How to Make Ristretto

Author: Jee Choe

A quick guide to making ristretto at home.

5 from 3 votes

Prep Time 2

Total Time 2

Course Drinks

Yield serving

Remove portafiter from espresso machine and run the water through the grouphead to remove any leftover coffee grounds.
Grind and fill dry portafilter with finely ground coffee.
Level and tamp filled portafilter. Clean loose ground coffee off the portafilter.
Put portafilter into the grouphead and pull ristretto shots.
There should be less water in a ristretto shot so pull a shorter shot than you would an espresso. The drink should be about ½ an ounce.
Place cup under the portafilter.
After pulling shots of ristretto, remove the portafilter and flush grouphead.

The easiest way to pull a ristretto shot without a scale is to simply stop your shot sooner than you normally would. If you pull a shot of espresso for 25 seconds, try it at 15 seconds.
Bitterness comes out at the end of an espresso shot, so when you pull a shorter shot, you're getting slightly sweeter, less bitter flavors.
In general, most coffee shops pull double ristretto shots for all drink sizes, instead of single. Starbucks starts with a single ristretto shot, adding more shots as the drink size gets bigger.
The opposite of a ristretto shot is a “lungo,” which usually means allowing more water to go through the espresso shot than normal. A lungo is referred to as a long shot and ristretto is a short shot.
A ristretto shot will look much darker than a regular or lungo shot. That’s because much of the dark brown coloring of the espresso comes out in the early parts of the shot.
What’s fun about ristretto shots is that they’re easy to pull and compare to a regular shot. If you’re not sure what the differences are, pull two shots—one regular, one ristretto—and taste them side-by-side.

Sodium: 4mg | Calcium: 3mg