What Is the Difference between American Coffee Machine and Espresso Machine?

There are many appliances for brewing coffee, including French filter press pots, hand brew pots, filter coffee machine with grinder, and various coffee machines. Mechanical coffee machines are mainly divided into two categories, one is American coffee machines, and the other is espresso coffee machines.

Because of its simple functions, American coffee machines are relatively inexpensive. Most of the coffee makers on the market that are given away with a card, or the coffee makers with a price of around 1,000 yuan that are given out in the store promotions are mostly American coffee machines. The American coffee machine brews the original coffee liquid by way of filtering, so the taste will be lighter.

The structure of the espresso coffee maker is more complicated, and it is slightly better in function. It can produce milk froth, and even cappuccino and other multi-style coffee.

So what is the difference between a home American coffee machine and a home espresso machine? These differences mainly lie in the principle, structure and function.

Espresso machines generally use high-pressure extraction. An espresso coffee machine usually has a boiler. After the hot water is pressurized, the coffee is extracted through the coffee powder tank, so it is also called a pump coffee machine. The coffee brewed by this high-pressure hot water is thicker and has emulsified fats, usually called espresso.

American coffee machines generally use atmospheric extraction. It is usually divided into two layers, the upper layer is a funnel-shaped container with filter paper or metal filter, and the lower layer is a glass or ceramic coffee pot. The American coffee machine also makes hot water flow through the coffee powder into the coffee pot below to extract coffee. But the difference is that the hot water is at atmospheric pressure. In addition to cooking coffee, the coffee machine can also make tea.

The price of an espresso machine is tens of thousands of yuan. Even the professional equipment of coffee chains on the market costs hundreds of thousands of yuan. In general small families, home espresso machines are rarely purchased.

The advantages of American coffee machines are easy operation and large supply. Disadvantages are long extraction time, easy overextraction, high caffeine, and easy oxidation after boiling and storing for too long. The fineness of powder of American coffee machine needs to be adjusted so that the dripping speed of coffee is slightly slower than the speed of hot water flowing down the machine.

The automatic espresso machine has the advantages of stability, supply of steam, rapid and continuous supply of coffee, low caffeine, and the ability to brew coffee oil. The disadvantage is that it is large in size, requires a special grinder, professional water softening equipment, and professional training.

The espresso machine is also divided into manual espresso machine, automatic and semi automatic espresso machine. There are many types of espresso machines. The most common one is a single boiler, followed by double boilers and multiple boilers. Some original espresso can be served with milk, latte, milk froth, and cappuccino. 

The goodness of a cup of coffee is not only the pressure of the coffee machine, but also the quality and stability of the coffee.