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What is Lungo? What is the difference between it and Long Black, Ristretto, and espresso?

Published: 2026-07-16 Author:

Last Updated: 2026/07/16, Since "Lungo" often appears together with "Long Black", it always causes some misunderstandings! For example, as I saw when surfing on Qianjie recently: "The difference between Lungo and American is the order in which espresso and water are added."

Because "Lungo" (Longo) often appears with "Long Black" (Australia black), so it always causes some big misunderstandings! For example, as seen in Qianjie surfing recently: "the difference between Lungo and American style is that espresso and water are added successively", "Long Black is American coffee made with lungo as the base" and so on.

From this, we can see that there are still many friends who don't know what kind of cup of coffee Lungo is. So today Qianjie is going to dissect this Lungo, what on earth is it?

Long black the coffee that is different from the American way of making coffee is actually Long Black, which is most famous for its different sequence of concentrate and water in production. First add concentrated and then flushed with water is Long Black; first add water and then sprinkle concentrated is American coffee!

In addition, there is also a great difference in concentration between the two. American coffee adds more water and Long Black adds less water. Because Long Black adds less water, its coffee concentration will be higher. (as Qianjie has analyzed Long Black in detail before, so this article does not elaborate too much, interested friends can click directly ha: "what is Australia and Black?" ") and Lungo is a completely different existence from them!

What is Lungo? Although it is different from traditional espresso making, Lungo, like Ristretto, is a member of the espresso system. Because they are all made directly from the espresso machine without any extra additions.

If the traditional espresso is to properly extract the substance from the coffee (take 20g powder as an example, it will extract about 40ml coffee liquid), then Riestriot has limited the amount of substance extracted. Under the same amount of powder, the amount of liquid it has extracted will be reduced, but the concentration will be higher (20g powder, for example, will extract about 30ml coffee liquid)! Longo, on the other hand, obtains more coffee liquid by prolonging the extraction time. Under the same amount of powder, it will extract much more coffee liquid, but the concentration will be reduced (for example, 20g powder will extract about 100ml coffee liquid). The method of extraction like Lungo is obviously incomprehensible to people in modern times. with such an efficient Italian coffee machine, it is necessary to extract five times as much coffee liquid as powder. how can it not be bitter? "of course it will be bitter! if all the substances in the coffee beans are extracted, the bitter substances released in sufficient quantities are bound to put on a pain mask!" However, in the year when the Italian coffee machine was first invented, this was the right choice.

We know that in the early days of the invention, the Italian coffee machine did not have the current high pressure, the pressure can only reach 1.5bar~3bar. It is obvious that such a small amount of pressure can not extract all the flavor substances from the coffee in a short time. Therefore, if we want to improve the extraction rate, we can only find another way. As a result, people at that time chose to extend the extraction and use a lot of hot water to bring out all the flavor substances in the coffee. As a result, it is conceivable that the concentration of the extracted coffee is low and bitter! However, the extraction rate has been satisfied! Moreover, under the dilution of high liquid volume, the concentrated taste still had a good performance (for people at that time). With the change of times, the coffee machine is becoming more and more advanced and efficient, and people no longer have to use a long time of extraction to get a cup of espresso with a suitable extraction rate. But this way of extraction (extraction for a long time) has not disappeared! In order to distinguish it from today's espresso, people have given it the name "Lungo"! Lungo means "long, extended" in Italian. It is conceivable that Lungo is defined as the elongated version of espresso!

However, due to the limited ways of use, Lungo has not been widely used. Therefore, it is gradually forgotten by people, which leads to many friends on the network can not distinguish between Long Black and Lungo. If Lungo is made according to the current extraction parameters, it is bound to be miserable. But espresso and people's preferences are constantly changing, so we can naturally "iterate" Lungo, and by modifying the parameters, we will be able to produce a painless Lungo that is more in line with modern tastes!

How to extract "modern Lungo"? In fact, it is very simple, if the coffee will be over-extracted for a long time, then we only need to reduce its extraction efficiency to ensure that this cup of coffee will not be over-extracted for a long time!

Pressure, water temperature and grinding degree are all parameters that can change the extraction efficiency. For most people, the best regulation is grinding! The extraction parameters of espresso used in Qianjie today are listed as follows: 20g powder (warm sun mixture), 1.2grinding scale of Galileo Q18, water temperature of 94 °C, 9bar pressure, extraction time of 30 seconds, 40ml espresso (powder / liquid ratio 1:2). Through measurement, the concentration is 9.7% and the extraction rate is 20%. The ratio of powder to liquid needed to extract Lungo is 1:5. In order not to let the extraction too much, Qianjie adjusted the grinding. Finally, by reducing the grinding speed by 0.4, a cup of Lungo with suitable taste was extracted. It took 44 seconds, the concentration was 4.3%, and the extraction rate was 21.56%.

Although it is not so full-bodied, but the flavor is well displayed, the aroma of whisky and the slight acidity of berries are obvious, and its fat is not thin! On the whole, it's pretty good. However, even if the extraction efficiency is reduced, it is still very easy to excel! Therefore, friends who want to try must be psychologically prepared to drink bitter coffee.

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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 。