Espresso Doppio

Have you ever wondered into a café for a desperate need for a quick cup of coffee, only to find that you are surrounded by groups of well-dressed hip coffee drinkers sipping on a cup of espresso doppio.  In these situations, you may feel a little uncultured and want to shrink to the corner of the room.  However, never fear.  You don’t have to quit your love of coffee, all that you need to do is expand your repertoire of delicious coffee drinks.

Espressos are arguably the greatest coffee innovation of the last century.  Deceptively small, the espresso punches a big kick and the espresso doppio only multiplies the great rush of an espresso by two (doppio is Italian for double).  This unique drink emanates from the style haven that is Italy, who is now responsible for creating some of the finest cars and coffee in the world.  Emanating with tons of flavor and attitude, the espresso is the foundation for other specialty coffee drinks such as lattes, cappuccinos, and mocha drinks.  What makes the espresso and the espresso doppio so special is the way that it is brewed.

For coffee lovers that don’t want to venture to the café for all of their espresso needs, all that you need is an espresso machine to make your espresso doppio.  An espresso doppio is made with an espresso machine that forces hot water through finely ground dark-roasted coffee beans to brew the intoxicating cup of espresso.  This is reflected in term espresso, which can be translated from Italian as either ‘pressed out’ or ‘express.’

To make an excellent cup of espresso doppio, all that you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Get your grind on by grinding up some roasted dark espresso beans that are oily-looking.  For the best flavor, use imported Italian Roast blends, as they tend to be the darkest of the espresso coffee beans.
2. While you want to grind these espresso beans until they are very fine, be careful not to go overboard.  The last thing that you want is to be left with espresso coffee bean powder, as every coffee lover knows, powder is for Instant Coffee and Instant Coffee is not for you.
3. After grinding the espresso coffee beans, place the grinds into the strainer of the espresso machine.  Pack the strainer full and hard for maximum taste.
4. Once you’ve turned the espresso machine on, stick around and watch the coffee drip down.  You want to make sure that a nice layer of foam forms on top of the drink, as the crema is the tastiest part of an espresso.
5. It’s done, so what are you waiting for.  Drink your espresso doppio!

The way to make an espresso doppio is exactly the same as the way you would make an espresso.  The only difference is that a regular espresso will only result in two ounces of espresso, while an espresso dopio will be between three to four ounces.  All that you need to do is use the two cup coffee basket in the espresso machine’s filter hold and serve the delicious espresso doppio in a five ounce cappuccino cup!