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Is the oil of espresso so bitter? How to drink it correctly? Tasting concentrate

Published: 2026-08-25 Author:

Last Updated: 2026/08/25, The golden foam floating on the top of espresso is called Crema/ fat, and people all share a common view of it-"it is the soul of espresso! it can be thick, but not thin!" Although it is called the "soul" of espresso, it can be known as long as it is tasted separately.

The golden foam floating on the top of espresso is called Crema/ fat, and people all share a common view of it-"it is the soul of espresso! it can be thick, but not thin!"

Although people call it the "soul" of espresso, as long as you taste it alone, you will know that it is full of bitterness, even more bitter than espresso! Mr. Danbu Simbo of Japan once said that "espresso without surface oil can greatly reduce the unpleasant taste"; and Mr. James Hoffman, the WBC champion, maintained the same view: "although Crema is beautiful and excellent, it doesn't taste that good."

As a result, Qianjie did a special experiment two months ago: "will the American style without grease taste better?" "in the end, the American coffee will be much less bitter! All these prove that the concentrated oil is indeed a bitter substance, so why do so many people like it?

Well, let's take a look at the source of the bitterness of this foam: concentration is a liquid made by extracting flavor substances in a short period of time by using hot water on very fine ground coffee powder and a pressure up to 9bar. In the process of extraction, because there is no time and no place to discharge the carbon dioxide contained in the bean, it can only be pressed along the pressure into the insoluble oil of the coffee and seep out from the bottom of the powder bowl with the coffee liquid to form a golden foam floating on the concentrated surface. And in this layer of foam, in addition to insoluble oil and carbon dioxide, there is another substance-"Italian ultra-fine powder"! It will be much finer than the fine powder in hand-made coffee powder, these very fine powders have a full bitter taste, they are the main source of oil bitterness!

If you drink espresso for the first time, then like Mr. Lu, you will have a lot of beautiful imaginations about golden oil through books, movies and television before the oil is imported, but after the import, the illusions of concentrated oil are instantly disillusioned!

So, why would anyone like this thing? After all, suffering is only a small disadvantage of it, and we can't ignore that it has a large number of other advantages because of one of its shortcomings.

Aroma: the aroma of espresso with and without oil is completely different! Because the oil contains the volatile aroma of coffee, it will continue to volatilize as the oil dissipates. These substances can be captured by our sense of smell, so the concentrated aroma of oil will be more intense! Taste: when we brew flannel coffee, we can get a more mellow taste than coffee filtered with filter paper! The reason is that the gap in flannel is larger, and the oil can seep out, increasing the taste of coffee, which is the same on espresso! Yu Yun: in addition to the above two, oil can also bring us more abundant aftertaste! When we swallow, the aftertaste in the mouth will be very obvious. But if you put it aside, whether you drink it directly or make it into an American style, the aftertaste will be greatly reduced!

Therefore, although the oil is bitter, there are still a lot of people like it for these reasons! Of course, the ultimate choice lies with us. It is up to us to decide whether we want a richer level of expression or less negative bitterness.

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FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou China, selling freshly roasted beans from its own farm in Yunnan as well as dozens of carefully selected single-origin beans from around the world for both pour-over and espresso. The products deliver consistently excellent quality and great value, with shipping within 24 hours. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers, and the beans are now available online at the Tmall 。