Technically, a ristretto, (Italian for restricted) is an extremely short coffee drink, even more concentrated than a traditional espresso shot.

It’s the purest form of espresso coffee, producing only around 0.5 to 0.75 ounces of coffee in around 25 seconds extraction time – around half the volume of a single espresso shot, yet produced in the same time.

In a ristretto shot, there is nowhere to hide.  Any imperfection in the beans or the preparation will be accentuated in the taste. But when it all comes together – an excellent blend, well roasted, well stored and well prepared – it can be the most sublime coffee. Devoid of bitterness, rich in sweetness and flavour, it’s the sort of drink that makes you realise why people drink coffee.  It’s that rare occasion when the coffee tastes as good as the aroma that drew you to it originally.

A ristretto then, is the purest, finest expression of the coffee experience, and the perfect name for a company that delivers this to your event or workplace.

“Many people within the coffee industry have told me that you can’t offer after dinner espresso on a large scale, but you can and we’ve done it,” said Ristretto’s managing director Joseph O’Hara.

“You need to have a clearly defined plan of action and a well trained, well practised team. A single barista able to make a great cup of coffee is one thing - but for this task you need to have a team of baristas each making 100 great coffees. We did a trial run before the event to ensure we could produce 480 properly extracted espressos, with no quality compromise in the time available.

“You also need to have buy-in and commitment from the food caterer. For this event we were working in partnership with Rhubarb, one of the UK’s top caterers who provided the overall catering for the dinner.

“Rhubarb were great: they understood the complexity of the problem and we had a planning meeting where we were able to discuss the logistics of the event, like the need to have large numbers of waiters ready to take the freshly prepared espressos directly to the right table. This is crucial, as espresso has to be served as soon as it’s made.

Ristretto will provide two identical mobile bars for the competition. Made from stainless steel and translucent polycarbonate, they feature programmable LED lighting that can be remotely activated to change the bar’s appearance to any of 16 different colours.

“We are very happy to be bar sponsors for the UKBC,” said Ristretto’s managing director Joseph O’Hara. “It’s a great competition bringing together the best baristas in the UK and they deserve to be competing on the best bars.”

“We operate a fleet of mobile coffee bars designed specifically for the event industry. Over the years we’ve incorporated features into the design of the bars to make them not only stylish and attractive, but practical too, and a real pleasure to work from.

“All of our mobile coffee bars are purpose designed, self contained barista stations. They have clean and waste water storage as well as internal pump and filter equipment to ensure the quality of the water used. They are designed to be highly mobile and able to be set up quickly – perfect for a competition with six regional heats and a final at Hotelympia.

“Safety is a prime concern with water and electricity so each bar is RCD protected for the safety of customers and staff. The bars even cut power to the coffee machine if you run out of water to protect the equipment!”

Ristretto has also provided coffee to the artists backstage at Live 8! and Glastonbury, and for clients including O2, Microsoft, Armani, Habitat, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and numerous others.

Ristretto, the UK’s premiere event coffee company, has once again provided a full service espresso bar for the artists at Glastonbury’s main stage.

“We had a great time again this year,” commented Joseph O’Hara, managing director of the company.

“There’s always a great buzz backstage at Glastonbury, and seriously good coffee is something of a necessity for the artists and their crews.

“It’s great to see the look on someone’s face when they’ve trekked through the rain and the mud to find a shiny espresso bar – and then you hand them a freshly made cappuccino, complete with latte art.”

Ristretto used the mud and the rain of Glastonbury as a ‘trial by fire’ for their new ‘Chameleon bar’.

Joseph O’Hara noted:

“Our new bar – which we collected brand new from our fabricators on our way to set up at Glastonbury – features dramatic programmable LED lighting which can be set to any one of 17 different colours – or can smoothly blend between all of them.  The colours can be changed instantly by remote control.

“The bar performed flawlessly throughout the event despite the adverse conditions.”

Serving at the bar this year were Joseph O’Hara, marketing director Anne O’Hara, and lead barista David Cormack.

“Once again,” said Joseph O’Hara, “we feel we’ve lived up to the comment from a member of the White Stripes crew at the last Glastonbury that we were a “shining beacon of civilisation in a sea of mud”.”

Ristretto has also provided coffee to the artists backstage for Live 8!, and has provided coffee for clients including O2, Microsoft, Armani, Habitat, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and numerous others.