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With the development of the times, coffee has also continuously progressed. Having experienced two waves of coffee, although we are now in the third wave of specialty coffee, espresso remains important. Espresso-making skills are a must for every barista, and almost every café serves espresso-based drinks. What Front Street often refers to as espresso is a series of coffee beverages made with espresso as the base. Today, let Front Street share how to make an Americano.

Americano can be said to be the simplest espresso drink, because an Americano consists of only two parts: espresso and water. Iced Americano simply adds ice cubes. The simplest part is also the part that tests skill the most. Americano is often the espresso drink that best tests a barista's espresso extraction technique.

Compared with milk coffee drinks such as latte, Americano, because it lacks milk's influence on the coffee's flavor, is the best way to perceive the taste of the coffee beans themselves. Many barista friends choose Americano when visiting other cafés: first, because it is convenient and quick; second, because it lets them know the quality standard. Back to the point, we just said that making an Americano is simple, with only water and espresso as its two parts, so you only need to pour the espresso into the water.

The espresso part needs to be extracted according to the characteristics of the beans. Different beans have different extraction parameters. Every day, baristas must adjust according to the condition of the beans, ultimately arriving at parameters compatible with different categories such as espresso, Americano, and latte, so that these coffees can perform at their best.

Take the Sunflower Warm Sun blend coffee beans used by Front Street as an example. Based on Front Street's serving experience, this coffee bean has the best flavor after 12-14 days of resting. The espresso extraction recipe used by Front Street is 20g of coffee grounds extracted into 40g of espresso liquid, in 30 seconds.

When Front Street makes hot Americano, it uses hot water to preheat the cup, then pours in hot water, and finally pours in the extracted espresso. The ratio for Americano is generally between 1:4 and 1:6. After repeated testing, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) chose a 1:4 ratio, that is, 40g of coffee liquid mixed with 160g of hot water.

Similarly, when making iced Americano, use ice cubes to pre-chill the cup, then pour in water, and finally pour in the espresso. Because ice cubes need to be added, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s iced Americano uses a 1:6 ratio: 40g of coffee liquid mixed with 240g of ice-water mixture, of which 140g is ice cubes and 100g is water, served in a 300ml cup.

Does removing the crema make it taste better?

When making hot Americano, you will notice a layer of foam floating on the surface of the coffee. That is what we often call coffee crema. This part of the crema comes from the crema produced when making espresso. We know the three parts of espresso are the heart, body, and crema. The crema of espresso comes from carbon dioxide being dissolved into the liquid under the high pressure of the coffee machine when coffee grounds are used. Then, when extraction ends, the pressure returns to normal, and the carbon dioxide in the coffee liquid begins to return to the air. At the same time, it encounters fats in the coffee and becomes wrapped by them. This is the reason crema is produced.

What if we skim off the crema? Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) tried making two cups of Americano, one with the crema skimmed off as a control group. For Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s store blend Warm Sun coffee beans, the cup with the crema skimmed off was cleaner and had a smoother mouthfeel, while the cup that retained the crema had a slightly thicker mouthfeel. Both cups had obvious dark chocolate and slight whiskey oak barrel aromas, with soft acidity. The difference was actually not big. If you like a clean taste, skimming off the crema is recommended. If you need to serve continuously, retaining the crema is more recommended.

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