Is Ristretto Stronger Than Espresso: The Final Word.

Why Is A Ristretto Sweeter Than Espresso?.

Keep on reading to learn more about this fascinating topic on a wonderfully delightful beverage. There is more to this simple question than meets the eye, though. As far as caffeine content, due to the preparation technique, a negligible amount of caffeine may be lost. It's described as more concentrated and sweeter than espresso giving it a bolder flavor. In terms of flavor profile, yes, ristretto is indeed much stronger than espresso.

While ristretto isn't quite as well-known as espresso, or other types of coffee for that matter, that doesn't mean it isn't as tasty as its more popular counterparts.īut is it stronger than espresso? If you have wondered this exact question and haven't gotten an answer, then your search is at an end! One rarely spoken-of coffee is ristretto. I love the fact that coffee comes in so many different varieties that I can match the flavor and strength of my morning brew to my mood. Long story short? Every espresso-based beverage (save for straight shots of espresso itself or a true macchiato) will have less caffeine than its equivalent sized brewed coffee beverage.Ristretto is described as much concentrated and sweeter than espresso But the 20oz brewed coffee Venti used 42 grams of coffee to become a reality - and don't forget was a lot better at extracting all the ground coffee's caffeine - and all those grams served up a whopping 400-420mg of caffeine, 1.5x more than the venti cappuccino. That provided 280mg of caffeine and a hella lot of milk taste. A 20oz super Venti cappuccino used 36g (max!) of ground coffee to become real. And except by special request (and an added fee), most cafes don't build espresso-based beverages with more than 4 shots of espresso. When it comes to espresso, while many may drink 1-2oz straight up, most doubles, and even more quad espresso builds are not imbibed straight up, but as part of an espresso-based drink build. But most other places, you get 8-12oz of brewed coffee. When's the last time someone ordered 1oz of Chemex-brewed coffee? Well, maybe it happens in Portland. It's all normal to order a single or double of espresso (1-2oz) and sip and toss that back. The third element, serving size, is where things really get tossed around. This is why an 8oz double shot cappuccino has 140mg of caffeine, and an 8oz cup of brewed coffee has 160mg. Here, the scale starts to tip heavy on the brewed coffee side of things. But slower brewing methods like Chemex, pourover, drip, etc, extract 95% or more. Because espresso is a fast brew process, it only extracts about 75% of the stored caffeine in the grounds used to create the beverage. Pretty close, right?īut then there's extraction efficiency. So an 8oz double shot cappuccino used 14-18g of coffee an 8oz brewed cup will use about 17g of coffee. For brewed coffee, the average is around 7g per 100ml you plan to brew. Regarding the amount of ground coffee - we typically use 7-9g of coffee per single shot in espresso. Why am I saying espresso has less caffeine than brewed coffee does, when 1oz of brewed coffee has 20mg, and 1oz of brewed espresso has 70mg? It's about the amount of ground coffee used, the extraction efficiency a brewing process has on ground coffee's stored caffeine, and the serving size. Courtesy Mark Prince at, a wonderful resource:

That chart is nonsense.įar more information that anyone wants but this is how it really is. It’s almost impossible to get 140mg of caffeine out of 5 grams of coffee! Even if the Kazaa is 100% robusta, it would still take 14-18grams of ground coffee to deliver 140mg of caffeine.

Ristretto vs espresso vs lungo