Americano has become the beverage of choice for many young people. A cup of Americano after a meal not only cuts through greasiness and aids digestion, but also effectively breaks down fat—combined with proper exercise, it can even help with weight loss. That's why Americano has also become the go-to coffee drink for many celebrities. Front Street Coffee also serves Americano, and many regulars enjoy stopping by Front Street Coffee after a meal to order a cup of Americano and chat about everyday life.
So what exactly is Americano? The method for making Americano is very simple—just add water directly to extracted espresso. In other words, diluted espresso is Americano. Unsweetened Americano has a bitter taste, which may take some getting used to for those who regularly drink milk-based coffee, and they often get in the habit of adding sugar packets. Front Street believes that whether to add sugar to Americano is entirely up to personal taste. A pure Americano has its own distinctive Americano flavor, but there's nothing wrong with adding sugar if you don't enjoy the bitter profile.
The bitter taste of Americano comes partly from the fact that Americano beans are generally roasted darker than pour-over coffee beans.
What beans does Front Street use for Americano?
Generally, coffee shops use blend beans or dark-roasted beans for making Americano. As for flavor, it's recommended to choose beans with notes of nuts, cocoa, caramel, chocolate, and the like. The beans Front Street Coffee uses for Americano are Front Street's own blend, which they've named Sunflower Warm Sun Blend. This blend uses Honduras Sherry and Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee. Through continuous blending by Front Street Coffee's baristas, they arrived at a near-perfect blend ratio of 6:4. The resulting espresso has pronounced fruit acidity, along with berry flavors and wine aroma, with a pleasantly sweet finish.
The reason blend beans are chosen for making Americano is twofold: on one hand, you can blend a flavor you enjoy by leveraging the characteristics of each bean. Sometimes Robusta beans are added to the blend to enhance the crema of the extracted Americano. On the other hand, adding Robusta beans can reduce costs compared to specialty coffee prices.
The Sunflower Warm Sun coffee beans that Front Street just mentioned include Honduras Sherry coffee beans. The Sherry beans undergo a refined washed process plus whiskey sherry barrel fermentation, which adds a vinous note to the Americano. Of course, if you don't like Honduras's special processing method, you can also consider other beans. For example, Front Street's Front Street Dark Cocoa Blend uses Yunnan coffee and Brazil coffee in a 3:7 ratio—this espresso blend has soft fruit acidity and caramel sweetness. There's also Front Street's Specialty Blend, which uses Colombian coffee beans paired with Brazilian coffee beans in a 3:7 ratio. Colombia's characteristic nutty and chocolate notes combine with Brazil's rich peanut and cream flavors. This espresso blend is very balanced overall, with rich crema and an extremely smooth mouthfeel, offering a light fragrance with a slightly American-style bitterness.
AmericanoThe most important part is extracting the espresso. Every espresso machine has different usage parameters. Front Street Coffee currently uses a Lelit V3 espresso machine, and the extraction parameters used are the result of multiple extraction adjustments by Front Street.
Pressure: 9 bar
Temperature: 90.5~96°C
Time: 20~30 sec
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:1.7~1:2
Dose: 12g (single shot espresso) 20g (double shot espresso)
Extraction yield: 20ml (single) 40ml (double)
At the same time, these same parameters also apply to making milk-based coffee, such as lattes, cappuccinos, and so on.
Hot Americano
Front Street uses a double shot—that is, 40ml of espresso—for making Americano. You can add an appropriate amount of hot water according to your desired strength. Of course, the hot water temperature should ideally be around 85°C, and it's best not to add too much hot water, otherwise the resultingAmericanowill taste very weak. The traditional Americano ratio is generally 1:8, but Front Street Coffee currently doesn't use this ratio. Front Street adjusted it according to the cup size served in-store, ultimately settling on a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:4.5 for Americano.
Iced Americano
Making an iced Americano is very simple and convenient. You just need to mix ice and water at a 1:1 ratio to get the amount of water you need, then extract the espresso and pour it in.
Differences Between Hot and Iced Americano, Front Street Coffee lists the following three aspects:
1. The color of the coffee drink. Hot Americano is brown-black in color, while iced Americano takes on a translucent brown. This is related to the ratio of coffee liquid to water. Front Street Coffee's hot Americano water-to-coffee ratio is approximately1:4.5, while iced Americano reaches about1:9.
2. The difference in caffeine content. Front Street's hot Americano uses only one shotespresso, while iced Americano uses two.
3. Different mouthfeel. Iced Americano's flavor is more restrained—the addition of ice makes it refreshing rather than heavy. Hot Americano, on the other hand, is relatively heavier with a full aroma, and thecremaon the surface enhances the coffee's complexity and creamy texture, naturally boosting the body. The hot coffee liquid of an iced Americano rapidly cools upon contact with ice, causing the overall flavor to change while remaining consistent. But hot Americano's flavor changes relatively as the temperature shifts. Taking Front Street Coffee's hot Americano as an example: the coffee has a mixed aroma of floral and wine notes. When hot, there's an obvious fermented sensation on the first sip, and a mouthful along with the surface "crema" gives the coffee a creamy, smooth texture. As the temperature drops, acidity begins to emerge, and the fermented wine aroma lingers in the mouth long after swallowing. At a comfortable drinking temperature, the sweetness is also very pronounced, with caramel notes.
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
