Why order an iced americano vs hot americano with no water?

An iced Americano with no water is simply an Americano in which ice cubes replace the water, so the espresso is poured directly over ice. The standard recipe at Front Street Coffee is 38g of espresso, 90g of aged ice and 170g of room-temperature water. For the water-free version, the ice is cut to 60g, giving 38g of coffee liquid plus 60g of ice in a smaller cold brew cup.

Pulling espresso straight onto ice chills the liquid quickly, which locks in more aromatic compounds and improves flavor and mouthfeel. The idea echoes Extract Chilling, the concept Australian barista Hugh Kelly presented at the 2021 World Barista Championship, where a frozen metal block cooled espresso as it left the portafilter spout. Beginners can try the waterless version at home with any espresso setup.

"Hey handsome! One iced americano, no water."

This was a drink request a barista at Front Street Coffee once received. Although Front Street has quite a few secret menu items (like Flat White and Dirty), hearing this request still gave them a moment's pause. Requests for iced americano without ice come up occasionally, but an iced americano without water is quite rare. After all, isn't an iced americano without water just an espresso with ice?

Water + espresso = americano — everyone should know this formula.Add hot water and you get a hot americano; add ice water and you get an iced americano. Many people can't handle coffee that's too intense, but still want their caffeine fix while cooling off and quenching their thirst — an iced americano is a great choice.

All-ice Americano!!

What about the "iced Americano, no water" that the customer at the beginning ordered? It's actually an "all-ice Americano." When we break it down and read it: all-ice, Americano, it's easy to understand: an Americano with only ice cubes, completely replacing the water portion of the Americano with ice cubes. This way of drinking it actually has many other names, such as pure ice Americano, iced espresso, espresso with ice...

When Front Street Coffee makes this water-free iced Americano, it adjusts the ice amount to 60g, that is, 38g of coffee liquid + 60g of aged ice, and switches to a smaller-capacity cold brew cup, extracting the espresso directly over the cup already filled with ice cubes. The espresso extracted this way is immediately cooled by the ice cubes, locking in more aromatic substances and resulting in better flavor and mouthfeel.

What are the benefits of making iced Americano this way? And how does it taste different?

Those who have paid attention to barista competitions may know that in the 2021 WBC (World Barista Championship), Australian barista Hugh Kelly proposed a concept called Extract Chilling during the competition. In the competition, he extracted espresso like this: placing a frozen metal block between the espresso cup and the spout of the portafilter, so that when the espresso liquid flows out from the spout, it passes through this metal block to cool down, and only then reaches the espresso cup.

Hugh said this: "The first 12 grams of coffee liquid that comes out contains the most volatile compounds (aroma). By rapidly cooling the coffee liquid, the coffee retains more flavor and aroma."

The Americano made this way actually tastes closer to drinking espresso directly, but after rapid cooling by ice cubes (locking in flavor) and slight dilution, the coffee becomes easier to drink, and there is no need to worry about the flavor and aroma lost during the cooling process. It still tastes quite rich.

Front Street Coffee used Sunflower Warm Sun blend coffee beans to make a normal iced Americano and an all-ice Americano for comparison. Compared with the large cup of iced Americano mixed with ice water, the all-ice Americano has a higher concentration and is relatively more bitter, and overall you can feel more layered changes in acidity and aroma. If you are also interested in the all-ice Americano, why not give it a try next time you order an Americano~

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