As the best-selling category in coffee shops, Americano gives you a cup of rich aromatic coffee in just a few minutes, at an affordable price, and it also helps sleepy office workers perk up. What flavors and mouthfeel does Americano have? Let's hear what Front Street has to say~

The Origin of Americano

From the name, we can roughly guess that espresso comes from Italy, while Americano should come from the United States. The rise of Americano traces back to the 18th century.

Americans were extremely dissatisfied with the British government's expensive tea import tariffs, so in 1773 the "Boston Tea Party" broke out, and people advocated switching to coffee. Gradually, the number of coffeehouses in the United States kept expanding, driving the coffee industry to flourish in America. By the 1880s, about one-third of the world's coffee beans were sold to the United States. During World War II, U.S. allied forces consumed large amounts of coffee every day to relieve the monotony of life and also to keep soldiers alert. But American soldiers were not used to the strong bitterness of espresso, so they diluted the coffee liquid with water to reach a concentration they could accept. Later, Italians running coffee shops in the United States also "did as the Romans do" and introduced "watered-down coffee" based on espresso, which became very popular.

What Is Americano?

Americano is a type of black coffee, made from espresso extracted by an espresso machine plus water, with no other additives.

To make Americano, coffee is ground into powder, and espresso extracted at a ratio of 1:2 is poured into an appropriate proportion of water to dilute it. The Americano served at Front Street's Dongshankou store is made with the Sunflower Warm Sun blend coffee beans, using 20 grams of coffee powder to extract 40 grams of coffee liquid, and according to the ratio of 1:6 that Front Street has tested and adjusted many times, that is, into 240 grams of hot water at 88°C, the hot Americano is ready.

If making iced Americano, the hot water is replaced with 120 grams of ice cubes and 120 grams of room-temperature water, and the taste is best before the ice melts.

The Taste and Mouthfeel of Americano

From Front Street's brief description of how Americano is made, it is not hard to see that the taste of a cup of Americano depends on the coffee beans used. Americano in coffee shops usually uses specially crafted espresso blend beans. The beans used at Front Street's store are the Sunflower Warm Sun blend, made from Ethiopian sun-dried Red Cherry coffee and Honduran whiskey-barrel-processed Sherry coffee in a 3:7 blend. Made into Americano, it has rich wine aroma, vanilla cream, the sweet-and-sour of berries, and roasted nut flavors. In addition, if espresso is used as the base to make a hot latte, the coffee will present a sweet, smooth chocolate mouthfeel.

A high-quality blend can harmonize and complement the flavors in the coffee beans. To highlight the aroma in the beans while balancing the flavor tone of each bean, a medium-dark roast is used. Extracted into a high-concentration espresso, it also will not easily produce irritating sourness and thin flavors, making the extraction more stable.

Besides blend beans that balance the taste, Americano can also use SOE, which refers to espresso made from single-origin coffee beans. As specialty coffee culture continues to deepen, high-quality single-origin coffee beans used for pour-over have also been added to espresso, usually selected from beans with not-too-dark roast levels, presenting the flavor tone unique to their origin.

What Coffee Beans Make Americano Taste Good?

Many friends have coffee equipment at home and are eager to try making Americano themselves, so they ask Front Street what coffee beans are good. Front Street believes that no matter how it is extracted, you first need to choose a bag of high-quality coffee beans you like. That is, the quality needs to be good, and second, choose the flavor type you enjoy. Below, Front Street uses coffees on its bean list as examples to recommend several coffee beans of different styles, and everyone can choose according to their own taste. In addition, Front Street suggests choosing freshly roasted coffee beans, as this makes it easier to extract the aromatic flavors in the coffee. Therefore, the coffee beans Front Street sends out are all roasted within the fresh 5 days, so when you receive them you can enjoy the beans at their best tasting period.

Blend Coffee Recommendations

Front Street's bean list has a total of four espresso blend coffee beans, including the aforementioned Sunflower Warm Sun blend, and three other blends with very high cost performance:

1. FrontStreet Coffee - Front Street Specialty Blend Coffee Beans:

Colombian washed coffee beans (30%) + Brazilian semi-washed coffee beans (70%), with flavor notes of nuts, dark chocolate, and caramel.

2. FrontStreet Coffee - Front Street Commercial Blend Coffee Beans:

Robusta washed coffee beans (10%) + Colombian washed coffee beans (30%) + Brazilian semi-washed coffee (60%), with flavor notes of nuts, cocoa, and caramel.

3. FrontStreet Coffee - Front Street Dark Cocoa Blend Coffee Beans:

Yunnan washed small-bean coffee (30%) + Brazilian semi-washed coffee beans (70%), with flavor notes of soft fruit acidity, caramel, and nuts.

SOE Single-Origin Coffee Recommendations

If we choose single-origin coffee beans to make espresso, because the coffee needs to be extracted under high temperature and pressure, and the coffee powder is ground very fine, if we do not find a suitable extraction range, the coffee can easily develop irritating flavors, which also increases the difficulty of our extraction. So Front Street recommends choosing single-origin coffee beans with a medium roast or darker.

1. FrontStreet Coffee - Brazilian Queen's Estate Coffee Beans:

This medium-dark roasted coffee bean, when extracted as SOE, has a rich crema layer on the espresso. Made into Americano, it has the aroma of roasted nuts and hazelnut cookies, the richness of dark chocolate, and a caramel finish.

2. FrontStreet Coffee - Costa Rican Mozart Coffee Beans:

Mozart coffee uses a honey process, giving the coffee beans high sweetness. When made into SOE Americano, it has the sweet-and-sour taste of raisins and berries, and after drinking, the mouth still carries the aroma of roses, very pleasant.

3. FrontStreet Coffee - Ethiopian Sun-Dried Red Cherry Coffee Beans:

Sun-dried Red Cherry is made from fully ripe coffee fruits, and the overall cleanliness and sweetness are both very high, so it is also very suitable for making espresso. The crema on the surface of the espresso is fine, leaning toward a pale yellow color. Poured into water to make SOE Americano, it has the sweet aroma of berries, sweet-and-sour berries and caramel, and the mouthfeel is quite clean.

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