Which americano coffee beans keep the cup from turning sour?

Americano flavor depends on three things: the beans, how the shot is extracted, and how hot or cold the drink is served. Espresso is pulled at roughly a 1:2 grounds-to-liquid ratio, then diluted with water. Beans with a darker roast or a blend of arabica and robusta tend to push the cup toward chocolate and nut notes instead of sharp acidity.

The same Costa Rica Mozart beans taste different as pour-over and as SOE americano, which shows how much the brew method matters. When the drink is served iced, the cold temperature mutes sweetness and makes acidity read more sharply, so a medium or dark roast blend usually balances better than a light single origin.

When many people drink Americano, their biggest concern is whether it is sour or bitter, and this is actually closely related to the choice of coffee beans, the extraction method, and the drinking temperature. Starting from Front Street Coffee's brewing experience, this article systematically sorts out the relationship between espresso and Americano, explains in detail the differences in flavor expression between hot Americano and iced Americano, analyzes the common reasons why Americano tastes bitter, and compares pour-over and SOE Americano made separately with the same Costa Rica Mozart coffee beans. Finally, according to different needs, it introduces the characteristics of several Front Street espresso blends to help you find the Americano beans that suit your taste.

This content is Front Street Coffee's brewing tutorial about Americano. Before getting to the main topic, let us first clarify a few basic concepts: what exactly are the differences among espresso, Americano, pour-over, and black coffee.

The so-called espresso refers to the concentrated liquid extracted under high pressure by an espresso machine. In most cases, the concentrated liquid is not served directly on its own, although occasionally a customer will order a shot of espresso in pursuit of a strong taste and a stimulating effect, but this situation is not common. The concentrated liquid is usually extracted at a powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:2, and the strength of its concentration and flavor can be imagined.

Adding water to espresso gives what is usually called Americano. If different proportions of milk or milk foam are added, then it becomes a latte or cappuccino, which are commonly called milk coffees. Both Americano and pour-over are classified as black coffee, but the difference between the two is that Americano is espresso diluted directly with water, while pour-over is extracted from coffee grounds using pour-over equipment, requiring neither an espresso machine nor a step of dilution with water. Next, let us focus on Americano.

Friends who follow Front Street Coffee should know that the coffee industry has experienced three waves: the first wave was marked by instant coffee, the second wave was represented by espresso and the like, and the third wave is the specialty coffee that is popular now. Although we are currently in the third wave of specialty coffee, and some have even proposed the idea of a fourth wave, the position of espresso remains unshakable. Making espresso is a basic skill that every barista must master, and almost every coffee shop serves espresso. What we usually call espresso-based coffee is a series of drinks derived from espresso as the base, including Americano, latte, cappuccino, and so on.

How do you make Americano?

Americano can be said to be the simplest of espresso drinks, because it consists of only two parts: espresso and water, while iced Americano additionally includes ice cubes. But do not let its simple structure make you careless. The simpler the combination, the more it tests technique, and Americano is often the best way to test a barista's skill in extracting espresso.

Compared with milk coffees such as latte, Americano lacks the interference of milk in the flavor, so it is the most direct way to feel the taste of the coffee beans themselves. Many baristas choose to order Americano when they visit other coffee shops, first because it is convenient and quick, and second because it allows them to judge the other shop's level of quality.

Back to the main topic. As mentioned earlier, Americano is simple to make; you just need to pour espresso into water. The espresso part needs extraction parameters set according to the characteristics of the beans, and different beans correspond to different plans. For example, Front Street Coffee's store uses a Warm Sun Blend—made from 70% sherry barrel coffee beans mixed with 30% sun-dried Yirgacheffe. Baristas have to adjust it every day according to the actual condition of the beans. In order to highlight the flavor of the sherry barrel, choose 20 grams of coffee beans, extract 40 grams of coffee liquid, and control the extraction time at 27 to 28 seconds.

When making hot Americano, first preheat the cup with hot water, then pour in hot water, and finally pour in the extracted espresso. The ratio for Americano is generally between 1:6 and 1:8. After repeated adjustments, Front Street Coffee chose 1:6, that is, 40 grams of coffee liquid to 240 grams of hot water.

Making iced Americano is similar: first pre-cool the cup with ice cubes, then pour in water, and finally pour in espresso. Because ice cubes are added, Front Street Coffee's iced Americano uses a 1:7 ratio, with 40 grams of coffee liquid to 280 grams of ice-water mixture, including 180 grams of ice cubes and 100 grams of water.

The difference in taste between hot Americano and iced Americano

The method for making Americano is actually very simple: dilute the extracted espresso with water in a certain ratio. Choosing a cold drink or a hot drink depends not only on personal preference, but perhaps, like pour-over coffee, it also presents different experiences at different temperatures. Human senses perceive taste differently at different temperatures, so the advantage of drinking hot coffee is that you can feel the flavor changes of the coffee from high temperature to low temperature. As the temperature drops, the tongue's sensitivity to bitterness and sweetness decreases, while it becomes more sensitive to acidity. At the same time, quinic acid in coffee degrades into quinic acid lactone, so coffee tastes more sour after it cools.

According to Front Street's comparison, hot Americano has obvious black cocoa and cream aromas, because at high temperature the aromas are more active in the air and easier for us to perceive; while iced Americano tastes more refreshing, overall leaning toward black cocoa, with bright acidity, balanced and rich.

Why does Americano taste bitter?

Quite a few customers also report that the Americano they drink is bitter, so must Americano be bitter? In fact, besides bitterness, coffee also has acidity and sweetness. Through taste, we can perceive the sourness, sweetness, bitterness, and saltiness of coffee, and factors such as different varieties and processing methods affect the proportion of these tastes, making it easier for us to perceive one or several of them. For example, Panama Geisha has relatively low bitterness, while SL28 and SL34 varieties adapted to Kenya's high-phosphate soil show extremely high acidity and aroma.

But if excessively obvious bitterness appears in Americano, what could be causing it?

Reason one: The taste of the coffee beans themselves

For black coffee like Americano, the flavor is mainly determined by the coffee beans themselves. So the first reason Americano tastes bitter may be that the espresso beans chosen are themselves dominated by rich, heavy flavors.

The rich flavor of espresso beans comes from their regional characteristics and a relatively dark roast level. For example, one of Front Street Coffee's specialty blend coffee beans mixes washed Colombian coffee beans with Brazilian coffee beans. Colombia gives this blend a main tone of dark chocolate, while Brazil provides nutty notes and a higher body. Front Street Coffee's roaster roasts this blend to a medium-dark level, giving it a wonderful balance, with medium-low acidity and medium bitterness.

Front Street Coffee's store used this specialty blend for many years, until it was replaced by the Warm Sun Blend at the end of 2019. Compared with the specialty blend, the Warm Sun Blend reduces bitterness and increases acidity, with a flavor leaning toward liqueur chocolate. This is a typical example of how bean selection affects the taste of Americano.

Reason two: Over-extraction

Besides bean selection, the bitterness of Americano may also come from mistakes in the extraction stage, such as uneven extraction caused by channeling, or over-extraction caused by grinding too fine.

Front Street Coffee often shares that, calculated by the weight of the coffee beans, only about 30% of the substances can be extracted, and it is not that the more of this 30% extracted, the better. According to the range recommended by the Golden Cup Standard, an extraction yield between 18% and 22% is most suitable. Below 18% is called under-extraction, shown as sharp acidity and a thin mouthfeel; above 22% is over-extraction, commonly known as over-extracted, usually shown as rich bitterness.

In order to ensure the stability of the coffee and keep the taste within the ideal range every day, Front Street Coffee's baristas need to adjust the espresso parameters before opening the store every day, making corresponding changes according to the beans' condition that day. For example, today the barista at Front Street Coffee's store adjusted the parameters to 20 grams of coffee powder extracting 35 grams of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 25 seconds. Compared with the previous plan of 20 grams of powder extracting 40 grams of liquid, today's plan reduces bitterness by reducing the tail end, achieving a more balanced taste.

Pour-over coffee vs Americano

What is pour-over coffee? Pour-over is a brewing method using a dripper, in which water is poured while filtration occurs during the brewing process, so the extraction mode of pour-over is also classified as drip extraction. The characteristics of pour-over coffee change depending on the dripper, and at the same time the brewer or barista can adjust the pouring speed or the amount of agitation to change the final taste.

Front Street Coffee's offerings cannot do without pour-over coffee. When serving pour-over, baristas choose a V60 or KONO dripper according to different beans. Taking the most classic V60 dripper as an example, each brew uses 15 grams of coffee beans, with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, a grind size of medium-fine, that is, an 80% pass rate through a 0.85 mm standard sieve, and a water temperature of 90 degrees Celsius.

The entire brewing process is divided into three pouring stages: the first stage pours 30 grams of water, called blooming, with the purpose of properly releasing carbon dioxide, and the blooming time is 30 seconds; the second stage pours water up to 125 grams, with a 10-second interval; the final stage pours water up to 225 grams, and the extraction time is about 2 minutes. Once 2 minutes is up, the coffee liquid has almost finished dripping, so remove the dripper and end the extraction. After brewing, shake it gently to let the coffee liquid mix fully, and it is ready to enjoy.

Americano and pour-over coffee are completely different brewing methods and extraction modes. Americano is a drink made by diluting espresso with water. When serving Americano, Front Street Coffee first needs to extract espresso, and baristas need to adjust the espresso extraction parameters before business every day so that the final product reaches its best state. For example, today's espresso extraction parameters are 20 grams of coffee powder, extracting 40 grams of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 26 seconds.

Finally, add water six times the amount of the espresso, and the Americano is complete. The taste of Americano is basically determined by the base tone of the espresso.

So if the same beans are made into Americano and pour-over respectively, what difference will there be in taste? For this purpose, the barista at Front Street Coffee's store used a Costa Rica Mozart to demonstrate, brewing Mozart pour-over coffee and an SOE Americano made with Mozart coffee beans.

There is no need to say much about making pour-over with Costa Rica Mozart, as the brewing method has already been shared above. In taste, it shows obvious fermentation, medium raisin and citrus flavors, and a relatively balanced mouthfeel. At the same time, the filter paper filters out most of the oils, so the mouthfeel is clean. On the contrary, the Americano made with Mozart SOE not only retains the oils, but under the high-pressure extraction environment the oils become more obvious and richer, and the mouthfeel is fuller, but the flavor is diluted by water and the intensity is somewhat lacking. We can still identify the fermentation and raisin characteristics of the Mozart coffee beans.

Americano coffee bean recommendations

What is the core of Americano? It is espresso. Most of the taste of espresso drinks comes from the espresso part, and latte, Americano, and others are all drinks greatly influenced by the taste of espresso. The taste of espresso first depends on the choice of espresso beans, and only second on the influence of extraction, so choosing good espresso beans is especially important. If you want to easily make an Americano as delicious as the ones in coffee shops, Front Street recommends using espresso blend coffee beans.

The main purpose of blending is to form a stable taste, that is, to produce a delicious and balanced mouthfeel. Several espresso coffee beans currently sold by Front Street Coffee are all blends: the espresso moka pot coffee beans recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend, Front Street Specialty Blend, Front Street Commercial Blend, Front Street Classic Espresso Blend, Front Street Sunflower Warm Sun Espresso Blend, and Front Street Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend coffee beans, six in total.

Front Street Specialty Blend coffee beans

The Specialty Blend coffee beans are an espresso bean that has accompanied Front Street Coffee's store for many years. To blend an espresso bean with stable performance, one needs to start with balanced, high-yield coffee-producing countries, so when Front Street's roaster formulated this Specialty Blend, they chose the two countries with the highest and most stable arabica coffee bean production in the world—Colombia and Brazil.

Washed Colombian coffee beans give this Specialty Blend soft fruit acidity, black cocoa, and caramel notes, while Brazilian coffee beans provide a full body and rich roasted nut aroma. Therefore, when this espresso bean is made into espresso, it carries a very obvious dark chocolate flavor, a solid and full mouthfeel, and a nutty finish.

This espresso blend's balanced and obvious dark chocolate taste makes it suitable for both black coffee and milk coffee, so Front Street Coffee chose this blend as a store offering for more than 6 years.

The espresso moka pot coffee beans recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend coffee beans

The Specialty Blend is a very stable and high-quality espresso blend, very suitable for many independent coffee shops as a daily offering. The espresso moka pot coffee beans recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend—is the second option provided by Front Street Coffee: high cost performance. The operation of a coffee shop cannot do without cost control, trying as much as possible to provide stable coffee while keeping costs down.

The espresso moka pot coffee beans recommended by many of Front Street Coffee's baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend coffee beans—are a more cost-effective coffee bean, blended from Brazilian and Yunnan coffee beans at a ratio of 70% Brazil and 30% Yunnan. The coffee beans from both Yunnan and Brazil lean toward nutty notes, while the Brazilian coffee beans give the espresso moka pot coffee beans recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend—a more solid mouthfeel and rich oils.

Warm Sun Blend coffee beans

In addition to the Specialty Blend and the espresso moka pot coffee beans recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend—Front Street Coffee also offers an espresso recipe with a more unique flavor. Front Street's roaster blended Honduras sherry barrel coffee beans and sun-dried Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project coffee beans. In order to bring the aroma to the extreme, they also re-established roasting curves for them separately, presenting a brand-new high-quality blend through post-blending, named "Warm Sun Blend."

As specialty coffee gradually became popular and developed, Front Street Coffee's baristas found in store operations that many customers were no longer satisfied with the stability brought by the Specialty Blend coffee. Front Street Coffee reconsidered, and perhaps it was time to bring in more fresh blends to enliven the store's offerings. In 2019, after repeated adjustments, this Warm Sun Blend coffee bean finally entered Front Street Coffee's bean list, and the store's Specialty Blend was replaced with Warm Sun Blend coffee beans.

Front Street Coffee's baristas believe that among these three blends, the Specialty Blend is the choice for pursuing stability, the espresso moka pot coffee beans recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend—is the choice for high cost performance, and the Warm Sun Blend is the choice for flavor. The three have different goals, so the customers they suit are naturally different.

The unique taste of the Warm Sun Blend comes from its Honduras sherry barrel coffee beans. After the coffee fruit undergoes part of the washed processing steps, it is placed in sherry barrels for low-temperature fermentation, and finally dried. This processing method gives the sherry coffee beans an obvious wine aroma. Front Street Coffee's roaster mixed in sun-dried Yirgacheffe coffee beans to provide more acidity for the Warm Sun Blend and increase the layering of the whole blend.

Front Street Coffee's store adjusts parameters every day according to the condition of the beans; for example, using 20 grams of coffee powder to extract 40 grams of coffee liquid, with an extraction time between 26 and 28 seconds. The espresso made with these parameters has medium acidity, medium bitterness, and a medium body. It is balanced, with obvious black cocoa and citrus flavors, and a finish of fermented wine aroma.

Made into Americano, it presents obvious winey chocolate and citrus acidity; made into latte, it has flavors such as vanilla cream and liqueur chocolate.

Commercial Blend coffee beans

The Commercial Blend is different from the other three blends. The Commercial Blend is based on the consideration of opening a shop. The main tone of the Commercial Blend coffee beans is Colombia and Brazil, and on this basis, Front Street Coffee added robusta coffee beans.

The purpose of doing so is to add more oils to the coffee, not only making the Americano taste richer but also leaving almost no acidity, while baristas can also easily handle latte art when making lattes. Although it is not 100% arabica, mixing in a small amount of robusta can increase the body, oils, and rich coffee taste of the beans, making it the best choice for businesses opening a shop.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.