Which Tastes Better: Espresso or American Coffee? Understanding the Relationship and Differences Between American Black Coffee and Espresso

FrontStreet Coffee Barista: "Hello! What kind of coffee would you like today? Would you prefer espresso or pour-over coffee?"

Customer: "I'd like an espresso coffee... Could you please tell me the difference between espresso and Americano coffee?"

I'm sure many of you have visited coffee shops and seen baristas skillfully grinding coffee beans into a portafilter, then with a click, attaching it to the coffee machine to begin extraction. Both come from the same machine, and both are black coffee, so why make a distinction between espresso and Americano coffee? This begins with the emergence of espresso!

What is Espresso?

Espresso first appeared in Italy during the industrial era. Since coffee brewing took considerable time, busy people urgently needed a high-concentration, high-caffeine coffee to refresh themselves during short breaks. Consequently, coffee shops began manually pressurizing to force small amounts of water through coffee grounds quickly, extracting extremely concentrated coffee liquid. This process produced about 30ml of coffee liquid. At that time, people didn't have high standards for coffee bean quality, and many coffee beans had strong, intense flavors with high caffeine content. After finishing the coffee in two or three sips, people could rest briefly and feel refreshed to continue working.

Today, espresso is no longer solely used for refreshment. With the popularization of specialty coffee beans, people have begun to focus on coffee flavors. Even for espresso, the goal is to achieve richness without bitterness, bitterness without scorching, stimulating the taste buds while bringing no unpleasant sensations to the palate.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's espresso offerings as an example. FrontStreet Coffee uses the Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend, combining Ethiopian natural red cherry with Honduras whiskey barrel-aged coffee. Under 9 bar pressure and 92°C water temperature, 40g of espresso liquid is extracted from 20g of coffee grounds in 25-30 seconds. The flavor profile of this espresso includes: whiskey aroma, strawberry sweetness and acidity, vanilla cream smoothness, and a hazelnut chocolate-like finish. However, if you taste espresso directly at first, you might be put off by its intensity. Some friends who aren't accustomed to it add water to dilute it, and this resulting coffee is what we commonly know as "Americano coffee."

What is Americano Coffee?

Americano coffee is called so because when American soldiers went to Italy, they found the local espresso too strong to swallow, so they asked for water to dilute the espresso. Later, they discovered this method produced coffee with the rich, full-bodied flavor of brewed coffee while significantly reducing preparation time. When soldiers returned to the United States, they brought back these espresso machines and techniques, naming this water-diluted espresso "Americano coffee." Everyone grew to love this quickly prepared black coffee, and it gradually became America's national coffee.

As mentioned before, with the promotion of specialty coffee, as espresso flavors improved, Americano coffee followed suit. People wanted Americano coffee to also have flavor layers, so clear reference ratios were established for how much water to add to espresso. The traditional Americano dilution ratio is 1:8, which applies to most espresso extracted from Italian espresso blend beans. However, if the espresso has fresher/clearer flavors, the ratio needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's Warm Sunshine Espresso Blend as an example. To better express the wine aroma and gentle acidity, a 1:4 to 1:5 ratio is used for dilution. The extraction is also slightly adjusted because if 20g of grounds extracts 40ml of coffee liquid within 25-30 seconds directly, after water dilution, certain unpleasant flavors might become prominent. To avoid bitterness in Americano coffee, FrontStreet Coffee extracts less of the tail section for the espresso used in Americanos - extracting 35g of coffee from 20g of grounds and then adding water at a 1:4.5 ratio. This Americano's flavor profile includes: wine aroma, berry acidity, and a vanilla hazelnut chocolate finish.

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