ristretto

This term is borrowed directly from Italian, where it literally means restricted. In a cafe setting, it describes a specific brewing technique rather than just a smaller volume of coffee. Because it uses less water to extract the coffee, it avoids the more bitter notes found in the later stages of an espresso pull, resulting in a syrupy texture and a more concentrated sweetness.

While often used as a countable noun when ordering a specific drink, it can also function as an uncountable noun when referring to the style of brew or the liquid itself. It is primarily used in specialty coffee contexts and is rarely substituted with general terms like short or small without losing the specific technical meaning of the extraction process.