{"id":41,"date":"2026-10-03T18:41:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T18:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/glossario-caffe-2\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T12:20:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:20:30","slug":"glossario-caffe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/en\/glossario-caffe\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee glossary: the terms that matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Coffee terminology is more than jargon. <strong>Dose, ratio, body, aftertaste<\/strong>: these terms change how you read an extraction and an aromatic profile.<\/p>\n<p>This <strong>coffee glossary<\/strong> collects the terms that actually matter for home espresso, in three blocks: roasting and varieties, grinding and extraction, sensory evaluation.<\/p>\n<p>Each definition is kept short. It is meant to orient you, not to replace the dedicated guides on the site.<\/p>\n<div class=\"esp-callout\"><b>The 10 terms to remember<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The four numbers: <strong>dose, ratio, extraction time, pressure<\/strong> \u2014 18\u201320 g, 1:2, 25\u201335 s, 9 bar.<\/li>\n<li>The shot itself: <strong>crema<\/strong> on the surface, <strong>dial-in<\/strong> when the shot runs wrong.<\/li>\n<li>The cup: <strong>acidity, body, aftertaste<\/strong>, and the <strong>clean cup<\/strong> that means no defects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Coffee glossary: roasting and varieties<\/h2>\n<p>The basic terms for reading a bag of coffee and understanding what to expect in the cup.<\/p>\n<p>You find them on roaster bags and lot sheets. They set the starting point before any dial-in.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Arabica<\/strong>: the variety behind the vast majority of specialty coffee. In the cup it tends to be sweeter, with more evident acidity and more complex notes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Robusta<\/strong>: more caffeine, a fuller body and a marked bitterness. In specialty blends it enters in small percentages for crema and structure.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Light, medium, dark roast<\/strong>: the scale of roast development. The darker the roast, the more origin notes give way to roasted, bitter and body-driven notes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>First and second crack<\/strong>: the two sounds the bean makes while roasting. First crack marks the start of the development phase, second crack signals the push into dark roasts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Washed, natural, honey<\/strong>: the processing methods after harvest. Washed dries the clean bean (cleaner profiles), natural dries the bean with the fruit (fuller, fruitier profiles), honey sits in between.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Decaf<\/strong>: coffee treated to remove caffeine, on average over 99% with solvent processes, less with the water process. The aromatic profile stays recognisable, often with a softer body.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Single origin and blend<\/strong>: coffee from a single origin or lot, versus a mix of lots chosen by the roaster to balance sweetness and body.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Microlot<\/strong>: small, selected lots, often from a single plot, offered by roasters for traceability and distinctiveness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Grinding and extraction: the dial-in vocabulary<\/h2>\n<p>The terms that describe espresso parameters: what you measure before and during the shot.<\/p>\n<p>This is the dial-in vocabulary. When an article or a spec sheet uses these terms, the context is machine adjustment.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Grind<\/strong>: the particle size of the ground coffee. Espresso uses a fine grind, coarser than moka and much finer than filter.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dose<\/strong>: the weight of ground coffee in the basket. Typically 18\u201320 g for a double.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ratio<\/strong>: the dose-in to yield relationship. 1:2 means 18 g of coffee for 36 g of extraction, the reference standard.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Extraction time<\/strong>: the seconds between the start of pumping and the end of the drink. 25\u201335 s at 9 bar is the espresso reference.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pressure<\/strong>: the force pushing water through the coffee bed. 9 bar is the industry and specialty reference.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pre-infusion<\/strong>: the initial low-pressure or low-flow phase that wets the coffee before full extraction. Many machines provide it, others do not.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Crema<\/strong>: the layer of CO2 and oils that forms on the surface. Colour and density are indicators of roast and freshness, not of quality alone.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Under- and over-extraction<\/strong>: an extraction that pulls too little (sour, astringent, thin cup) or too much (harsh bitterness, dry, flat cup).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dial-in<\/strong>: the cycle of small adjustments to the grind, and if needed dose and temperature, to land on a reference extraction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Sensory evaluation: the cupping language<\/h2>\n<p>The terms of the evaluation language, used in cupping and in reading roaster cupping sheets.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing them lets you translate cup comments into concrete roast and extraction parameters.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Score<\/strong>: the 100-point rating given to a coffee under the SCA protocol. 80+ is specialty grade.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cupping<\/strong>: the standardised tasting of ground coffee in cups, for direct comparison between lots.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aromatic profile<\/strong>: the set of notes perceived in the cup: fruit, floral, spice, chocolate, hazelnut.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Acidity<\/strong>: the sense of freshness and liveliness on the palate. It is not the same as sharpness \u2014 well-integrated acidity is a sign of quality.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sweetness<\/strong>: the sugar-like perception that carries the notes. Judged together with body and aftertaste.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Body<\/strong>: the weight and texture of the liquid on the palate, from light to creamy to dense.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Aftertaste<\/strong>: the perception that remains after swallowing. In a well-extracted coffee it can be clean and persistent.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Clean cup<\/strong>: a cup where the notes are defined and the finish matches the expected profile, with no perceptible defects.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Defects<\/strong>: negative signals from roast or extraction: sour, harsh bitterness, astringent, roasty, fermented.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With these terms you can read a roaster&#8217;s sheet, describe an extraction and compare lots with a shared language.<\/p>\n<p>To put them into practice, the site&#8217;s guides on dial-in and water: <a href=\"\/category\/guide\/\">guides<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Technical coffee definitions are collected in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Espresso\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow noopener\">Wikipedia: Espresso<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"esp-callout\"><b>The reference numbers<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"esp-data-box\">\n<div><b>Dose<\/b><span>18\u201320 g<\/span><\/div>\n<div><b>Ratio<\/b><span>1:2<\/span><\/div>\n<div><b>Time<\/b><span>25\u201335 s<\/span><\/div>\n<div><b>Pressure<\/b><span>9 bar<\/span><\/div>\n<div><b>TDS<\/b><span>80\u2013120 ppm<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arabica, dial-in, ratio, body, aftertaste: the coffee terms that matter for roasting, extraction and sensory evaluation, in one practical glossary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_GB","_original_post":"40","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guide","en-GB"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ilbaristaincasa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}