How Americano Coffee Differs From Iced Pour-Over, Ice Drip and Cold Brew

Iced coffee is not one drink but four distinct methods. Iced pour-over, also called Japanese-style iced pour-over, brews a concentrated hot coffee with less water and cools it over ice, keeping the cup clean and refreshing. Ice drip runs ice water slowly through the grounds for fermented notes and a sweet aroma. Cold brew steeps at low temperature for a balanced, mellow result. Iced Americano mixes espresso with ice water for a dark cocoa-like depth.

Iced pour-over uses a 1:10:5 ratio of coffee to water to ice, with a finer grind than hot pour-over; light roasts pass 85% through a No. 20 sieve, and water sits at 90-93 C for light roasts and 87-89 C for medium-dark. After brewing, shake or stir the dripper so the ice cools the liquid fast. Bitterness in an Americano comes from the espresso shot itself, not the ice.

On a scorching summer day, a glass of iced coffee is an excellent choice for cooling off. However, there are many types of iced coffee—iced pour-over, ice drip, cold brew, and iced Americano each have their own merits, and many coffee lovers often can't tell them apart. This article will introduce the brewing principles and flavor characteristics of these four iced coffees one by one: iced pour-over preserves a clean and refreshing taste by reducing water volume and cooling with ice; ice drip uses ice water for long, slow dripping to bring out fermented notes and a sweet aroma; cold brew uses low-temperature immersion to obtain a balanced, mellow coffee liquid; iced Americano mixes espresso with ice water, presenting a rich flavor like dark cocoa. It will also share Front Street Coffee's specific parameters and recommended beans for making each type of iced coffee, helping you easily recreate them at home.

In hot weather, a refreshing glass of iced coffee is undoubtedly a summer "heat-relief神器", but iced coffee also comes in many types—just like iced pour-over coffee, ice drip coffee, cold brew coffee, and iced Americano coffee can leave people hopelessly confused. In this article, Front Street will briefly explain the differences between these types of iced coffee.

Iced Pour-Over Coffee

Ordinary iced pour-over coffee is also called Japanese-style iced pour-over, and can simply be understood as normally brewed hot coffee diluted and cooled with ice cubes. To avoid ice cubes diluting the coffee's flavor, iced pour-over coffee uses a lower coffee-to-water ratio during brewing, brewing with less water to obtain a cup of relatively concentrated coffee liquid, which is then cooled with ice cubes.

FrontStreet Coffee's method for making iced pour-over coffee is, taking 15 grams of coffee powder as an example, the grind size is finer than for hot pour-over. For example, for light roast coffee the grind size is 80% passing a No. 20 sieve, while for iced pour-over the grind size used is 85% passing a No. 20 sieve. The ratio of coffee powder to water to ice is 1:10:5. The water temperature is the same as for hot pour-over: for light roast coffee the water temperature is 90-93°C, and for medium-dark roast coffee the water temperature is 87-89°C. After brewing is complete, shake or stir the dripper so the ice cubes fully contact the coffee liquid, rapidly cooling it and keeping the concentration consistent.

Iced pour-over coffee essentially extracts the coffee's early and middle-stage coffee substances, then cools and dilutes it with an equal proportion of ice cubes to a suitable temperature and concentration. Therefore, in terms of mouthfeel it is relatively clean and refreshing, and easily highlights the coffee's main flavors.

Iced pour-over has a refreshing taste, so it is very suitable for presenting light-to-medium roast coffee beans with sweet-and-sour fruit flavors. If you like floral aromas, buy Front Street. Fruit丁丁 and Front Street. Flower Queen; if you like a juicy feel, you can choose Front Street. Xizhua and Front Street Big Belly.

Ice Drip Coffee

Ice drip coffee is made by using ice water to contact coffee grounds drop by drop for extraction, taking a relatively long time, generally completing extraction in 6-8 hours. It can be understood as a low-temperature drip coffee.

Front Street's method for making ice drip coffee is: the coffee powder cup holds 60g of coffee powder, extracting 600ml of coffee liquid, with a powder-to-liquid ratio as high as 1:10. As for grind size, a slightly finer setting than pour-over coffee is chosen; judged by a No. 20 sieve, the passing rate is about 85%. The ratio of ice-water mixture selected is 1:1, and the throttle valve is controlled at a flow rate of 7 drops/10 seconds. The entire extraction process lasts about 6-8 hours. After extraction is complete, it is bottled and refrigerated for 12 hours before drinking.

Because ice drip coffee uses ice water for long extraction, more small-molecule substances (such as floral aromas and acids) are extracted, while large-molecule substances (such as the bitterness of tannic acid) are harder to extract. In addition, after production it is bottled and fermented at low temperature for 12 hours, so the flavor has an obvious fermented quality and the coffee beans' own sweet aroma. It is very suitable to use Costa Rican Front Street. Mozart, and the resulting ice drip is as refreshing as fruit wine.

Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew coffee is very simple and convenient. Simply put, it is placing coffee grounds in clean water and soaking them at low temperature for a long time to extract, then filtering through filter paper to obtain a clean coffee liquid.

Front Street Coffee's cold brew method is based on 50 grams of coffee powder, with the coffee powder ground to a coarseness of 85% passing a No. 20 standard sieve. Put the coffee powder into a glass bottle, then add 400 milliliters of room-temperature water and 200 grams of hard ice cubes to the bottle (a total ice-water mixture of 600 grams), with a powder-to-water ratio of 1:12. Then use a stirring rod to stir the coffee powder and water evenly, seal it, and place it in a refrigerator.

After placing it in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours, use filter paper to filter out the coffee grounds and obtain a clean coffee liquid, then use a clean sealed bottle to store the coffee liquid and refrigerate it for about another 4 hours before drinking. The liquid expressed by cold brew coffee is not as transparent as ice drip coffee, and a thin layer of oil will float on the surface. In terms of flavor and mouthfeel, compared with ice drip coffee it appears slightly heavier and more balanced.

Iced Americano Coffee

If you want to recreate the same Americano coffee as in coffee shops at home, use Front Street Classic Italian Blend Coffee. This is a blend composed of beans from three origins: Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam, so it simultaneously has the caramel aroma of American coffee and the wild character of Asian coffee. In order to maximize the coffee's rich aroma and to let everyone easily extract abundant and dense coffee crema, Front Street Coffee uses dark roast. Whether making an Americano diluted with water or a latte paired with milk, it is very suitable. You can purchase and place an order at Front Street's Taobao store or Front Street's Tmall flagship store.

The espresso made with Front Street. Classic Italian Blend is mixed with a certain amount of ice-water mixture; the ratio of espresso to ice water is 1:6. The iced Americano coffee tastes more refreshing, with an overall inclination toward the flavor of dark cocoa, carrying a refreshing acidity, balanced and rich.

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