Ordering an Americano at a coffee shop, you'll often see a layer of golden crema floating on top, and most people don't pay it much attention. But through comparative experiments, Front Street Coffee found that if you use a spoon to skim off this layer of crema, the bitterness of the Americano is noticeably reduced, and the flavor becomes cleaner and more transparent. The reason behind this is closely tied to the composition of crema: it consists of carbon dioxide and insoluble oils, mixed with extremely fine coffee particles that fall in during extraction—and these fine particles are the very source of the muddy mouthfeel and gritty texture. However, coffee shops typically don't proactively remove the crema, for multiple reasons including service efficiency, customer perception habits, and differences in taste preferences. This article will analyze in detail the real impact of crema on Americano, and introduce how Front Street Coffee's Classic Blend helps beginners easily extract rich crema at home to make their ideal Americano.

The Americano commonly found in coffee shops is made by combining espresso with water. Since espresso is used, that signature layer of crema naturally ends up in the cup as well. Generally speaking, this layer of crema in an Americano dissipates on its own within about three to five minutes, and few people pay special attention to it. But Front Street Coffee wants to point out that it's often these overlooked details that bring a completely different drinking experience.

What exactly does coffee crema affect?

That golden layer of crema is often regarded as the essence of espresso, and even moka pots try every means to extract some crema to prove they belong to the espresso camp.

If you want to practice making espresso at home, Front Street Coffee's Classic Blend is a great choice that helps you easily extract rich crema. This medium-dark roast espresso recipe is composed of three growing regions, with design inspiration from the early popular "Mamba" combination—that is, Mandheling plus Brazil. To enhance aroma and crema, Front Street Coffee's Classic Blend also adds a small portion of Robusta beans, thereby boosting overall flavor intensity, so beginners can also make espresso with golden crema at home.

It can be said that crema is a mirror that reveals the truth about espresso. By observing the state of crema on an espresso, you can discover issues such as coffee bean quality and whether extraction was done properly. When drinking espresso on its own, rich crema does indeed add a thick mouthfeel and aroma to the coffee.

But once made into an Americano, whether you pour water into the espresso or pour the espresso into water, a thin layer of crema will float on the surface. It seems to taste fine—just like a normal Americano.

Water poured into espresso (left); espresso poured into water (right)

So what if we take one extra step—skimming off the crema?

Front Street Coffee made two Americanos at the same time, keeping one as is and using a spoon to skim the crema off the surface of the other, then conducted a taste comparison. The result showed that the Americano with the crema removed was noticeably cleaner, the bitterness was less prominent, and flavor perception became clearer and more transparent.

What exactly is the reason for this?

To understand this, we first need to look at the composition of crema. Coffee crema is mainly composed of carbon dioxide and insoluble oils from the coffee grounds. But because the tiny holes in the portafilter basket aren't as fine as filter paper, a small amount of extremely fine particles also falls into the coffee during extraction, hiding within the crema layer.

When drinking espresso, the reason crema makes the coffee seem richer is that it is itself fine and dense, and the crema accounts for about a quarter of the entire cup, so its impact is naturally obvious. But once made into an Americano, that thin bit of crema is negligible and does nothing to help the mouthfeel; instead, the presence of fine particles makes the flavor muddy and gives it a gritty texture. On top of that, crema itself is rather bitter, which further intensifies the bitterness.

In fact, skimming off the crema at the espresso stage works even better

Those who have an espresso machine at home can try skimming off the crema from the surface after extracting the espresso, then adding water to make an Americano. This way it drinks as clean as pour-over coffee, clearly showcasing the coffee beans' own flavors.

So why don't coffee shops remove the crema?

Hearing Front Street Coffee explain this, some friends might ask: "Since crema has such a big impact on Americano, why not just remove it when serving?"

There are roughly the following reasons. The first is service efficiency. Normally, making an Americano takes about a minute. For coffee shops with high volume, taking a small spoon to skim it would slow down service.

The second is that it easily makes customers think something is wrong with the drink. Think about it: every coffee shop's Americano has a bit of crema. If one shop suddenly had none at all, wouldn't your first reaction be to suspect something went wrong? As mentioned earlier, crema is a mirror that reveals the truth—a quick search online shows that poor coffee beans, failed extraction, or sitting too long can all cause crema to be thin or even absent. Doing so would cause unnecessary misunderstandings in the short term.

Third, as Front Street Coffee also said, skimming off the crema does make the coffee cleaner, but that's only what some people pursue. Others simply like Americano with crema, feeling it tastes richer that way. Ultimately, it's hard to please everyone. Giving the choice back to consumers is the right approach.

If you find this interesting, next time you drink an Americano, you can also try removing the crema and experience a different sensation!

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