Why Does Americano Coffee Caffeine Appeal to Celebrities and Fat Loss Fans?

Iced Americano shows up constantly in celebrity photos, and part of the appeal is practical: black coffee drunk in moderation is linked to fat loss. The drink itself is espresso diluted with warm water, a habit attributed to American soldiers stationed in Southern Europe who found local espresso too strong.

Research on americano coffee caffeine connects the stimulant to fat oxidation and exercise performance, which explains the pre-workout ritual. Crema skimming and the choice between hot and iced methods also shift flavor, so the same drink can taste noticeably different depending on how it is served.

Many people have noticed that photos of celebrities holding iced Americanos are becoming more and more common on social platforms. Behind this, besides the refreshing taste, is the fact that drinking black coffee in moderation can help with fat loss. This article starts with the history of Americano, introduces Front Street Coffee's recipe and parameters for making Americano, compares hot and iced Americano methods, and analyzes the flavor changes after skimming off the crema. At the same time, drawing on multiple studies, it sorts out the relationship between caffeine and fat oxidation and exercise performance, and offers more reasonable drinking suggestions. Whether you are drinking it for fat loss or simply love coffee, you can find useful references here.

It is also coffee, yet more and more people prefer iced Americano, and it is not hard to see celebrities posting selfies with iced Americanos on major social platforms. The reason is actually not complicated—drinking black coffee in moderation can promote weight loss. As a place that popularizes coffee knowledge, Front Street will, as usual, first talk about the origin and method of Americano.

The History of Americano

When it comes to Americano, many friends may think it was invented by Americans, and this claim is not wrong. It is said that during the war, American soldiers stationed in Southern Europe could not get used to the local espresso, so they added warm water to the espresso and could only drink it after dilution. This method of diluting espresso with water later became widely popular. Because diluting espresso with warm water was the practice of American soldiers, it was called "Americano." As espresso spread around the world, Americano followed in the footsteps of espresso and can now be found almost everywhere in the world.

FrontStreet Coffee's Method for Making Americano

How does FrontStreet Coffee make a cup of Americano? Below, we share FrontStreet Coffee's Americano recipe.

The coffee beans chosen are FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Sun blend, composed of 70% Honduras Sherry and 30% Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry. It carries a very rich Sherry whiskey note, high sweetness, and presents vanilla cream flavors.

FrontStreet Sunflower Warm Sun Espresso Blend Region: Honduras & Ethiopia Variety: Caturra, Catuai, local heirloom Processing: Washed & Natural

The coffee machine used at FrontStreet's shop is the commercial single-group "Lelit Bianca," which can adjust extraction by changing pressure, with a maximum pressure of 11 bar. A home coffee machine only needs to reach 9 bar pressure to satisfy the needs of extraction and milk frothing. Paired with an espresso grinder, the extraction parameters are as follows:

Coffee beans: FrontStreet Sunflower · Warm Sun Espresso Blend Dose: 20 g Yield: 40 g (double espresso) Pressure: 9 bar Temperature: 94°C Dose-to-yield ratio: 1:2 Extraction time: 26–32 seconds Grind setting: Galileo 2.0

[Hot Americano] First pour 210 g of hot water into the cup (88°C is fine; it should not be too high, as water that is too hot can easily give the Americano a burnt, bitter taste), then pour the extracted double espresso into the hot water.

[Iced Americano] First prepare 110 g of ice cubes and 100 g of room-temperature water to make an ice-water mixture, then pour in the extracted double espresso. Because the ice cubes will keep melting, you need to stir from time to time while drinking.

Americano may seem simple, but it is the espresso drink that best tests a barista's espresso extraction skills. Unlike milk-based espresso drinks such as lattes, because there is no milk interfering with the coffee's taste, it is the best way to perceive the flavor of the coffee beans themselves. So it is not only celebrities—many baristas also order Americano when drinking coffee at other cafés, for no reason other than two: ① it is convenient and quick; ② it lets you understand the standard of the output.

Some friends who want to lose weight by drinking coffee worry, when they see the layer of oil on the surface of an Americano, that consuming too much oil will affect their weight loss. This layer of oil comes from the crema produced when making espresso. Espresso is divided into three parts: the core, the body, and the crema. The crema of espresso comes from fine coffee grounds under the high pressure of the coffee machine, where carbon dioxide is dissolved into the liquid. After extraction ends and the pressure returns to normal, the carbon dioxide in the coffee liquid begins to be released into the air, and at the same time meets the fats in the coffee and is wrapped by them—this is the reason the crema forms.

For those who do not want that layer of crema, FrontStreet Coffee has also tried a hot Americano with the crema skimmed off, in order to analyze the differences in flavor and mouthfeel between a hot Americano with the crema skimmed off and a normal, untreated hot Americano. After extracting the espresso, let it sit aside until the coffee liquid and crema separate, use a spoon to skim off the surface crema, and then pour the coffee into clean water.

FrontStreet made both a hot Americano with the crema skimmed off and a hot Americano with normal crema at the same time. After tasting, it was found that whether or not the crema was removed, the basic flavors of the two hot Americanos were the same: Sherry wine aroma, chocolate, and brown sugar. However, the hot Americano with the crema skimmed off was cleaner in mouthfeel, had a lighter bitterness than the normal version, and the flavors were perceived more clearly.

How Should You Drink Americano to Lose Weight?

In the height of July, handsome guys want to wear tight short sleeves, and pretty girls want to wear short skirts. Everyone wants to shake off that conspicuous chunk of fat on their body. And the topic that drinking black coffee can help with weight loss has long been circulating and is known to everyone.

As early as January 2020, in a journal called Journal of Functional Foods, a study from the University of Illinois showed that the caffeine in yerba mate can weaken fat formation and fat accumulation caused by a high-fat, high-sugar diet, limit weight gain, and offset some of the negative effects of obesity.

On January 7, 2021, a study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition from the Department of Physiology at the University of Granada showed that caffeine can enhance the maximum fat oxidation rate as well as aerobic exercise capacity.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned the use of high concentrations of caffeine from 1984 to 2004, and later allowed its use because it did not meet the criteria. Caffeine intake became common among endurance athletes, but caffeine is still on WADA's 2021 watch list.

The researchers recruited 15 adult men with an average age of 32 as subjects. The subjects ingested 3 mg/kg of caffeine or a placebo according to body weight, 30 minutes before the exercise test. The exercise times were divided into 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., with four exercise tests conducted every 7 days.

The results showed that the maximum fat oxidation rate of the subjects who ingested caffeine increased compared with the placebo group, among which the maximum fat oxidation rate of the morning caffeine group increased by 10.7%, and that of the afternoon caffeine group increased by 29%. This finding indicates that ingesting caffeine 30 minutes before exercise can significantly increase the fat oxidation rate during exercise, and the enhancement effect in the afternoon is higher than in the morning.

Even so, FrontStreet still has to say that if you want to lose weight, drinking only black coffee is not enough; you need to "control your mouth and move your legs." Running 10 kilometers in the morning and then rewarding yourself with a hot pot at night is not advisable.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of FrontStreet Coffee, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

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