Krups XP 2000 Mode D'emploi page 5

Espresso Coffee
Your new Krups espresso machine has been constructed to make café quality espres-
so, cappuccino, and latte at home.
Espresso is a style of coffee that comes from a unique process, not a particular type of
coffee bean. Hot water, under pressure, is passed through tightly packed, finely ground
coffee. The resulting liquid is rich, dark, and extremely flavorful: the concentrated
essence of the coffee bean.
Espresso is not served in regular coffee cups, but in small 1.5-oz «shots». The perfect
espresso shot is topped by beautiful, thick, golden foam known as crema, a product of
the natural oils in the coffee bean, and the source of its rich flavor and aroma.
It is important to note that your espresso coffee must be both well roasted coffee and
correctly ground. If you cannot buy ground espresso coffee, use a coffee grinder to
grind the beans. The coffee must not be ground too fine. It must be slightly granulated,
with a consistency somewhat between flour and sugar. Too fine a grind results in bitter,
over-extracted espresso and a risk of blocking the grid of the brewing head and the fil-
ter; too coarse and the espresso will be weak and under-extracted.
In addition to the coffee you use, the other three factors that determine perfect espres-
so results are water, temperature and pressure. Your Krups machine ensures all three
are precision-controlled by expertly designed technology. What you must ensure is that
the water you use is freshly-drawn (so that it has not had time to stagnate in the air),
without any chlorine odor and at a fairly cold temperature.
We recommend that you filter your water using a commercially available KRUPS
Claris - Aqua Filter System cartridge (reference F088) (sold separately).
There are a number of misconceptions surrounding espresso. The first is that espresso
should be bitter and burnt tasting. In fact, the ideal espresso shot should be aromatic,
bittersweet (not bitter) and assertive, with a lingering aftertaste.
The second myth is that drinking espresso will keep you awake all night. Actually,
despite its strong flavor, espresso contains less caffeine than regular coffee; typically
60-80 mg per shot compared to 80-100 mg per cup of regular coffee due to espresso's
longer, darker roasting.
And finally, many people think that espresso takes too long to prepare. The truth is, as
the name implies, an espresso is intended to be served quickly, without elaborate pre-
paration. As you will discover, your Krups espresso machine has been intuitively desi-
gned for easy use and built for the long term.
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