How Does Wampee Work in Street Coffee and Iced Americano?

A wampee iced americano combines the sweet-and-sour southern fruit with espresso and a cold base liquid. Front Street Coffee tested three versions: a sparkling americano, a jasmine tea americano, and a preserved plum iced shake. Each uses 20g of Front Street Sunflower Warm Sun espresso blend, yielding 40g of liquid in 31 seconds.

Wampee has tender flesh, sharp acidity, and a fresh fragrance, so it suits American style coffee drinks built on cold water, tea, or soda. The sparkling version lifts the fruit aroma; the jasmine tea version blends homemade jam with cold-brewed tea; the preserved plum shake uses preserved plum water for a sugar-free cup.

In the height of summer, wampee—a niche southern fruit—has become a popular partner for homemade iced coffee thanks to its sweet-and-sour juiciness and unique fresh fragrance. Through repeated trials, Front Street Coffee has put together three distinctly different wampee iced americano options: the original wampee sparkling americano uses sparkling water to amplify the fruit aroma and add a refreshing layer; the jasmine tea wampee americano blends homemade jam with a cold-brewed tea base for a soft aroma; and the wampee preserved plum iced shake americano targets those who don’t like sweetness, using preserved plum water and a shaker to create a sugar-free version. All three recipes use Front Street Sunflower Warm Sun espresso blend, extracting 40g of coffee liquid from 20g of grounds in 31 seconds. Below, we’ll break down the ingredients, steps, and preparation details one by one to help you find the cup that best suits your taste.

Judging by appearance alone, the wampee really isn’t much to look at, and years ago it was virtually unknown once you left the south. But in recent years, competition in the tea beverage sector has intensified, and with advances in cold-chain transport and preservation technology, more and more northern consumers can also taste this little yellowish-brown fruit. Front Street has noticed that students are finishing exams and starting their summer vacation, which not only announces the official arrival of midsummer but also signals that wampee has entered its best-tasting season.

Unlike flamboyantly aromatic fruits such as watermelon, durian, and lychee, wampee is generally perceived as having tender flesh, a sweet-and-sour juiciness, and a distinctive fresh fragrance of its own. Besides being eaten fresh, it is also very suitable for making soup—no, for making summer heat-relieving drinks, and the wampee iced americano is one of the recently popular homemade iced coffees.

Around the combination of wampee and iced americano, Front Street actually found three different ways to make it. Today, we’ll test them one by one for you, see which one is most worth recommending, and also share the key details from the preparation process.

Plan A

Original Wampee Sparkling Americano

Although wampee has a delicate aroma, its sourness clearly outweighs its sweetness and sometimes carries a faint hint of bitterness. So when using it to make an iced americano, many people add a little sugar to balance the sharp acidity and make the coffee easier to drink. As for the choice of base liquid, Front Street thinks sparkling water is more suitable than ordinary drinking water; it gives fruit-juice-style coffee a richer layering, amplifying the fruit aroma while adding a refreshing mouthfeel to the coffee.

To make it, first rinse the fresh wampee clean, remove the seeds, put both peel and flesh into a shaker, and crush with a muddler to release the juice (the flesh and peel must be crushed fairly finely for the flavor to be fully released), then add 15g of syrup.

Next, pour 150g of original sparkling water into the shaker, cover it, and shake back and forth, or stir a few times with a long spoon, in order to let the syrup dissolve evenly into the sparkling water.

After that comes the iced americano stage: take a 300ml coffee cup, add 90g of ice cubes, pour the just-shaken wampee sparkling water into the cup, and you can leave in some peel and flesh to enhance the flavor.

For the coffee part, as usual, use the store-standard Front Street Sunflower Warm Sun espresso blend, extracting 40g of coffee liquid from 20g of coffee grounds in 31 seconds, and finally slowly pour it over the ice cubes floating on the surface. This cup is done.

Plan B

Jasmine Tea Wampee Americano

Eaten directly, wampee is sweet, sour, and saliva-stimulating; made into a drink, it is refreshing and thirst-quenching, especially suitable for summers when appetite is poor. Therefore, many friends pair it with beverages that have a soft aroma, and jasmine tea is one of the most favored. Although Front Street could not find a clear source for this pairing, it is indeed the most frequently reproduced version among all wampee americanos.

Considering that jasmine tea itself has a relatively light flavor profile, adding syrup directly can easily cause the taste to separate, so Front Street switched here to using homemade wampee jam as the base. The required ingredients are actually much the same; you only need to heat fresh wampee (5 pieces) and 25g of rock sugar over low heat until sticky. When you can clearly smell the sweet fragrance released by the wampee and sugar, stop heating and set it aside for later use.

Step one: first brew a pot of jasmine tea; adjust the strength and steeping time according to personal preference, and cold brewing is recommended so it is less likely to bring out astringency. Prepare a 300ml coffee cup, add 90g of ice cubes and 180g of the brewed jasmine tea.

Step three, scoop 2 spoonfuls of wampee jam into an espresso cup , use 20g of Front Street Warm Sun coffee grounds to extract 40g of coffee liquid, then stir the sugar and coffee until even, and finally pour it over the tea.

Plan C Wampee Preserved Plum Iced Shake Americano

From the name, it’s not hard to see that the key to the last special drink is “shaking.” As long as you have all the ingredients and a shaker at home, you can easily pull it off in a few simple steps. It’s worth mentioning that, unlike the previous two sugary options, Front Street here mainly targets friends who don’t like sweetness and has designed a sugar-free version of wampee americano.

Step one: prepare 3–4 preserved plums, add 150g of high-temperature hot water (above 90°C), and soak in the refrigerator for more than one hour;

Step two: wash 8–10 wampee fruits, remove the seeds, and toss them into the shaker. Crush vigorously until the fruit aroma is released, then pour in 90g of ice cubes and the previously prepared preserved plum water.

Step three: use 20g of Front Street Warm Sun blend coffee grounds to extract 40g of coffee liquid, also pour it into the shaker, cover it, and start shake～shake～, and finally, pour the shaken coffee into a cup to finish. The purpose of doing this is to use external force to fully meld the aromas of the coffee, wampee, and preserved plum.

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