Best explanation I have heard of first and second crack; water boiling and oil boiling.

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So glad to hear this was helpful!

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Hey, going to jump in here if thats ok. The short answer is espresso is roasted darker than filter coffee. The complex answer is as coffee develops in the roaster the coffee goes from volatile to more stable compounds and its my understanding that only stable compounds extract in espresso brewing. On a separate note, the video above is excellent, but for me I much prefer coffee that has degassed at weeks 2-4 off roast. Much better flavour.

@@pscoffeeroasters I get darker roasts work well with espresso but light roasts also work. James Hoffmann in fact prefers a light roast for espresso. It just seems even light some work better with espresso and others just work better with pour over. In this case I am not referring to taste. I am referring to how the water just flies through the puck.

@@penultimatename6677 You can use any coffee to make espresso but the lighter you go the harder it is to extract. Grinding finer helps but you can only grind so fine before you choke the machine and water cannot pass (or passes too slowly) through the puck. This means to extract enough of the coffee for it to taste good you need generally higher temperature and/or to use more liquid to extract the coffee. But, eventually you might need to use so much that it is no longer espresso-like and had lighter body (but can still be delicious). Other techniques to extract more coffee without using more water needs pressure profiling (e.g. the 'blooming' shot). So, in essence, espresso is just a style of making coffee and not a type of bean. More soluble (i.e. darker roasted) coffee is easier to properly extract as an espresso and so many roasters roast coffee intended for espresso a little darker than coffee intended for other methods like pour over.

@@penultimatename6677 in terms of water 'flying through the puck' I'm not quite sure what you are referring to. That has more to do with grind size and puck prep. I think if anything lighter roasts are more prone to channeling so would be less forgiving if anything.

@@chrisdturner that's my point. I have an excellent grinder and can grind very fine. The beans from Fellows drop identified as for pour over never flow slowly no matter how fine the grind. Which is why I believe there is something to do with how it is roasted. Not whether it is light or dark roasted. But possibly the temp and time a bean is roasted. There was one company that suggested this is a factor but have not had it confirmed.