Martin Lines, marketing director of Nestlé Professional gives advice on how to make the perfect espresso

Just like a fine wine, you can’t rush a quality espresso.  There’s an art to it, and it takes time to allow for the correct extraction length to produce a rich, dark espresso with a golden crema.  Ideally with a traditional roast and ground espresso machine, the optimum extraction time is 23 – 25 seconds.  Reduce this time and the quality will suffer, resulting in a weaker and more acidic drink.  Plus, there’s the time to froth the milk, pour the drink and present it to the customer to consider and all this additional time all adds up.

When using a traditional espresso roast and ground machine, the key to serving customers fast is all in the hands of the barista.  A skilled barista should be adept in multi tasking, and with a two group machine for example, will be able to produce four drinks at once, thereby reducing waiting time by three quarters.

If skilled staff is a concern and queue length an issue, then it’s important to look at other options to cut down precious time when preparing each drink.  Bean to cup machines such as the Azkoyen Spression, offer the same roast and ground taste experience of a barista operated machine and can be optimised for a slightly reduced extraction time of approximately 18 seconds.  With the addition of milk, speciality coffees such as cappuccinos will be finished in 25-30 seconds.   

The greatest time savings are to be gained using a soluble coffee machine.  The Nescafé Milano range for example, can deliver a café style drink from start to finish in less than 15 seconds.  Such speed is achievable as a soluble product removes the need for a long extraction time, as this process is all part of the production procedure of the ingredient.  And, using a dark roast soluble coffee offers a similar taste profile to a roast and ground product which, when coupled with a premium dairy whitener, ensures speed of delivery for a quality coffee.”

By Martin Lines, marketing director, Nestlé Professional