Why does coffee taste like alcohol in a cola iced Americano?

A cola iced Americano made with a 1:4:2 ratio of 40ml espresso, 160ml cola and 80g ice produced a flavor that was neither coffee nor cola — tasters described it as an unsweetened sparkling herbal drink. The strange taste traces to carbonation, acidity and coffee oils interacting, not to actual alcohol.

The espresso used was a Warm Sun Blend pulled at 20g, 30 seconds, 38ml, with notes of whiskey aroma, butter cookies and sweet-sour berries. That whiskey-like note plus an americano sour edge can read as alcohol once carbon dioxide and coffee oils mix. Pouring slowly along the ice limits foam overflow.

When carbonated drinks hit the throat, the slight stimulation from the continuous bursting of carbon dioxide bubbles is always irresistible. So, what kind of spark will be created by combining cola and espresso? In this article, Front Street Coffee's Warm Sun Blend espresso and Coca-Cola are used for a real test, adding ice at a ratio of 1:4:2 to make a cola iced Americano, and addressing the strange taste by adjusting the ratio and removing oils repeatedly for verification. What are the results? And what details should be noted during preparation to avoid foam overflow? Let's take a look at the real performance of this cola coffee.

After a carbonated drink enters the mouth, the bubbles filled with carbon dioxide burst one after another due to the impact. It gives a slightly numbing, mildly painful stimulation, making it easy to become addicted the more you drink.

Extraction Experiment

The things to prepare are not complicated; espresso plus cola is enough! For this extraction of espresso, the Warm Sun Blend is still used, and the flavor it presents is: whiskey aroma, butter cookies, sweet and sour berries! Today's extraction parameters are 20g, 30 seconds, 38ml. As for the cola... sudden question: Are you Team Pepsi or Team Coca-Cola?

Front Street is Team Coca-Cola anyway, so the cola used this time is naturally the '86 Coca-Cola! The ratio is 1:4:2, with 40ml of coffee, 160ml of cola, and 80g of ice. Once everything is ready, you can start making it!

The method is actually very simple: just pour the cola and espresso into a glass with ice in order. However, like with sparkling iced Americano, if you pour the espresso with too much force, the coffee and cola will react violently, producing a lot of foam that overflows the glass, adding a lot of unnecessary cleanup work. So when pouring the espresso, be careful to pour as slowly as possible, along the ice (or the side of the glass).

After pouring, stir well and it's ready to enjoy! (Don't stir too hard)

(Everyone, take a sip first)

Unexpectedly, with one sip, that intense flavor shooting straight to the top of the head instantly shattered Front Street's imagined deliciousness. This cola iced Americano tastes neither like coffee nor cola; after the two are mixed, they form a familiar yet unique flavor—Banlangen flavor!!!

To put it this way, it's like drinking a cup of unsweetened sparkling Banlangen!! Front Street initially thought the strange taste was due to a problem with the ratio, so next, a series of experiments were conducted separately, adjusting the ratio and removing the espresso oils. The results of these experiments all coincidentally told Front Street: We! This is the flavor! So, Front Street summed it up in one sentence: Cola iced Americano is pretty good, but there won't be a next time!

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