Ristretto — Recipes — CoffeeSpecs

Name: Ristretto
Yield: 1
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 7 g Ground coffee

Parameters

Ground coffee: 7 g
Water temperature: 190 °F
Pressure: 131 psi

Grind: Finer than for espresso, so the extraction stops earlier without the coffee running through too fast.

Served in: Espresso cup, preheated

As for espresso: temperature and pressure do not change, and the second cup is made in the double basket.

Ingredients

7 g Ground coffee — The same dose as an espresso

Method

Prepare it like an espresso

Dose, distribution and tamping are no different from an espresso.
Tighten the grind

A ristretto comes from grinding finer, not from putting less coffee in the basket.
Stop early

Cut the shot while the flow is still dark and syrupy, before it turns pale.

Common mistakes

It tastes bitter → it is probably not a ristretto but a short espresso ground too coarse: the water raced through the same dose.
Nothing comes out → the grind is tighter than useful; open it by one step.
Do not reduce the dose to make a ristretto: you get an under-extracted espresso, not a ristretto.

The ristretto has no specification. It is an espresso stopped earlier, with the same dose and less water: denser, sweeter on the attack, with the bitterness arriving late.

We looked for a specification with a number in it and did not find one. We would rather say so than write «about 15 ml» the way almost everyone does: that figure gets around a lot and traces back to no verifiable source.