In Italian style, how much coffee does one shot, single or double respectively refer to?

In a cafe, you may hear the way to order, "one iced American coffee, give me an extra shot" and "double condensed, please."

According to the situation, it is not difficult to guess that the "shot" or "portion" here refers to the unit that produces espresso. But if I ask you how much coffee they will have, it may not be clear.

What does "Shot" mean?

With regard to the origin of the word shot, a review of Qianjie found that there are many theories, and there are also many differences. Today, we know "Shot" mainly as a quantifier of wine culture, referring to a small glass of spirits. Traditionally, an shot equals 1 ounce, or about 30ml. The use of shot cups was popular in the mid-20th century, and stores offered small spirits that could be "stuffy" in order to make it faster, more affordable and convenient for guests to ingest alcohol.

Similar to the use of a pub, the word "a shot" in a cafe refers to a single espresso, that is, a small cup of espresso about 30ml.

Why does espresso use the quantifier shot?

In Italian, espresso means "fast", and baristas can make a cup of espresso with rich fat in only a minute. After paying for the coffee, guests can drink it by standing in front of the bar with two or three mouthfuls, and can consume caffeine efficiently. In the absence of advanced equipment such as electronic weighing, baristas had to visually use shunt handles to flow coffee liquid into two 1-ounce shot cups, relying on the capacity of the cups to determine whether the extraction was complete. In addition, the Italian concentrated taste at that time was thick and as strong as wine, so it did not seem to violate the use of "shot" to describe it at that time.

Of course, now it seems that there must be errors in this way, and it is difficult to maintain the stability of each product, so baristas generally take liquid weight as the standard for extracting espresso. Coffee grease is not equal in volume and weight, so the actual content of fat-rich shot is less than that of thinner fat. )

How many shot is there in espresso?

As a quantifier for Italian extraction, for a long time, extraction shot formed an Italian extraction formula according to the standard of baristas at that time: single shot used a single powder bowl to extract 7 grams of coffee powder from 30ml's espresso; as for Double shot, that is, the formula for double concentrated extraction: use a double powder bowl and 14 grams of coffee powder to extract 60ml espresso.

Later, with the upgrading of the pressurized coffee machine and the adoption of weight measurement units, it is possible to judge the amount of extraction from the volume of coffee liquid to the actual weight of concentrated coffee, and to accurately control coffee extraction. With the continuous improvement in the quality and baking technology of coffee beans, the proportion of shot extracted by baristas has also been reduced. When using a double-volume powder bowl, espresso used to be 14g powder to extract 60ml's coffee solution, now it is usually concentrated with 18g powder to extract 36g (about 50ml) coffee liquid.

Now, how much coffee is a shot?

If you order at two coffee shops and "give me a shot, please", you may get a small cup that is only close to 20 milliliters of concentration, while another barista will bring out a cup of 40 to 50 milliliters. Why is there such a big difference?

Nowadays, most cafes use a double powder bowl (double shot) by default. Baristas will set an exclusive extraction ratio for their own beans and use a specific amount of powder to extract the coffee liquid with the best flavor at a single time. It is precisely because the blending concept and extraction ratio of coffee are different, so it can be a concentrated solution ranging from ten to dozens of grams, which varies from store to store.

For example, if Qianjie uses a powder bowl of 20 grams, coffee powder of 19.8 grams, and 38 grams of concentrated liquid extracted in 29 seconds, then the "double shot" here is 38 grams. If the guest only needs a single shot, the barista will use a handle with a shunt nozzle to connect it to two cups, giving only one of the cups, and the shot in the cup is about 19 grams.

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