What Is a Lungo? Long Espresso Shot, Taste & Ratios

What “Lungo” Actually Means

Lungo is Italian for “long.” The reference is to the extraction — a lungo is a long pull through the same grounds that would produce a standard double espresso. The name has been in use in Italian coffee culture since at least the 1950s, alongside its opposite, the ristretto (Italian for “restricted”). Where a ristretto stops early to capture only the sweetest early compounds, the lungo keeps going well past the point where bitterness starts to dominate.

Traditional Italian bars served lungos primarily for customers who wanted more volume without ordering two shots — it was a practical solution before the americano became widespread. Today, the lungo occupies a specific place on the espresso spectrum and is particularly prominent in Northern European coffee culture, where many café menus still list it as a standard offering.

Lungo Recipe: Brew Ratio & Parameters That Matter

The Grind Adjustment Most People Miss

This is where most home baristas go wrong. They simply let their normal espresso shot keep running until more liquid accumulates — but that produces a channeled, hollow result. A proper lungo requires a finer grind than standard espresso, not the same or coarser.

The reasoning: a lungo extraction runs for 45–60 seconds instead of 25–32. If you use the same espresso grind, resistance in the puck drops sharply after the first 30 seconds as grounds compact and channels open. Water rushes through the path of least resistance, producing a sour, thin, uneven shot. A finer grind maintains adequate puck resistance throughout the longer extraction, giving you a consistent lungo rather than a ruined espresso.

Lungo vs Espresso: The Real Difference

The difference is more significant than it sounds on paper. Same dose, same machine, same beans — completely different drink. Here's why:

Extraction Chemistry

At 25–32 seconds (standard double), you've extracted most of the sweetness, the rich coffee oils, and a balanced portion of the mild bitterness. You've left behind the harsh, dry, astringent compounds that take longer to dissolve. A lungo continues for another 15–30 seconds, pulling those later-stage compounds into the cup.

This isn't a mistake — it's a deliberate extraction choice. For drinkers who want a larger volume of espresso-based coffee without diluting it with water (as in an americano), the lungo is a legitimate option. But you need to understand the flavor trade-off: you're trading sweetness and body for volume and caffeine. For a detailed look at how all espresso extraction variables interact, see our complete espresso guide.

Side-by-Side Taste Test

In my testing sessions with a Breville Dual Boiler (BES920) using Colombian Huila beans (medium roast, 12 days off roast), same 18g dose across all three:

Lungo vs Americano: Not the Same Drink

This is the comparison that generates the most confusion, and it matters because the two drinks taste very different despite having similar volumes of liquid in the cup. Understanding the distinction is one of the more useful things you can know about espresso-based drinks.

How Each Is Made

The practical implication: if you want a larger, weaker espresso drink that still tastes like good espresso, order an americano. If you want a concentrated espresso experience with more volume and more caffeine but can tolerate more bitterness, a lungo is the right choice. Most people who think they want a lungo actually prefer an americano once they try both.

What Does a Lungo Taste Like?

Honest answer: a lungo tastes like an espresso where the best part has been diluted by the worst part. That's not meant dismissively — it's the most accurate description. The sweetness and body of a good espresso are present in reduced form, while the bitterness that characterizes the later extraction stages moves to the foreground.

The crema is thinner and dissipates faster. The mouthfeel is closer to strong drip coffee than to espresso. There's still recognizably an espresso foundation — you're drinking something extracted through pressure, with the coffee oils and microfoam particles that only pressurized extraction produces — but the concentration is much lower.

Lungo Caffeine: More or Less Than Espresso?

This surprises most people: a lungo has more caffeine than a standard double espresso pulled from the same dose.

Caffeine is a water-soluble compound that extracts continuously throughout the shot. More water through the grounds = more caffeine extracted. A lungo (18g → 60g) extracts roughly 10–15% more caffeine than a standard double (18g → 36g) because more total water passes through the grounds. The caffeine concentration per ml is lower (the lungo is more dilute), but the total caffeine in the cup is higher.

To put approximate numbers on it: a standard double shot typically contains 120–140mg of caffeine. A lungo from the same dose delivers roughly 130–160mg. The difference is modest but real — and it's the opposite of what most people assume based on the lungo's milder taste.

For context on the full caffeine picture across espresso-based drinks, and how drink size affects total caffeine intake, our complete espresso guide covers caffeine per serving across every standard preparation.

Lungo on Nespresso & Pod Machines

The lungo button on Nespresso machines is one of the most frequently asked-about settings I encounter, so it's worth addressing directly.

On Nespresso Original line machines, the lungo setting forces approximately 110ml (3.7 oz) of water through the capsule, compared to 40ml for the espresso setting. The same capsule, more water, more extraction. This is a genuine lungo in extraction terms — more water through the same grounds under pressure. The result is a milder, more bitter drink than the espresso setting, which is exactly correct.

Nespresso offers capsules specifically formulated for lungo extraction (such as the Fortissio Lungo and Vivalto Lungo lines on Original, and Gran Lungo on Vertuo). These capsules are designed to produce a balanced cup at lungo volumes — they typically use a coarser or lighter grind internally to compensate for the extended extraction. Using an espresso-optimized capsule at lungo volume will taste more bitter and thin than using a lungo-specific one.

When Would You Actually Want a Lungo?

I won't pretend the lungo is my go-to. For most beans at most roast levels, a standard double or a well-made americano delivers more from the coffee. But there are specific situations where a lungo is genuinely the right choice:

To understand how the lungo fits into the broader landscape of espresso-based drinks — where it sits relative to macchiato, latte, flat white, and americano — our macchiato vs latte guide covers the full range of milk-based espresso drinks and how espresso intensity determines flavor balance across them.

Frequently Asked Questions