Perfected Espresso

The image is here. The place is in the tawny side of what was, at one time, the seedy underbelly of San Antonio. Any place with a $7 cup of coffee isn’t “seedy,” or even remotely “dive-like” in ambience.

What was good, the coffee was a mild roast, the espresso was frothy, with a decent head, and the lemon peel was replaced by a lemon wedge.

    “What’s the lemon for?”

In its finest form, espresso — a single shot of espresso — should be served with a lemon twist. That’s a piece of lemon rind, carefully carved off a fresh lemon. No lemon juice, just oil from the lemon’s skin.

The purpose of the lemon oil is to cut the old-school espresso’s bitter edge.

I ran the lemon wedge, skin-side down, around the espresso cup, demonstrating.

    “Oh, that’s good.”

Really.

About the author: Born and raised in a small town in East Texas, Kramer Wetzel spent years honing his craft in a trailer park in South Austin. He hates writing about himself in third person. More at KramerWetzel.com.

  • Rhubarb Oct 26, 2012 @ 18:18

    Hadn’t heard of the lemon twist. Have to give it a try.

    $7, really? And I thought L.A. was expensive!

    • Kramer Wetzel Oct 27, 2012 @ 5:54

      Well, I might have that a little wrong, I mean, $7 is a lot of a cup of coffee.

      (Might’ve been $7 for two cups of espresso.)

  • Rhubarb Oct 27, 2012 @ 10:53

    Yeah, that sounds about right.

  • Wendy Oct 30, 2012 @ 8:36

    Searching for a decent shot in Austin :)

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