Stephen Tashi said:
Yes, but not often. And at Starbucks, I always order "regular" coffee. Is the "expresso" at Starbucks served in small cups?
I'm not sure about Starbucks in particular, but most coffee shops that offer espresso will serve it in a small, ceramic, espresso cup, so long as you don't order it "to go," in which case they''ll serve it in a paper cup.
There are small, traditionally ceramic, cups designed exclusively for the purpose of espresso.
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In terms of how espresso tastes, it is very smooth and strong. The process involves getting the most flavor out of the coffee without it becoming bitter. Even if you are a habitual cream+sugar in your coffee person, you'll likely find that you'll require neither cream nor sugar with espresso.
I think you'll find that espresso tastes much like Turkish coffee, but somewhat less bitter. Don't get me wrong, I like Turkish coffee just fine. It has a nice bite to it. But if I want the strong flavor without the bite, then I'd go for an espresso.
If you were to make an espresso, then dilute it in water after the fact, to a similar consistency as American coffee (this is called an "Americano," by the way) it will still be quite flavorful, but probably contain a little less caffeine than a regular cup of American coffee. There are a couple of reasons for the reduced caffeine, (a) the process of making the espresso is great for extracting the flavor, but not so much in the way of caffeine, and (b) espresso is usually made with Arabica coffee while most American coffee (think Folgers, Maxwell House, etc.) is primarily made with Robusta. Robusta has more caffeine than Arabica.
Espresso is made by forcing water through the coffee grounds quickly, and at high pressure (several atmospheres). This produces a slight, foam-like layer on the top of the coffee solution and is called "crema." There's nothing like a good layer of crema.
By now it is probably up by several more.
