Triple Ristretto and Menu Size

The Madison espresso scene has been good to me, and I've been lucky to have learned and shared so much with fellow barristas in the downtown area, but I must be moving on. In September I will be relocating to New York City, home of the recent espresso bar boom, and land of the triple ristretto.

I've had some questions about that last thing, and have even been asked to make a triple ristretto from my humble two-group head espresso bar at Soleil, but the fact remains that a triple ristretto is a product of the correct tools, which most coffeeshops, especially those in the Midwest, simply do not have.

The idea behind a triple ristretto is simple: Higher dosing of coffee (triple dose), pulling ristretto, producing a shot about the size of a double. It is not a double shot enhanced with another single shot (from a split double) to make a triple. This is the only way to make a triple with a standard double basket portafilter, but, as I've said before, I don't believe in triple shots from a double machine: Double is standard.

The way to get a triple shot then is to switch from a double basket to a triple basket. The filter basket is replaced with one that holds enough espresso grounds to pull three ounces of espresso, then the shot is pulled ristretto. Bingo: a delicious ristretto shot without losing any of the volume.

The idea of upping the dosage for an espresso has been going on in specific circles for the past few years, and for a number of espresso bars in New York City this is the default.

In my mind, it should be up to the coffeeshop, or at least the barista, to produce the most delicious beverage possible. Small menus, fewer customer choices have long been accepted in fine dining restaurants, where the chef or waitstaff is expected to cook the dish the best way possible (save for certain exceptions, of course), and pair flavors, sauces, wines. The trend for a lot of coffeeshops, however, has been to beef up the menu with a huge variety of coffee beverages with clever names, usually based around sweeteners and syrups. Rather than featuring the flavor of actual coffee (!), and perfecting the techniques to produce the best coffee flavor in espresso, they are relying on endless ways to flatten coffee flavor with sugar and milk.

What I found at most of these NYC espresso bars is the ideal: small menus, featuring espresso, macchiato, and (the traditional) cappuccino. The idea is to the coffee stand for itself. Most places don't even do the old single/double thing, which to me is a godsend. Splitting shots is like using skim milk, or ordering a half-caf... don't do it!