Is there a reason to have coffee grounds at the bottom of an espresso?

While having coffee at a fancy café earlier, we noticed that the espresso aswell as the cappuccino had large amounts of coffee grounds still sitting at the floor of the cup.

While being annoyed by this (given that the coffee was rather expensive), I still wasn't quite sure if this was intentional or not. For example, i reckon this could be expected when having a turkish coffee.

Question: Is there a good reason to leave coffee grounds in an espresso on purpose, or is it just sloppy?

coffee espresso

Best Answer

Two possibilities:

It's just sloppy. They're dispensing directly from the espresso machine into the cup, and as a result the finest particles that should be poured off, with proper technique, ended up in the cup. Given that the main reason to dispense directly in the cup is that they're using a super-automatic (push-button) machine, I'd be pretty unhappy with that if I'd paid a lot for it.
They're deliberately leaving the fine particles in the pour to "prove" that it's real espresso and not a Nespresso capsule. This seems misguided to me, but I can imagine someone doing it.

Pictures about "Is there a reason to have coffee grounds at the bottom of an espresso?"

Is there a reason to have coffee grounds at the bottom of an espresso? - Unrecognizable female bartender pressuring ground coffee in portafilter with tamper for preparing tasty aromatic espresso during work in coffee house

Is there a reason to have coffee grounds at the bottom of an espresso? - Crop professional barista preparing coffee at wooden counter

Is there a reason to have coffee grounds at the bottom of an espresso? - White Ceramic Cup

Why is there coffee grounds in my espresso?

Using too fine a grind and/or too much coffee will cause a build-up of water that overflows into the gap between the paper filter and the filter basket. This causes a real lot of ground of coffee to bypass as there's absolutely no filtration from the filter basket, resulting in a very muddy cup of coffee.

Why do I have coffee sludge at the bottom?

Quality of Water If you live in an area where the water is hard (meaning it has a high mineral content), then you are much more likely to see sludge at the bottom of your coffee cup. This is because minerals like calcium in hard water bond with the fatty acids in coffee, facilitating the formation of sludge.

Why do I have coffee grounds in my coffee?

Coffee grounds get into coffee mainly due to a failed filter, wether this be a hole in the filter, or the filter has somehow bent over when the water started to land on it. This causes c not only the water to miss the grounds, but also the grounds to find there way over the barrier and into your brew.

Espresso Troubleshooting: Why are my shots spraying everywhere?

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Ketut Subiyanto, Ketut Subiyanto, Ketut Subiyanto, Johnny Willz