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"Why do celebrities all drink Americano?" A friend recently asked when chatting with a Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) barista. Celebrities like drinking Americano for several reasons: the caffeine in it can refresh them, drinking Americano without any other ingredients can help with weight loss and reducing bloating, and it is quick to make.
What isAmericano?
As one of the black coffees that has swept the world, Americano can be said to have witnessed nearly three generations of coffee waves. The origin of Americano is disputed. Some say Americans liked the concentration of this type of black coffee, so it was called Americano; others say American soldiers during World War II were not used to the extremely strong pressure-extracted coffee liquid in Italy, so they added water to dilute the coffee's concentration.
According to the Oxford Dictionary's explanation of Americano: a type of coffee drink made by adding hot water to espresso coffee. This means that only when hot water is added to espresso is it Americano. Simply put, espresso diluted with water is Americano.
From this explanation, it can be seen thatAmericanocannot be made without espresso. In other words, the claim that Americano originated in Italy is relatively consistent with this.
What is espresso?
Espresso is a highly concentrated coffee liquid extracted under high pressure by an espresso machine.
In an industrial era when everyone pursued speed, Italian laborers urgently needed a coffee drink that could be made quickly and refresh them, so they could perk up and stimulate their spirits during a short break. Therefore, in 1884, an Italian registered a patent for a steam-powered machine used to make coffee.
Because it was extracted quickly, the coffee made by this machine was named "espresso." The name comes from the past participle of the Italian word esprimere, which comes from the Latin exprimō, meaning "to press out." But some linguists believe its meaning is similar to the English express, meaning "fast, personal, and exclusive." Although the two interpretations of its etymology differ, they precisely reflect two major characteristics of espresso.
The coffee is indeed made quickly, but the taste... burnt and bitter, making it hard to swallow. So it is not unreasonable that American soldiers drank it diluted with water.
However, today's espresso is no longer what it used to be. Both the design of coffee machines and the making of espresso have become more refined. In 1910, an Italian Milanese designer, Luigi Bezzera, acquired the patent for the steam-powered coffee machine and added a handle and portafilter basket to the original steam boiler coffee machine, and researched and adjusted the grind size of the coffee beans.
This allows coffee particles, through external pressure, to have their own density in the coffee bed resist the rapid passage of high-pressure water flow, better distribute the water flow striking down under high pressure, and allow the water to pass evenly through the entire coffee bed and then "press out" a cup of balanced coffee. This mechanism and method of extracting espresso are still used today.
With the spread of specialty coffee culture, people have become more particular about the coffee beans used to make espresso, and have pursued greater expression of espresso flavor.
What coffee beans should be chosen for making Americano?
Whether Americano tastes good depends on whether a coffee bean can express a balanced coffee flavor under pressure extraction. For its daily espresso-based products, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) chooses to use blended coffee beans.
The advantages of blended coffee beans are that they can stabilize the flavor quality of coffee products, balance the shortcomings of single-origin coffee beans by making up for each other's weaknesses, and reduce product costs.
As an agricultural product, even if coffee beans are of the same variety and grown in the same region, their flavor expression can differ from year to year. The flavor "shortcomings" of single-origin coffee beans may also be magnified under pressure extraction. Therefore, blending coffee beans from several different origins in different proportions can effectively solve the problem of unstable flavor and mouthfeel.
At present, the four blended coffee beans sold by Front Street are all very suitable for making Americano and espresso products. They are:
"Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) - Warm Sun Blend Coffee Beans": Ethiopian natural Red Cherry coffee beans (30%) + Honduras Sherry barrel coffee beans (70%), with rich wine aroma, vanilla cream, berry sweetness and acidity, and roasted nut flavor.
"Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) - Front Street Specialty Blend Coffee Beans": Colombian washed coffee beans (30%) + Brazilian semi-dry-process coffee beans (70%), with nut, dark chocolate, and caramel flavor.
"Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) - Front Street Commercial Blend Coffee Beans": Robusta washed coffee beans (10%) + Colombian washed coffee beans (30%) + Brazilian semi-dry-process coffee (60%), with nut, cocoa, and caramel flavor.
"Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) - Front Street Dark Cocoa Blend Coffee Beans": Yunnan washed small-bean coffee (30%) + Brazilian semi-dry-process coffee beans (70%), with soft fruit acidity, caramel, and nut flavor.
From the above, we can understand that the soul of Americano lies in espresso. Only when the extraction tastes right will the Americano be delicious. The performance of every coffee machine and grinder is different, so there is no standard answer for espresso-making parameters, and everyone needs to adjust according to the actual situation.
When we use a new coffee bean, or a new grinder/coffee machine, the best way is to start adjusting from a baseline. Usually Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) uses 20 grams of very finely ground coffee powder to extract 40 grams of liquid, uses 9 bar of pressure, and extracts for 25-30 seconds.
Each extraction needs to be tasted to determine the coffee's flavor expression. If the coffee tastes very sour and is under-extracted, you can try reducing the grammage of coffee powder while maintaining the same liquid gram weight, or you can lengthen the extracted liquid gram weight while keeping the coffee powder grammage unchanged.
Taking the preparation method at Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) stores as an example, the stores use Sunflower Warm Sun Blend coffee beans as the espresso beans. Every day, baristas must adjust according to the condition of the beans. In order to highlight the flavor of the sherry barrel, they choose 20 grams of coffee beans, extract 40 grams of coffee liquid, and use an extraction plan of 27 to 28 seconds.
As forAmericano's water-to-coffee ratio, it also needs to be determined according to the final espresso's flavor concentration. If it is really hard to gauge the ratio, it is recommended to start from 1:5. If the coffee tastes strong, increase the proportion of water; if it tastes weak, reduce the proportion of water.
Americano without added sugar or milk, like black coffee, contains about 5-15 calories, making it a low-calorie drink. The caffeine in coffee can promote metabolism, while chlorogenic acid can slow the body's absorption of carbohydrates, helping to boost fat burning and weight loss! Having a cup of Americano after a meal can aid digestion and cut through greasiness.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
