ‘Corto’ from the Italian word that means ‘short’). Ristretto is made by forcing the water through Espresso selection beans faster and at higher pressures than Espresso coffee. Due to less dilution with water, the Ristretto yields higher concentrations of Caffeine than that of an Espresso and Americano. It also causes the ratio of coffee oils (flavour) to arise. The Ristretto flavour is more bold and less bitter to compare with Espresso. Ristretto is basically an Espresso coffee with less water.

How to make it

Coffee machines require very little manual work. Here are a few methods for how to achieve a Ristretto coffee with your Espresso machine at home:

• The easiest way to make Ristretto is to either ground the coffee beans finer or pack the coffee into the filter more than usual so that the gaps between the coffee grains are even smaller.
• The water will flow slower and fill the cup less during the same 30 seconds needed for preparing an Espresso. The cons of this modern method is that the beans may be grounded too much and get into the cup.
• Another way of making a Ristretto is to simply stop the process of the streaming water sooner.