Espresso
Also caffè espresso, single espresso, solo, short black
A small, concentrated coffee brewed by forcing hot water through finely ground coffee under pressure. It is the base of most café milk drinks and is served in a small thick-walled cup.
EspressoServed hotFrom Italy
- Volume
- 30ml1.0 US fl oz
- Espresso
- 1shot
- Caffeine
- 64mgderived, USDA FDC
- Glass
- Demitasse70 ml
The build
Watch it made, step by step- Espresso30 ml100%
- Volume
- 30ml
- Caffeine
- 64mg
- Espresso
- 1shot
Scales every component together, so the ratio holds; caffeine scales with the coffee.
WBC defines an espresso as roughly 30 ml; INEI's certified Italian espresso is 25 ml from 7 g. Modern specialty shots often run 1:2 coffee to beverage by weight.
Caffeine
Derivedin a 30 ml espresso
USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy caffeine per 100 g scaled to the coffee volume in components, assuming 1 g per ml. FDC 171891 (Beverages, coffee, brewed, espresso, restaurant-prepared) 212.0 mg/100 g x 30 ml.
USDA FoodData Central record 171891 · read 2026-10-26
A derived figure: the reference food's caffeine per 100 g scaled to the coffee in this build. Real cups vary with the coffee, the dose and the shot.
Variants by country
3| Name | Country | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| caffè | Italy | Ordering 'un caffè' in Italy brings a 25-30 ml espresso by default. |
| bica | Portugal | Lisbon name for the espresso, usually pulled slightly longer. |
| short black | Australia | Australian and New Zealand menu name. |
History
Pressure extraction grew out of Angelo Moriondo's 1884 Turin patent and the Bezzera and Pavoni machines of the early 1900s; Achille Gaggia's post-war lever machine raised pressure enough to produce the crema now associated with the drink. Wikidata records Italy and France as countries of origin and 1884 as inception.
Pressure-brewed coffee developed in northern Italy around machines patented from the 1880s onward.
Related drinks
An espresso served with a twist of lemon. The lemon oil brightens the shot; the drink is more common in American cafés than in Rome.
Espresso Café Cubano 30 ml · 64 mgA Cuban espresso sweetened during extraction by whipping sugar with the first drops into a foam. Small, sweet and the base of colada and cortadito.
Espresso Decaf Espresso 30 ml · 64 mgAn espresso pulled from decaffeinated beans. Every milk and iced drink in this list can be ordered this way with its caffeine reduced to a few milligrams.
Espresso Pocillo 30 ml · 64 mgA small cup of strong black coffee, from the Spanish word for the little cup itself. Common across Latin American Spanish.
Espresso Bica 35 ml · 64 mgPortugal's everyday espresso, known as bica in Lisbon and cimbalino in Porto. Slightly longer than an Italian shot and taken with sugar.
Espresso Café Carioca 40 ml · 64 mgA deliberately weak Portuguese coffee made by passing water through spent grounds. Caffeine is well below the scaled figure.