I wonder if any of you have ever ordered an "iced Americano without ice" at a coffee shop. If you have, Front Street Coffee believes you were most likely puzzled by the coffee that was served. Why? Because the no-ice Americano made by the vast majority of coffee shops differs somewhat from what you'd imagine.When it comes to a no-ice Americano, what you'd imagine is a drink with a slight chill—not piercingly cold, but at that just-right low temperature that goes down easily. After all, the whole point of removing the ice from an iced Americano is to reduce the ice's effect on the coffee's temperature.But as Front Street Coffee said, the no-ice Americano served by the vast majority of coffee shops is not like what you'd imagine. When you order a no-ice Americano, what you most likely get is a room-temperature, or even warm, Americano. And that vast majority of coffee shops includes Front Street Coffee, so whenever a customer orders a no-ice Americano at our store, Front Street Coffee always gives them a heads-up: it's room temperature, just so you know~And interestingly, although a no-ice Americano is room temperature, a no-ice Latte is cold! Yes, exactly the kind of cold you'd imagine, as Front Street Coffee mentioned above. So this "differential treatment" leaves quite a few friends very puzzled. Just yesterday, a friend who often drinks no-ice coffee raised this question to Front Street Coffee: "Why is the no-ice Americano served at coffee shops always room temperature, while the no-ice Latte is cold?"Why are no-ice Americanos from coffee shops always warm?It's actually very simple—it's just that the ingredients are at different temperatures. "Not using ice during preparation / removing the ice from the ingredients of an iced coffee"—this is how most coffee shops understand the making of "no-ice coffee." So whenever a customer orders a no-ice coffee, the barista "pulls out" the ice from the ingredients and then proceeds to make it.For example, the ingredients needed to make an iced Americano are: water + ice + espresso. So when we make a no-ice Americano, the ingredients used become: water + espresso. The same goes for an iced Latte—the ingredients needed to make one are: milk + ice + espresso, and when we make a no-ice Latte, the ingredients change to: milk + espresso.The reason the no-ice Americano served at coffee shops is room temperature is simply that the water coffee shops use when making an iced Americano is room-temperature water! So when the ice is removed from an iced Americano, it's room-temperature water + espresso, and the Americano produced is naturally room temperature(it may also feel slightly "warm" because there's more espresso / the espresso is hotter); whereas the milk used in an iced Latte has been refrigerated, so even after the ice is removed, the no-ice Latte produced still has a low-temperature feel. See, the reasoning really is that simple~Many friends might say at this point, then why can't they, like milk tea shops, briefly ice the room-temperature water, or put the water in the fridge to chill, and then use that cold water to make the no-ice Americano?It's not that no one does—of course some coffee shops do make no-ice Americanos that way. But other than those, most coffee shops, just as Front Street Coffee mentioned earlier, simply use room-temperature water + espresso to make a no-ice Americano(including Front Street Coffee).The reason is also very simple: the reason milk tea shops add ice and then scoop it out is that those products inherently need the addition of ice to lower both temperature and concentration, whereas coffee shop products don't. If we used that method to make a no-ice Americano, we could achieve the goal, but it would add a lot of workload, especially for coffee shops with high drink volumes! And refrigerated storage would increase the storage burden. So most coffee shops have chosen this approach for their no-ice Americanos.
So if you want to drink an iced Americano that isn't quite so cold, besides a no-ice Americano, you can also choose a "light ice" iced Americano. As long as there isn't much ice, the heat of the room-temperature water and the espresso itself is enough to quickly melt the small amount of ice, and then you'll get a "no-ice Americano" in your ideal state. This is also the approach many customer friends choose after Front Street Coffee tells them a no-ice Americano is room temperature—highly recommended~ The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
