S4: Episode 1: Why Is Espresso Foamy? And Help Me Win Influencer Of The Year 2025!
Welcome back to Season Four! Today we launch straight in with a deep dive into the crema on your espresso. Listen for the skinny on the ‘Stir it in or skim it off’ debate and how the crema’s appearance can tell you loads about your coffee before you even taste it. I’m also thrilled to announce that I have been nominated for the London Coffee Festival’s 2025 Influencer of the Year award.
Update: voting has now closed. The winner will be announced at the London Coffee Festival at The Truman Brewery, London, UK on 18th May 2025. Watch this space!
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Hello and welcome to Season Four of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide, a podcast for the coffee curious where I explore and explain the world of specialty coffee to make your daily coffee better and more satisfying.
I’m Angela Holder a coffee roaster and writer on a mission to fight back against bad coffee by giving you the knowledge you need to help you get good coffee and a happier (coffee) life in coffee-break sized episodes. So grab your coffee, pull up a chair and take a break…
In this week's episode we will be taking a look at crema - or in other words the foam you find on the top of a well made espresso …and later I’ll be answering the intriguing question of whether crema is only to be found on an espresso so stay tuned for that…
Before we dive into today’s episode, I am beyond excited to tell you that I have been nominated for the London Coffee Festival’s 2025 Influencer of the Year award. The winner is decided by public vote so I am asking for your support - but you need to get it in quickly as all votes must be cast by the third of April 2025. Voting is on the London Coffee Festival’s website and I’ll put the link in the show notes. If you do vote for me - or If you have already - I want to say thank you so much, you are the best and I appreciate you!
And now back to this week’s topic.
Crema, which is the Italian word for ‘cream’, is formed when coffee is brewed using an espresso machine. It is the foam that floats on top of a well extracted shot of coffee and is essential for producing latte art. In case you have been locked in a cupboard for the last 20 years or have not stumbled over the threshold of a specialty cafe, latte art is the pattern that a barista draws on the top of your espresso based drink using steamed milk. The pattern may be in the form of a heart shape or where the barista is more skilled, a multi-fronded rosetta, which looks something like a fern leaf. Latte art has become widely accepted as a sign of good barista skills - and it is - but I personally think that an over-emphasis on latte art can be to the detriment of the final drink if they fiddle around with it too much. But I digress…The crema on an espresso shot is more than just a canvas for drawing pretty shapes as it can give you an insight into both the quality of the coffee itself as well as the skill of the barista. So lets get into what you need to look for and why…
So firstly crema and the brew
Espresso brewing machines use water under high pressure - typically 9 bars but it can vary - to extract water-soluble compounds out of finely ground coffee quickly. The high pressure causes carbon dioxide held within the coffee to become dissolved in the water. As the liquid passes out of the brewing chamber, or portafilter as it is called, and into normal atmospheric pressure this carbon dioxide is released from the liquid creating the little bubbles of gas which form the foam. Brewing variables that affect crema formation are grind size, your tamping technique, environmental humidity and the temperature and pressure of the water. So the thickness and colour of the crema sitting on top of a shot of espresso is a really useful indicator of the quality of the extraction before you even taste the coffee. Although, as usual with coffee, a lot of nonsense is talked about the visual appearance of it when what actually matters is what it tastes like. Espresso foam ranges in colour from a pale brown to a darker hazelnut-brown colour depending on the bean's level of roast and the extraction. Sometimes it may be stripy and when this happens it is called tiger stripes. Depending on your point of view these are either a sign of a good shot which will taste great or a sign of channelling which means the extraction is not so good!
Next crema and the taste
Tasting the crema on its own is not necessarily a pleasant experience as it is very bitter, ashy and mouth coating. There is an ongoing debate amongst espresso drinkers as to whether the crema should be stirred into the coffee or skimmed off before drinking. The truth is that there is no ‘right’ way and it’s down to personal preference. Skimming the crema off produces a sweeter and lighter bodied drink. Stirring it in allows its bitterness to balance the coffee's sweetness and acidity and increases its mouthfeel. Your coffee - your call.
Finally crema and the bean
Since carbon dioxide is crucial to the formation of crema, the freshness of the beans has a big influence on the volume of crema produced when brewed. Freshly roasted beans have a high level of carbon dioxide which decreases over time causing the beans to become stale. So the amount of carbon dioxide present in the beans directly impacts crema: fresh beans produce a thicker and more stable, or persistent, crema than stale beans which produce a thinner and less stable crema. However the thickness and stability of the crema is not just about how much carbon dioxide is present in the beans when brewed. As a rule of thumb dark roasts, Robusta beans, natural and honey processed coffees all produce more crema than light roasts, Arabica beans and washed coffees. This is why coffees from Brasil and Robusta beans are frequent components of espresso blends which are often roasted darker than beans used for filter brewing.
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
And this episode’s question is…
Do you only get crema on an espresso?
Technically yes, as it is a result of using high water pressure during brewing which is only employed by the espresso brewing method. However as anyone who has ever brewed coffee knows, a light foam or bigger bubbles can be seen to develop on the top of coffees brewed by other methods too, which is again a result of carbon dioxide gas escaping from the coffee during brewing. For me, these bubbles and foam indicate a good extraction (and of course that the coffee is fresh) as I have noticed that when they are absent the coffee's taste is not quite 'on point'. In fact a top tip for a more mouthfilling and satisfying coffee when brewing with a cafetière is to transfer some of this foam from the jug into the cup while pouring the coffee out. You can achieve this by using a stop-start method of pouring: pour a little, stop and hold the jug upright, pour again, stop and hold the jug upright and so on until the cup is filled. You are welcome.
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about the crema on your coffee. Let me know if you try the cafetière technique I mentioned and if it improved the flavour of your coffee. You can get in touch on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide, email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com or leave me a text message using the link in the show notes. In the next episode we are at long last exploring the caffeine content of your coffee so be sure to hit follow so that you don’t miss it, if you haven’t already. Just a reminder that the link to vote for me as Influencer of the Year is in the show notes and thank you so much if you do. Or if you want to buy my new puzzle book Wordsearch for the Coffee Curious the link is also in the show notes. If you do buy a copy and you like it, it would be so, so helpful if you would leave a review for it too - as that really does help with sales. And as always please tell your coffee friends about the show and rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. Thanks to my executive producer Viel Richardson at Lusona Publishing and Media Limited. You can find him at lusonapub.co.uk. Until next time I’m Angela Holder thanks for taking your coffee break with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee at a time and here’s to better coffee!
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