Is Black Coffee the Same as Americano? Differences in Taste and Flavor Between Americano and Long Black

What does Americano coffee taste like? The answer is quite simple: the flavor of an Americano comes from the coffee beans.

Americano coffee is simple to prepare, which is exactly what makes it convenient and free. Compared with espresso, it tastes relatively cleaner and restores the original flavor of the beans more faithfully. That is why Americano is basically the "standard" at every coffee shop.

Some shops serve a sweet, delicious Americano, while others pour one so bitter it is hard to swallow. Why? What causes such a huge difference? FrontStreet Coffee believes there are two main factors:

1/ The quality of the coffee beans;

2/ The barista's extraction level.

An Americano is espresso and water. Water is colorless and tasteless, serving only as a diluent. The quality of the taste therefore depends on the espresso, and the flavor of the espresso depends mainly on the beans and the extraction. Since the taste of the Americano depends on the beans used to pull the espresso, a good Americano should be balanced and mellow overall, without being watery, bitter, or sharply acidic.

PS: When you taste bitterness in an Americano, consider whether the espresso was over-extracted. Sharp acidity means under-extraction, while a watery taste means too much water was added.

How is Americano coffee made?

Since an Americano contains only espresso and water, there are two main methods:

1/ Adding water to the espresso;

2/ Pouring the extracted espresso into water.

The former is often called an Americano, while the latter is called a Long Black.

An Americano contains only espresso and water, which restores the coffee's flavor well. It is neither as rich and mellow as espresso, nor as difficult to accept as espresso.

Differences between Americano and Long Black

An Americano is made by extracting the espresso first, then adding water to dilute it, with an espresso-to-water ratio of 1:5 to 1:8. When the water is added, the crema is dispersed, so from the first sip to the last, each sip has a similar concentration.

A Long Black works the other way around: water goes into the cup first, then the extracted espresso is poured in. This preserves the crema, with an espresso-to-water ratio of 1:3. Because espresso and water have different densities, an unstirred cup presents a gradual progression. A Long Black is therefore at its most mellow and rich on the first sip, with a smooth crema texture, and the flavors that follow are clearer and cleaner.

Different Flavors of Americano and Long Black

At FrontStreet Coffee's stores, we use Sunshine Blend coffee beans for daily espresso. Extraction parameters are 20g of coffee grounds, extracting 40g of coffee liquid, over 28 seconds. The espresso shows a sherry wine aroma, soft berry acidity, a vanilla-cream texture, and a hazelnut chocolate aftertaste.

Made into a hot Americano with a 1:6 coffee-to-water ratio, the flavor shows an obvious, active sherry wine aroma, less noticeable berry acidity, and a hazelnut and vanilla-chocolate aftertaste.

Made into a Long Black with a 1:3 coffee-to-water ratio, the flavor is creamy and smooth on entry with a strong sherry wine aroma, a clear caramel and chocolate aftertaste, rich at the start and clean toward the end.

FrontStreet Coffee stores use a double espresso when making these drinks.

Choosing the Right Espresso Blend

Selecting a suitable espresso blend is also very important. Blend coffee, also called mixed coffee, combines various single-origin beans to bring out the strengths of each one. Blends are made from beans of different origins to create a more balanced taste.

If one bean has a smooth texture but lacks aroma, for example, another bean with rich aroma can be added to complement it, so the advantages are either complemented or strengthened and the espresso gains a richer new texture.

FrontStreet Coffee uses the Feima E98 espresso machine, with these extraction parameters:

Pressure: 9 bar

Temperature: 90.5~96 degrees Celsius

Time: 25~33 seconds

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:1.7~1:2

Coffee amount: 12g (single espresso) 20g (double espresso)

Espresso extraction amount: 20ml (single) 40ml (double)

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce several espresso blend beans from our stores in detail.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that before blending beans, you must first understand the different flavors of coffee varieties from around the world, since beans differ by origin. Because different beans have different personalities thanks to different varieties and origins, with subtle differences in acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, and body, single-origin beans often focus more on expressing the unique character of one particular coffee.

The advantage of post-roast blending is that it allows flavors to be complemented after roasting is complete, with the ability to fine-tune the proportion weights of the beans to present a stable flavor.

Detailed Introduction to Espresso Bean Blending Plans (Including Specific Formulas)

What are blend coffee beans? Depending on the coffees used, blended espresso beans have different characteristics in taste and flavor. Blend beans mix coffees from various origins. Why blend? One reason is to create a stable taste, and another is to produce flavors not found in any single origin. FrontStreet Coffee currently sells several kinds of espresso beans, all of them blends: Basic Blend, Specialty Blend, Commercial Blend, and Sunshine Blend.

1/ Basic Blend Espresso Beans

Flavor: Cream, Nuts, Chocolate

Formula: 60% Brazilian coffee beans, 40% Yunnan coffee beans

FrontStreet Coffee's basic beans offer excellent value for money. FrontStreet Coffee selects balanced-tasting Brazilian beans and adds Yunnan beans, which are milder than the Brazilian ones, for harmony. The result is the most widely liked taste and flavor. Whether you are new to coffee or a serious enthusiast, this espresso bean is easy to accept.

This blend is roasted medium-dark by FrontStreet Coffee. Pulled as espresso, it has slight acidity, a sweet aftertaste, and nutty notes. The overall feel is gentle rather than sharp. The crema is medium, enough to meet most shops' daily needs for latte production.

As mentioned above, FrontStreet Coffee's espresso blends are stable and high quality, very suitable for independent coffee shops as a daily offering, and the basic espresso bean is the second high-value choice FrontStreet Coffee provides.

Coffee shop operations cannot be separated from costs. While reducing costs as far as possible, providing a stable product is what every operator hopes for. FrontStreet Coffee's basic bean is a very cost-effective one. Brazilian and Yunnan beans were chosen for the blend: both origins lean toward nutty notes, and the Brazilian beans give this basic espresso a more solid texture and rich crema.

2/ Commercial Blend Espresso Beans

Flavor: Mellow, Nuts, Strong sweetness when paired with milk

Formula: 60% Brazilian coffee beans, 30% Colombian coffee beans, 10% Robusta

This blend tastes rich in crema and texture with caramel sweetness, and also features nutty, cocoa-like, and dark chocolate flavors, with balanced sweet and sour, a slightly bitter edge, and a lasting aftertaste. The small amount of Robusta enhances the richness of the crema, but because the quantity is small, it does not change the flavor much.

FrontStreet Coffee named this blend "Commercial Blend Coffee Beans" because it performs well whether you make an Americano or a milk-based coffee, and its price advantage makes it very suitable for commercial coffee shops. The espresso crema is very rich, the taste smooth with a slight bitterness, and the texture very mellow.

3/ Sunshine Blend Coffee Beans

Flavor: Dark cocoa, Citrus, Fermented wine aroma

Formula: 60% Ethiopian natural processed Red Cherry coffee beans, 40% Honduras Sherry coffee beans

Beyond the specialty blend and the basic blend, FrontStreet Coffee provides a blend with more distinctive flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasters mixed Honduras sherry barrel-aged beans with natural-processed Yirgacheffe Red Cherry Project beans, and developed separate roasting curves for each. The two are combined after roasting, then presented as a single blend named Sunshine Blend.

As specialty coffee gradually became popular, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas found during store operations that many customers were no longer satisfied with the stability a specialty blend alone could offer. FrontStreet Coffee reconsidered, and decided it was time to bring more freshness to the store's lineup.

In 2019 this Sunshine Blend finally made it onto FrontStreet Coffee's bean list after multiple adjustments, replacing the store's specialty blend. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas believe that among these three blends, the specialty blend is for stability, the basic blend is for value, and the Sunshine blend is for flavor, and with different goals they naturally suit different customers.

The unique taste of Sunshine Blend comes from its Honduras sherry barrel-aged beans. After partial washed processing, the coffee cherries are placed in sherry barrels for low-temperature fermentation, then finally dried. This gives the sherry beans an obvious wine aroma, while FrontStreet Coffee's roasters added 40% natural-processed Yirgacheffe beans to provide more acidity and increase the complexity of the whole blend.

4/ Specialty Blend Espresso Beans

Flavor: Mellow, Nuts, Strong sweetness when paired with milk

Formula: 70% Brazilian coffee beans, 30% Colombian coffee beans

For customers who don't like overly strong flavors, don't love single-origin coffee, but still pursue quality, this specialty espresso bean is the first choice. FrontStreet Coffee roasts this blend medium-dark. With balanced Brazilian beans as the base, complemented by Colombian beans with soft fruit acidity and a nutty aftertaste, the flavor is classic.

This blend is also used in our own store. It has been in use from about six months after opening until now. When we discussed it, we wanted American beans as the main component to enhance the nutty, sweet taste while trying to reduce overly bitter flavors.

What is Americano Coffee?

Americano coffee originated during World War II, when American soldiers in Europe couldn't get used to the extremely strong espresso and added water to dilute it. Americano is essentially a way of diluting the coffee concentration to a level suitable for Americans at that time.

Later, Italians immigrated to America, and Italian-style coffee shops became popular in the United States. They promoted and developed Americano with espresso as the base, and expressed the idea of diluting strong coffee by adding the coffee first and then the water. To this day, not much emphasis is placed on the order in which an Americano is made; what matters is whether the crema is preserved or dispersed.

For more coffee bean information, follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

For professional coffee knowledge exchange, add WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you make your Americano at home, FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend is the beginner's pick. A traditional Italian-style recipe built from Indonesian Mandheling, Brazilian Red Bourbon, and a washed Vietnamese component, it combines the low-acid, full-bodied, herbal and woody character of Asian coffee with the balanced, smooth, creamy quality of the Americas. It extracts with butter, nut, spice, and dark chocolate aromas, and its wild character and abundant crema are its signature, whether you make an Americano or a latte.

For value, frontStreet Black Cocoa Basic Blend combines Yunnan small-bean coffee with Brazilian Cerrado. As an Americano it brings nut, chocolate, and cream aromas with a ripe plum acidity and a soft overall body; it is a genuinely affordable everyday bean, and its versatility also makes it a good first choice for opening a cafe.

And if you want something sweeter and fruitier, FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Espresso is a medium roast that gathers washed, natural, and honey-processed single-origin Arabica from Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia. It carries a rose note with low bitterness and mild acidity, and as an Americano or latte it shows grape, dried blueberry, sweet orange, and fruit-candy flavors, with a distinctive almond note in the aftertaste.