Espresso, you either love it or you don’t. I can understand, espresso can be intense and sometimes just better with some milk. When making espresso, you can use any coffee you choose, but not all coffees are created equal as espresso. I have found some great fruity light roast coffees that taste too bright as espresso, and are not very pleasant; but what if the coffee could be? And they can! I just discovered Allonge shots, which is a word in French that means “to draw out”, and in this instance, a long shot of espresso. The Italians have a Lungo, which is also a long shot, but the preparation is different. Allonge is made with coffee that is a little coarser than a traditional espresso shot. Which means the shot will pull fast and may not look good. Don’t let the looks fool you, Allonge shots are phenomenal and help open light-roasted, fruit-forward coffees. You will taste things in the coffee that are not present in a Ristretto shot and are more pronounced than in drip coffee.
How do you make Allonge? Allonge is designed to be brewed with a Decent, a brand of espresso machine, and was created by Scott Rao, as seen by The Real Sprometheus. The difference between my shots and Sprometheus' is mine did not blonde as much as his. I have taken his ratio of coffee to water and the grind size of the coffee. The espresso machine I used is the La Marzocco GS3, and I feel that a little work with any machine that has a water reservoir of more than 100 grams can be used. You will need to play with the grind setting and, if need be, add a little hot water to the drink after it is finished. It is all a matter of taste and finding what tastes best for you. The recipe is simple: 18 to 20 grams of coffee, in an 18 or 20-gram filter basket, and an ending product weight of 90 to 100 grams. Make sure to grind your coffee coarser than you would normally do for espresso, and time the shot to end at 28 to 30seconds. The ratio is 1:5 (Coffee: Water), and you could try 1:7. The idea is to have a light and fruity coffee that has fruity, floral, and sweet flavors. The drink will be between an espresso shot and drip coffee. Make sure the coffee doesn’t taste sour or overly bitter. I have found that Ethiopia Keramo and Caturdays are the best coffees on our shelf or online store for Allonge. If you have an espresso machine, try this method and let me know what you think. What kind of changes did you make to the recipe to meet your tastes? I will continue to play and share my findings.
