Walking into a café, you watch the barista lock the portafilter onto the machine and press the extraction button. The same dark liquid flows out, so why are some called espresso, some called Americano, and others simply grouped together as black coffee? The differences behind these names actually involve the origins of extraction, concentration, and the logic of flavor adjustment. This article begins with the birth of espresso, explaining how it became the cornerstone of modern coffee shops, then traces the history of Americano being created by diluting with water, and explores how, in the context of contemporary specialty coffee, the ratio of espresso to water affects the performance of a cup of black coffee. The article also uses Front Street Coffee's Warm Sun Espresso Blend as an example, providing espresso extraction parameters and Americano dilution ratios to help you more accurately find the flavor you like at home or in a café.

Front Street Coffee barista: "Hello! What coffee would you like today? Would you like espresso or pour-over coffee?"

Customer: "I'd like an espresso... I'd like to ask, what's the difference between espresso and Americano?"

I believe everyone has seen baristas swiftly grinding coffee beans into a bowl with a handle, then clicking it onto the coffee machine to start extraction~ It's the same machine, the same black coffee, so why do we still distinguish between espresso and Americano? This takes us back to the emergence of espresso~

What is espresso?

Espresso first appeared in Italy during the Industrial Age. Because brewing coffee took a long time, busy people urgently needed to drink a cup of high-concentration, high-caffeine coffee during short breaks to refresh themselves. So cafés began to use manual pressure to force a small amount of water quickly through the coffee grounds to extract a highly concentrated coffee liquid. This produced about 30ml of coffee liquid. Plus, at that time people had no particular pursuit of coffee bean quality—many beans had strong, intense flavors and relatively high caffeine content. After drinking it in two or three sips and resting a bit, people could perk up and continue working.

Today, espresso is no longer simply for refreshment~ With the popularity of specialty coffee beans, people have started to pay attention to coffee's flavor. Even espresso must be strong without being bitter, bitter without being burnt, able to stimulate the taste buds while not bringing unpleasant sensations to the palate~

Taking Front Street Coffee's espresso as an example, Front Street uses the Warm Sun Espresso Blend, a blend of Ethiopian sun-dried Red Cherry and Honduran Sherry Cask beans. With 9 bars of pressure and 92°C water temperature, 20g of coffee grounds are extracted into 40g of espresso liquid, with an extraction time of 25-30 seconds~ The flavor profile of the espresso extracted this way is: whisky aroma, strawberry sweetness and acidity, vanilla cream smoothness, and a hazelnut chocolate finish~ But if you taste the espresso directly right away, you'll be put off by its intensity. Some who aren't used to it will add water to dilute it, and the coffee that results is what we all know as "Americano."

What is Americano?

Americano is called Americano because when American soldiers went to Italy, they found the local espresso hard to swallow, so they asked for clean water and poured it into the espresso. Later they discovered that coffee made this way had the richness and intensity of brewed coffee, while also greatly reducing preparation time. After the soldiers returned to the United States, they brought back this coffee extraction machine and technique. At the same time, they named this water-diluted espresso "Americano," and more and more people came to love this quickly made black coffee. Thus it became America's national coffee~

As the old saying goes, with the promotion of specialty coffee, when espresso tastes better, Americano follows suit~ People hope Americano can also reveal layers of flavor, so there is now a clear reference ratio for how much water to add to espresso~ The traditional Americano dilution ratio is 1:8, which is suitable for espresso extracted from most espresso blends~ But if the espresso has a fresher/clearer flavor, you need to adjust the ratio yourself~

Taking Front Street Coffee's Warm Sun Espresso Blend as an example, in order to better express the whisky aroma and soft acidity, a dilution ratio of 1:4-1:5 is used. The extraction is also slightly adjusted, because if you directly extract 20g into 40ml of espresso liquid within 25-30 seconds, after dilution with clean water, some unpleasant flavor might become prominent.

Therefore, to avoid bitterness in the Americano, Front Street extracts less of the tail end for the espresso used in Americano—that is, 20g of grounds extracted into 35g of coffee, then added to clean water at a 1:4.5 ratio. The flavor profile of the Americano made this way is: whisky aroma, berry acidity, and a vanilla hazelnut chocolate finish~

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