How to Make Tea Espresso and a Tea Cappuccino with Your Espresso Machine

If you love espresso drinks, here's a fun experiment: run tea through your espresso machine instead of coffee. The method is almost the same as pulling a coffee shot, and the result is a strong, concentrated tea you can sip straight, stretch with hot water, or turn into a tea cappuccino or latte. A few simple choices make the difference between a harsh shot and a delicious one, so let's go through them.

A tea cappuccino made with CTC black tea.

Choose a black tea

Black tea is the best fit for espresso. It's fully oxidized, so it has a fuller, more robust flavor that holds up to the very hot water and pressure of an espresso machine, and to milk afterward. Green and white teas are unoxidized or only lightly processed, and their delicate flavors tend to turn grassy or bitter under those conditions, so save them for gentle steeping in a cup or teapot.

CTC black tea grounds after brewing.

Use a CTC tea for the best extraction

We recommend a CTC black tea. CTC stands for "cut, tear, curl" (you'll also see "crush, tear, curl"), a machine method that turns tea leaves into tiny, uniform pellets. Because the pieces are so small, water pulls flavor out of them quickly, which is exactly what you want in the short time a shot takes. They also pack into a portafilter much like ground coffee, while big, fluffy whole leaves don't.

Our Irish Breakfast is a CTC blend of Assam and Kenya black teas with a strong, malty flavor that loves milk, so it's a great place to start.

CTC tea in the porta-filter.

Fill and tamp the portafilter

Fill and tamp the portafilter the way you normally would for coffee, but don't overfill it. Then pull your shot.

Adjust to taste

If the shot is too strong to enjoy on its own, top it up with hot water, much like an Americano. For a tea cappuccino or latte, add steamed milk and foam, and play with the ratio until it tastes right to you. A little honey or sugar is lovely, too.

Tea espresso dripping out into the cups.

Now turn on the machine and enjoy your first tea espresso! For more ways to brew, read our guide on how to brew the perfect cup of black tea, or browse our Black Tea collection.