Short vs long exposed on Nespresso’s coffee capsule machines

Here at GadgetGuy, we’re avid coffee drinkers. We have to be, what with reporting on technology, so we need to be wired. And we like our coffee long, because it essentially means more caffeine. But something about the Nespresso machines has us wondering… outside of the amount, what exactly is the difference between the short and the long cups?

The Nespresso coffee pod machines all have similar controls, allowing you to easily pick which type of cup you want at that moment: short or long.

When you’re buying a sleeve of pods, Nespresso’s system tries to make it clear which pod you should buy, with specific words explaining the different amounts of coffee on its pod sleeves.

Most varieties of the pod seem to be made for ristretto (25ml) or espresso (40ml), with the long or “lungo” (110ml) pod having its own specific type, which you can generally see when the word is tacked on to the end of a coffee variety.

The same pod run through two different coffee sizes. Outside of the volume, what changes?

We’re still not really sure what the difference is, outside of the lungo varieties packing in more coffee and therefore needing to be run through the longer variety, unless you like your short coffees with an insane amount of impact.

At one of Nespresso’s many Sydney outlets, though, one of the store representatives told us that if we ran a short pod through the longer lungo setting, it would essentially make the coffee burn.

So we decided to try it, after all, what’s a little more caffeine going to do to us except make us write more quickly?

(In all seriousness, try not to drink excessive amounts of coffee; it may result in heart palpitations)

We grabbed one of our favourite short varieties – Dulsao, with an intensity rating of four – from our little pod selection in the GadgetGuy kitchen and set the Nespresso Maestria (our current review machine) to the top setting for the biggest espresso and lungo coffee amounts we could muster.

The result was exactly what we expected: a regular espresso on the short, and a slightly weaker coffee in a larger supply in lungo. Maybe it’s our tastebuds, but we just couldn’t pick up on the so-called burn taste that Nespresso says we should be able to detect.

There’s no doubt that the Lungo variety of pods are made for the longer cup, but we’ll probably just keep running the regular capsules through on the full cup just so we can have more of the blends we like, even if they are a touch weaker.

UPDATE (August 14): Nespresso has given us an official comment on the sizes:

Nespresso offers a unique choice of Grand Cru coffees to satisfy every taste. The Nespresso Grands Crus capsules contain between 5 grams for the Espresso range and 7 grams for the Lungo range of highest quality roast and ground coffee. Our Espresso coffees are designed for maximum enjoyment in a 40ml cup, while Lungo coffees are best enjoyed in a 110ml cup.

Extracting each coffee using the appropriate setting on your Nespresso machine will ensure that you keep each Grand Cru’s unique taste and sensory profile. It will allow you to get the best experience and guarantees the pleasure of a coffee, rich in aroma with a dense crema.

While Nespresso says its capsules are designed for a specific type of coffee, you’re still fine to use them however you want. We’ll keep throwing our short variety through the long, and you definitely could too.

Staff writers

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Lungo

Lungo (Italian for "long") is a coffee beverage made by using an espresso machine to make an Italian-style coffee – short black (single or double dose or shot) with much more water (generally twice as much), resulting in a larger coffee, a lungo.

A normal serving of espresso takes from 18 to 30 seconds to pull, and fills 25 to 60 millilitres, while a lungo may take up to a minute to pull, and might fill 130 to 170 millilitres. Extraction time of the dose is determined by the variety of coffee beans (usually a blend of Arabica and Robusta), their grind and the pressure of the machine. The optimum is obtained with 9–12 bars 130–150 ml. [ citation needed ]

In French it is called café allongé. [1]

Related beverages

In the lungo, all the water is brewed, and the lungo is generally shorter than an Americano or a long black.

In comparison, the caffè crema is a significantly longer drink, comparable in size to an Americano or long black. (This drink is rare in the English-speaking world) Like the lungo, it is all brewed water, but is about twice as long as a lungo.

A lungo is less strong, but more bitter, than an espresso, because the additional hot water passing through the ground coffee extracts components that would normally remain undissolved. The more water is passed through the coffee grounds, the more bitter and watery the shot tastes. Conversely, using less water than normal produces a stronger, richer shot known as a ristretto.

As the amount of water is increased or decreased relative to a normal shot, the composition of the shot changes due to the fact that the flavour components of coffee dissolve at varying rates. For this reason, a long or short shot will not contain the same ratio of components that a normal shot contains. Therefore, a ristretto is not simply twice as "strong" as a regular shot, nor is a lungo simply half the strength. Moreover, since espresso is brewed under pressure, a lungo does not have the same taste or composition as coffee produced by other methods, even when made with the same ratio of water and ground coffee.

Ristretto, normale, and lungo are relative terms without exact measurements. [2] Nevertheless, a rough guide is a brewing ratio of 1:1 for ristretto, 1:2 for normale, and 1:3–1:4 for lungo [3] – a doppio ristretto is thus 30 ml/1 oz (the foamy crema slightly increases this volume), normale is 60 ml/2 oz, and lungo is 90–120 ml/3–4 oz. By contrast, a caffè crema will be approximately 180 ml/6 oz.

Lungo Grazioso

The gracious, cordial and amiable lungo blend.

The gracious complexity of this blend finds its origin in the best plantations of Guatemala, Colombia, Brasil and Java, Indonesia. The Colombia beans are grown in the Cordillera district, known for its rich and powerful taste. The Guatemala Arabica is grown at 1’600 meters on volcanic soil what makes this one of the best coffees worldwide. And last but not least is the Java coffee in the blend which gives it a full body, a touch of chocolate in the aftertaste and its outspoken scent.

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Firma: Grand Cru Coffee AG | Firmennummer: CHE-305.313.293 | Vision: Dein täglicher Genuss! Oder Your daily delight! | Zweck: Die Gesellschaft bezweckt den Vertrieb von Kaffeemaschinen, Kaffee und Zubehör. Sie erbringt Installations- und Wartungsdienstleistungen. | Domizil & Sitz: Grand Cru Coffee AG, St. Gallerstrasse 229, 9320 Arbon, Schweiz | Geschäftsführer: Marcel Lendenmann

Besten Dank für Ihr Interesse an Grand Cru Coffee AG. Jetzt wünschen wir Ihnen genussreiche Kaffeemomente: Your daily delight!

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