Whether hot Americano tastes better or iced Americano tastes better is just like whether tofu pudding should be savory or sweet—it has coffee lovers split into two camps. At times like this, there are always onlookers who say: it's all just espresso diluted with water, so how different can hot and iced really be? Actually, it really is different!
What is Americano?
Americano originated during World War II, when American soldiers stationed in Europe couldn't get used to the extremely strong espresso, so they added water to dilute it. Therefore, Americano was essentially created to dilute coffee to a concentration that Americans at the time found suitable for drinking.
Later, Italians immigrated to the United States, and Italian-style coffee shops sprang up there, bringing espresso-based Americano into prominence. They also established the practice of pouring coffee first and then water as a way of expressing the idea of diluting strong coffee. Until now, the order of making Americano hasn't been given much fuss—the only real difference is whether the crema is preserved or broken up.
A Little Experiment
In this article, Front Street uses Sunflower Warm Sun blend coffee beans (a blend of Sherry coffee beans and Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans in a 7:3 ratio) to make three espressos with identical extraction parameters, then adds ice water, room-temperature water, and 88°C hot water respectively for a comparison of aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel, to see how Americanos at three different temperatures perform.
The espresso extraction parameters for this experiment: Feima E78 espresso machine, Feima 900N grinder, grind setting 1.9, double portafilter, 20g coffee grounds, 35g extracted espresso (double shot), extraction time 27 seconds. The espresso extracted with these parameters presents: whiskey aroma, milk chocolate, vanilla cream, soft acidity, caramel-like finish, pronounced aroma, and rich mouthfeel. The ratio of espresso to hot water that Front Street uses when making Americano is 1:6 (1g coffee liquid to 6g water).
| How to Make Iced Americano
Prepare 110g of ice cubes and 100g of room-temperature water to make an ice-water mixture, then pour in the 35g of extracted espresso. Since the ice keeps melting, you need to stir it when tasting.
| How to Make Room-Temperature Americano
First pour the 35g of extracted espresso into the cup, then add 210g of room-temperature water.
| How to Make Hot Americano
First pour the 35g of extracted espresso into the cup, then add 210g of hot water (88°C water is fine~ it shouldn't be too hot; overly hot water tends to produce a burnt, scorched taste when making Americano).
Americanos at three different temperatures each have their own characteristics
Hot Americano has a very lively whiskey aroma, with acidity that isn't pronounced, showing more hazelnut and caramel notes, and the coffee has high body.
Room-temperature Americano has a less pronounced aroma than hot Americano, with soft acidity and a smooth mouthfeel. Since the espresso's crema layer hasn't been broken up, it has more of a vanilla-cream-like smoothness along with a nutty, caramel finish.
Iced Americano has the least aroma of the three, but the most pronounced acidity of the three. On the palate it has whiskey aroma, berry-like sweet-tartness, and a hazelnut-chocolate-like finish, with a refreshing, smooth mouthfeel.
Human senses perceive taste differently at different temperatures, so the advantage of tasting hot coffee is that you can perceive how the coffee's taste changes from hot to cold. And when tasting iced coffee, the low temperature reduces the taste buds' perception of bitterness and sweetness, making them more sensitive to sourness. When you're torn about what temperature of Americano to drink, just choose according to the mouthfeel you want at the moment~
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
