Magic Coffee – What’s it all about?

Ringtons’ Baristas have their say on the “New Flat White”.

Is the Magic Coffee here to stay?

Marks and Spencer caused a stir in the UK Coffee Scene last month when they introduced the Magic Coffee to us via their cafe’s up and down the country.  

Just six days after its launch, M&S reported that the Magic Coffee has overtaken sales of the Flat White by 20%. Impressive.  

Are these figures just hype – or is the Magic Coffee here to stay?  

The Baristas at Ringtons have their say.  

What is Magic Coffee?

The Magic Coffee is big in Australia – and M&S have decided to champion the drink in the UK. Offering a slightly different coffee to milk ratio than the flat white, the Magic Coffee creates a unique taste profile, promising all the beautiful sweetness and acidity of a coffee, without any bitterness.  

This coffee to milk proportion is the ‘magic ratio’ apparently – hence the name. Over in Melbourne, where there are more coffee shops per person than anywhere else – it’s considered the discerning Barista’s choice for a coffee & milk based beverage. 

Perhaps they’re looking to replicate the success of the Flat White. 

How does the Magic Coffee taste?  

If you like a flat white rather than a latte – you probably think a latte is too milky. You like a ‘stronger’ tasting drink and you don’t like the way a latte feels on your stomach.  

If all that resonates, you should probably try the Magic Coffee.

Magic Coffee vs Flat White – what’s the difference? 

So, let’s get into the science of coffee.  

Depending on who you ask, coffee drink recipes can be quite different. While some would argue you need to shorten your espresso extraction, and inject less foam in your milk, for a proper flat white – the reality is that most offer a flat white as the same drink as your latte, but with less milk – and that’s perfectly fine.  

Both the latte and the flat white are made with a double espresso. Usually you get somewhere between 38g-45g of liquid espresso in your cup, and the drink is completed using a smooth steamed milk, with a glossy finish.  

The result being that the flat white is a shorter, stronger drink than the latte. What’s the difference in a Magic Coffee then?  

A Magic Coffee is made using a ristretto shot 

At this point, I’d like to introduce you to the idea of a Ristretto.  

Ristretto is the Italian word for Restricted, and you restrict your espresso shot by cutting the espresso extraction short.  

Magic coffee is different as it’s made using a made using a ristretto shot ranging from 28g-30g of coffee. 

Magic coffee uses the same style of milk as a flat white, the difference is in the way the coffee is extracted.  

Ristretto vs espresso?! What’s the difference? 

One more time:  

The difference is in making an espresso or making and ristretto is in the way you treat the coffee during preparation.  

Magic Coffee = Ristretto 

Flat White = Espresso 

If you’re used to pulling espressos, in practical terms, you need to adjust your coffee dose, as well as adjusting your grind size in to create a ristretto instead. This allows you to manipulate the flavours.  

Flavour extraction – espresso vs ristretto 

The flavours in an espresso are said to extract in three parts, first you get acidity, then the sweetness, and finally the bitter flavours that would occur to create a well-rounded balanced shot. If your espresso takes 30 seconds to extract, you get flavours:  

• 0 – 10 seconds: Acidity 
• 10 – 20 seconds: Sweetness 
• 20-30 seconds: Bitterness 

The simple idea with the ristretto is to take away the final 10 seconds, eliminating the bitter flavours.  

You therefore give the coffee enough time to develop all of the acidity and sweetness that would normally be present in a standard double shot of espresso without the less desirable bitterness that is typical of the final 10 seconds of a normal double espresso extraction. 

Ristrettos are meant to only get the first and second parts of the extraction curve resulting in a super sweet and citrusy espresso. 

Of course, with a lot of things in coffee it’s not as simple as stopping the espresso shot at 20 seconds. 

How to achieve a perfect ristretto 

Difference coffees extract in different ways, and you need to give the coffee enough time to develop its flavours. If you stopped the shot at 20 seconds, it’s likely your coffee will taste under extracted, and will likely come out sour.  

For this reason, many baristas now look to dose, grind size and ratio as better variables than time.  

For an espresso, you’d usually use roughly 18-20g grams of coffee, and the resulting espresso will be roughly 40 grams for a 1:2 ration of water to coffee.  

For a ristretto, you still want 18-20 grams of coffee, but only 30gram would be pulled, for a 1:1.5 ration of coffee to water.  

Crucially, you’d want both of these pulls to take 30 seconds. 

In order to achieve that same length of extraction time, the grind size needs to be finer to slow down the extraction. We’ll dive into why finer grinds make slower pours in a different post. If you’re reading this and it still doesn’t make sense, that’s ok – please remember we’re always here to help, you just have to get in touch.  

Allow me to summarise with this, so make a proper magic coffee, you need to grind your coffee finer than normal. Which brings us onto our closing thoughts. 

The problem with Magic Coffee 

Will the Magic Coffee start appearing everywhere? 

Honestly, in the short term, probably not.  

As you can see, the magic coffee requires a detailed understanding of how espresso extraction works and adjusting the grind size is very impractical in most cases. What are the risks of using your shop/cafe grinder to achieve this ‘magic’ ristretto shot? 

Advanced understanding of espresso extraction

Are you confident in controlling your flow rate to create? Can you create the necessary resistance between your coffee puck and the 9 bars of pressure from your machine? Are you confident the shot will still take 30 seconds?  

If you’re not confident in changing your grind size with complete precision you probably don’t want to be offering a magic coffee. Even if a lot of people order your new coffee option, you’ll still have your regulars who just want a latte – and changing quickly between ristretto and espresso grinds will be a big problem for most.  

Separate grinder for double espressos vs ristrettos

Ristrettos aren’t as commonly ordered as you might think – thanks to our friends at M&S. Investing in a high-quality reliable grinder that is always set finer than your primary cafe grinder is a big ask for most cafe owners. The cost per use is hard to justify.  

Please do not attempt to offer the magic coffee with one grinder in a busy cafe! 

Even the most advanced baristas need time to adjust a grinder to the perfect grind size for your espresso, regardless of single shot, double shot or ristretto. In a high output cafe, there simply is not enough time to change your grind settings to order and keep the final product consistent.  

Even the most skilled baristas are more likely to end up with a subpar ristretto and double espresso, they are constantly switching the grind size back and forth, and that leads to disappointed customers.  

So, should you serve a Magic Coffee?  

At the moment, for 99% of you, the answer is no.  

But always, listen to your customers. If they are starting to ask about the magic coffee more and more, then you should start to consider it.  

Ringtons are warning against AGAINST using the same grinder for your espresso and ristretto shots. With inexperienced Baristas, constantly adjusting the grinder will hurt your extractions and make the rest of your menu suffer. 

Say the Magic Coffee does catch on, we would recommend a separate grinder, dedicated to creating your ristretto shots, which will lead to consideration of your Barista Workflow and arista Workflow and the Footprint of your cafe’s.