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Since black coffee can have such rich flavors, why do cappuccinos and mochas exist? This question is somewhat challenging, and I can only explain it this way: this world needs so many complex variations to support people's empty and boring lives, and each complex setting brings countless story materials that become cultural conversation topics, making people's lives rich, colorful, and full of fun.

The truth is: in the 16th century, coffee roasting technology wasn't that advanced. The delicate European nobility couldn't bear the bitterness of brewed coffee, so they mixed it with various milks and spices, creating a variety of coffee drinks, and then began writing stories that have been passed down to this day.

European coffeehouses in the 16th century

However, today's focus is not on cappuccinos and mochas, but on solving a more advanced question: where does the sophistication of American coffee lie?

First, what is American coffee? And how did American coffee come about?

Generally speaking: a cup of espresso plus a certain proportion of water makes American coffee. However, this is just one form of American coffee. Another type is black coffee made with a drip coffee machine, which is also called American coffee.

Here we need to tell another story about the invention of the American drip coffee machine. It should be noted that the principle of the American drip coffee machine is the filter-style brewing method. This brewing method was invented by a German housewife, Bentz Melitta, over 100 years ago. Melitta was a perfectionist who hated coffee grounds left between her teeth. One day, she had a sudden idea: she punched a hole in the bottom of a copper bowl, took a piece of blotting paper from her son's schoolbag, placed it on top, and poured in hot water. Instantly, mellow coffee dripped through the blotting paper into the pot. She thus invented a filtration method that could remove grounds while preserving the authentic coffee aroma. Before this invention, people used cloth bags to filter coffee grounds. However, cloth filter bags were not only troublesome to clean but also unhygienic after multiple uses, and the coffee grounds remaining in the cloth's crevices could easily ruin the original mellow taste of coffee.

But what does this have to do with American coffee?

That's because in the early 20th century, Melitta's hand-pour filter cups began to improve in the direction of automation. After countless improvements, they finally achieved great success in the United States, becoming the most common automatic American coffee filter machines we see today. But if you take apart an American coffee machine, the principle of the filtration method invented by Mrs. Melitta remains almost unchanged to this day, with only optimizations to the filter shape and filter paper.

Why did it achieve great success in the United States and become representative of American coffee? Because (America is powerful!) Americans are just like that... When Americans drink coffee, it's like playing a game without rules - casual, unrestrained, and without taboos. This type of fully automatic drip coffee machine is the simplest and most direct way to solve the problem.

Secondly, simplicity and directness don't mean American coffee lacks style.

American coffee made by adding water to espresso is divided into three types: Americano, Long Black, and Lungo.

Americano is made by mixing espresso with water, meaning you first extract the espresso, then add hot water, which is essentially diluting the espresso with water.

Long Black is made in the opposite way to Americano - you first add hot water, then pour the espresso into the cup, letting it disperse naturally.

Surprised? Unexpected!

What's the difference between these two? On the surface, Americano's crema is relatively thin, with part of the crema dissolving in the water, part dispersing into the air, and part being broken down. Because Long Black has espresso added later, its crema floats on top of the liquid, presenting a beautiful white-gold color.

So what's the difference in taste? If using Italian blend beans to make these two coffees, Long Black will have more layers because as the espresso is poured into water, the oils disperse, and the coffee settles at the bottom, blending slowly.

The soul of flavored coffee, espresso

As for Lungo, it's even more peculiar. "Lungo" means "long" in Italian, meaning a longer extraction time. With a certain amount of coffee grounds, Lungo typically yields less liquid than regular American coffee but more than espresso. Lungo is coffee without additional water - it's extracted entirely by an espresso machine. Simply put, it's coffee made using the working principle of an espresso machine to replace a fully automatic drip coffee maker.

So, do you still think American coffee made by adding water to espresso is simple?

Making simple things to the extreme is not a simple task! If the details of making American coffee are not controlled well, it will have a significant impact on the final coffee product.

Finally, something about hand-pour drip coffee.

The hand-pour drip coffee that's currently popular among China's artistic youth circles is actually the drip brewing method invented by Germany's Melitta. It's just that later, Europeans found it quite troublesome and gradually stopped doing it. However, since the 1950s, the Japanese have reached a state of obsession with Melitta filter cups, with various materials of filter-style and drip-style coffee filter utensils emerging endlessly, establishing a complete set of theories and operational techniques for hand-pour filter coffee. Following this logic, since all are coffees made by the drip-style brewing method, every cup of coffee made with a hand-pour drip pot can also be called "American coffee"!

So, American coffee is quite stylish after all!

American Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted popular American coffee beans: Yirgacheffe coffee, Golden Mandheling coffee, Brazilian coffee, etc., all have full guarantees in terms of brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high cost-performance. A half-pound (227 grams) package costs only around 70-90 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams of coffee powder per cup of hand-pour coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each cup of American coffee costing only about 5-6 yuan. Compared to the tens of yuan per cup sold in coffee shops, this is extremely cost-effective.

END FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473