How Does a Long Black Differ From an Americano?

Black coffee means coffee with nothing added, and the flavor differences between cups come mostly from the beans and the extraction, not the water. Americano and long black share the same two ingredients, espresso and hot water, but the pouring order differs, which changes how much crema stays in the cup and how the coffee tastes.

Americano was popularized by U.S. soldiers in Europe who diluted strong espresso with water. A long black reverses that order, pouring espresso over hot water so more crema is preserved, giving a crisper, sweeter cup. Front Street Coffee's four espresso blends, including Basic Blend and Commercial Blend, show how roast level and blended coffee beans shape the final flavor.

The same cup of black coffee can be crisp and sweet in one case, yet scorched and bitter in another—where exactly does the difference lie? This article starts with the definition of black coffee, traces the origins and flavor formation of Americano, and compares Americano and Long Black in terms of preparation order, coffee-to-water ratio, and taste performance. It also draws on the extraction parameters used at Front Street Coffee stores to introduce, one by one, the recipes, roast levels, and flavor characteristics of four espresso blends—Basic Blend, Commercial Blend, Warm Sun Blend, and Specialty Blend—helping coffee lovers and café operators find the bean that suits them.

Black coffee refers to a cup of coffee with no additives whatsoever; some people also call it "plain coffee." Common black coffees in daily life include Americano, pour-over, cold brew, ice drip, siphon, and more, among which Americano is the most widely accepted and is also Front Street's go-to cup for a daily pick-me-up.

How did Americano come about?

During World War II, American soldiers stationed in Europe couldn't get used to the extremely strong espresso, so they added water to dilute it. In other words, the original purpose of Americano was to bring espresso's concentration down to the level Americans were accustomed to at the time.

Later, Italian immigrants brought espresso cafés to the United States, and Americano, with espresso as its base, became popular along with them. In the act of "adding water," a sequence of putting the coffee in first and then adding water also took shape, to express the idea of diluting espresso. Today, there are no longer many hard-and-fast rules about the order of operations for Americano; the only difference is whether the crema is preserved or broken up.

What does Americano taste like?

The answer is actually quite straightforward: the flavor of Americano comes from the coffee beans. It is simple to make, focused on convenience, speed, and free-spirited ease. Compared with espresso, Americano has a crisper mouthfeel and better expresses the coffee beans' original flavors. Precisely for this reason, Americano has become almost a "standard offering" in every café.

Some shops make an Americano that is sweet and delicious, while others make one so scorched and bitter it's hard to swallow—why such a big difference? Front Street believes it mainly comes down to two things:

1/ The quality of the coffee beans themselves; 2/ The barista's extraction skill.

Americano is made up of espresso and water. Water has no flavor and only serves to dilute, so whether it tastes good depends on the espresso, and the flavor of the espresso in turn depends on the beans and the extraction. Since Americano's taste is determined by the beans used to extract the espresso, a proper Americano should be well-balanced and full-bodied overall, without any watery, scorched-bitter, or sharply sour notes.

PS:

If you taste bitterness when drinking an Americano, consider whether the espresso was over-extracted.

Sharp sourness corresponds to under-extraction of the espresso, while a watery taste means too much water was added.

What methods are there for making Americano?

Since Americano contains only two things—espresso and water—the mainstream methods fall into two categories:

1/ Adding water to the espresso; 2/ Pouring the extracted espresso into the water.

The former is usually called Americano, while the latter is mostly called Long Black.

Americano consists only of espresso and water, staying closer to coffee's original taste—neither as intense and heavy as espresso nor as hard to accept as espresso.

The difference between Americano and Long Black

Americano is made by first extracting the espresso and then adding water to dilute it, with an espresso-to-water ratio between 1:5 and 1:8. As the water is added, the espresso's crema gets broken up, and the concentration stays roughly consistent from the first sip to the last.

Long Black, by contrast, is made by first adding water to the cup and then pouring in the extracted espresso, so the crema is preserved, with an espresso-to-water ratio of 1:3. Because espresso and water have different densities, the coffee's intensity will gradually shift from top to bottom if it isn't stirred. So the first sip of a Long Black is the richest and fullest, with the smoothness the crema brings, while the flavors that follow come across as clearer and cleaner.

The flavor differences between Americano and Long Black

In its daily espresso extraction, FrontStreet Coffee uses the Sunflower Warm Sun Blend coffee beans, with extraction parameters of 20g of grounds yielding 40g of coffee liquid in 28 seconds. The espresso's flavor profile is: sherry aroma, soft berry acidity, a vanilla-cream-like mouthfeel, and a hazelnut-chocolate finish.

Made into a hot Americano at a 1:6 coffee-to-water ratio, the flavor and mouthfeel are: pronounced and lively sherry aroma, understated berry acidity, and a finish of hazelnut and vanilla chocolate.

Made into a Long Black at a 1:3 coffee-to-water ratio, the flavor and mouthfeel are: creamy smoothness and a strong sherry aroma on entry, a clear caramel and chocolate finish, intense on the palate, and clean in the aftertaste.

When making espresso, FrontStreet Coffee stores use a double shot.

Choosing the right espresso blend bean is equally crucial. Blended coffee, also called mixed coffee, combines multiple single-origin coffee beans so that each one's strengths can be fully brought out. Blend beans are made up of coffees from different origins, with the goal of achieving a more balanced taste.

For example, if one bean has a smooth mouthfeel but insufficient aroma, you can add another bean with a full aroma, letting the strengths of different coffee beans offset one another—complementing or reinforcing each other in flavor—thereby creating a richer new taste.

Front Street uses a Pegasus E98 espresso machine, with the following extraction parameters: Pressure: 9 bar Temperature: 90.5–96°C Time: 25–33 seconds Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:1.7–1:2 Dose: 12g (single shot), 20g (double shot) Extracted espresso yield: 20ml (single), 40ml (double)

Next, FrontStreet Coffee walks you through the specifics of several espresso blend beans available in its stores.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that before making a blend, you must first understand the flavors of different coffee varieties around the world, as beans from different origins show different characteristics. Different coffee beans have distinct personalities due to differences in variety and origin, with subtle differences in acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, body, and other flavors. Single-origin coffee beans tend to emphasize the unique characteristics of one particular type of coffee.

The advantage of post-roast blending is that, after roasting, the beans can complement each other based on their flavor performance, and the proportion weights can be fine-tuned according to actual conditions, thereby delivering a stable coffee flavor. Espresso Bean Blending Plans Detailed Introduction (with specific recipes)

What are blended coffee beans? Depending on the types of coffee used, the resulting espresso beans will also have different characteristics in taste and flavor. Blended coffee beans are a mix of multiple coffee beans from different origins. Blending serves two purposes: first, to create a stable taste; second, to create flavors that a single origin cannot provide. The several espresso beans FrontStreet Coffee currently sells are all blends—namely, the espresso bean recommended by many baristas, Front Street Black Cocoa Blend, along with the Specialty Blend, Commercial Blend, and Warm Sun Blend coffee beans.

1/ Basic Blend Espresso Beans

Flavor: Cream, Nuts, Chocolate Recipe: 60% Brazilian coffee beans, 40% Yunnan coffee beans

FrontStreet Coffee's Basic coffee beans offer excellent value for money. FrontStreet Coffee selects well-balanced Brazilian coffee beans, then adds Yunnan coffee beans—whose flavor and mouthfeel are weaker than Brazilian beans—to temper the mix, producing the most universally appealing flavor profile. Whether you're a newcomer just getting into coffee or a seasoned enthusiast who's been drinking it for years, this espresso bean is easy to accept.

For this blend, FrontStreet Coffee uses a medium-dark roast.

When pulled as espresso, it tastes slightly tart, crisp and sweet, with a nutty sweetness in the finish, balanced overall and not too aggressive. The crema is medium, enough to meet most cafés' daily needs for making latte coffee.

As mentioned above, FrontStreet Coffee's Specialty Espresso Beans are a very stable, high-quality espresso blend, well suited for independent cafés as a daily offering. And FrontStreet Coffee's Basic Espresso Beans are the second high-value option FrontStreet Coffee offers.

Running a café is inseparable from costs . Every operator hopes to keep costs as low as possible while still delivering consistent coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Basic coffee beans are a highly cost-effective option, using Brazilian and Yunnan coffee beans in the blend. Coffee beans from both Yunnan and Brazil lean toward a nutty character; the Brazilian beans give this Basic espresso blend a more solid mouthfeel and rich crema.

2/ Commercial Blend Espresso Beans

Flavor: Rich and mellow

Nuts

Strong sweetness when paired with milk Recipe: 6 0% Brazilian coffee beans, 30% Colombian coffee beans, 10% Robusta

This blend tastes richly creamy with caramel sweetness, along with nutty, cocoa, and dark chocolate flavors—balanced in acidity and sweetness, slightly bittersweet, with a lingering finish. A small amount of Robusta coffee beans adds richness to the crema, and because the amount is small, it won't change the flavor too much.

The reason Front Street named this blend "Commercial Blend Coffee Beans" is that it performs well whether made into an Americano or a milk coffee, and with its price advantage, it's very well suited to commercial cafés. The espresso has very rich crema, a smooth and slightly bitter taste, and a very full-bodied texture.

3/ Warm Sun Blend Coffee Beans

Flavor: Black cocoa

Citrus

Fermented wine aroma Recipe: 6 0% Ethiopian Natural Red Cherry coffee beans, 4 0% Honduras Sherry coffee beans

In addition to the Specialty Blend and the espresso bean recommended by many baristas, Front Street Black Cocoa Blend, FrontStreet Coffee also offers a blend bean with a more distinctive flavor profile. FrontStreet Coffee's roasters blended Honduras Sherry wine-barrel coffee beans with Natural Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project coffee beans, and separately re-developed roasting curves for each. The two beans are in a 7:3 ratio, recombined into a single blend through post-roast blending, named "Warm Sun Blend."

As specialty coffee gradually gained popularity, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas noticed during store operations that many customers were no longer satisfied with the sense of stability the Specialty Blend coffee provided. FrontStreet Coffee reconsidered—perhaps it was time to bring in more fresh blends to liven up the store's offerings.

In 2019, after numerous rounds of adjustment, this Warm Sun Blend coffee bean finally made it onto FrontStreet Coffee's bean list, and the stores' Specialty Blend was replaced with Warm Sun Blend coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas believe that among these three blends, the Specialty Blend is the choice for those seeking stability, the espresso bean recommended by many baristas, Front Street Black Cocoa Blend, is the choice for high value for money, and the Warm Sun Blend is the choice for flavor. The three have different goals, so they naturally suit different customers.

The Warm Sun Blend's unique taste comes from its Honduras Sherry wine-barrel coffee beans. After the coffee cherries undergo partial washing, they are placed into sherry wine barrels for low-temperature fermentation, and finally dried. This processing method gives the Sherry coffee beans a pronounced wine aroma, and FrontStreet Coffee's roasters mixed in 40% Natural Yirgacheffe coffee beans to provide more acidity for the Warm Sun Blend, adding layers to the whole blend.

4/ Specialty Blend Espresso Beans

Flavor: Rich and mellow

Nuts

Strong sweetness when paired with milk Recipe: 70% Brazilian coffee beans, 30% Colombian coffee beans

For customers who don't like flavors that are too extreme and don't care for single-origin coffee, yet still pursue coffee quality, this Specialty Espresso Bean will be the top choice. For this blend, FrontStreet Coffee uses a medium-dark roast. Built around well-balanced Brazilian coffee beans, paired with Colombian coffee beans that offer soft fruit acidity and a nutty sweetness, the flavor is classic.

This blend bean is one we use in our own store, and we've been using it since about six months after opening. When discussing this blend bean, we wanted to use American beans as the main body to enhance the blend's nutty, sweet character and minimize any overly bitter taste.

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