Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee beans. Espresso often has a thicker consistency than coffee brewed by other methods, a higher concentration of suspended and dissolved solids, and crema (foam). As a result of the pressurized brewing process the flavours and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are very concentrated. Espresso is the base for other drinks, such as a latte, cappuccino, macchiato, mocha, or americano. Espresso has more caffeine per unit volume than most beverages, but the usual serving size is smaller—a 30 mL (1 US fluid ounce) shot of espresso has 40 to 75 mg of caffeine, which is less than half the caffeine of a standard 240 mL (8 US fluid ounces) cup of drip-brewed coffee. A professional operator of an espresso machine is a barista, the Italian word for bartender.

Espresso is made by forcing very hot water under high pressure through finely ground, compacted coffee. Tamping down the coffee promotes the water's even penetration of the grounds. This process produces an almost syrupy beverage by extracting both solid and dissolved components. It also produces the definitive crema, by emulsifying the oils in the ground coffee into a colloid, which does not occur in other brewing methods. There is no universal standard defining the process of extracting espresso, but there are several published definitions which attempt to place constraints on the amount and type of ground coffee used, the temperature and pressure of the water, and the rate of extraction. Generally, one uses an espresso machine to make espresso. The act of producing a shot of espresso is often termed "pulling" a shot, originating from lever espresso machines, which require pulling down a handle attached to a spring-loaded piston, forcing hot water through the coffee at high pressure. Today, however, it is more common for the pressure to be generated by an electric pump.

Café Cubano (Cuban coffee, Cuban espresso, cafecito, Cuban pull, Cuban shot) is a type of espresso which originated in Cuba after espresso machines were first imported there from Italy. Specifically, it refers to an espresso shot which is sweetened with demerara sugar as it is being brewed, but the name covers other drinks that use Cuban espresso as their base.

Drinking café cubano remains a prominent social and cultural activity within Cuba, South Florida, Tampa and the Keys, as well as the Cuban exile community.

Traditional Cuban-style espresso is made by adding demerara sugar to the container into which the espresso will drip, allowing the espresso to mix with the sugar as it is brewed – compare Vietnamese coffee preparation. Some people believe that this results in a smooth, sweet espresso.

A method commonly used to prepare a café cubano is to initially add only the first few drops of espresso to the sugar and mix vigorously. This results in a creamy, light brown paste. The remaining espresso is then added to this paste and mixed, creating a light brown foam layer, or espumita, atop the coffee. A proper cafecito can be made using either an espresso machine or an Italian moka pot, macchinetta.

Cubano could mean:

El Cubano Libre (English: The Free Cuban) was the paper that was established by Che Guevara during the midst of the Cuban Revolution. It was used as counter-propaganda to the Batista dictatorship and to inform the Cuban people about the mission of the July 26 Movement.

El Cubano Libre was established by Guevara in November 1957 in the Sierra Maestra. Guevara took the name from a paper published by Cuban patriots during the independence wars against Spanish colonialism in the 19th century.