What is Black Coffee? What's the Difference Between Pour-Over Coffee and Americano?

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Have you ever had this experience? When you walk into a specialty coffee shop and want to order "a cup of black coffee," the barista instead asks you, "Would you like an Americano or pour-over single-origin coffee?"

Confused face??? I just wanted a cup of black coffee! What's the difference between Americano and pour-over single-origin coffee?

What is Americano Coffee?

Americano is a type of espresso-based coffee, typically made from medium-dark to dark roast blended coffee beans. Hot water is passed through ground coffee powder under pressure from an espresso machine to extract Espresso. Generally, a cup of Americano is made from one to two shots of Espresso diluted with hot water.

So What is Pour-Over Single-Origin Coffee?

Usually made from single-origin coffee beans, with roasting degrees ranging from light, medium to dark. Pour-over coffee is mostly brewed using a drip cone. After grinding the coffee beans into powder and placing them in filter paper, hot water is slowly poured evenly over the entire coffee powder. The coffee liquid extracted through the filter paper and drip cone slowly drips down, completing a cup of pour-over coffee.

Since pour-over coffee is typically intended to showcase the regional flavor characteristics of single-origin coffee beans, it's recommended to drink it without sugar or milk, making it another type of black coffee.

However, making a delicious cup of pour-over coffee requires attention to factors like grinding, water temperature, and coffee-to-water ratio... Compared to machine-made coffee, there are more considerations.

Next, let me explain the differences between these two types of coffee.

Americano | Americano

The base of Americano is Espresso, which means "concentrated coffee" and originated in Italy. It's mostly extracted using an espresso machine to make concentrated coffee.

The preparation process involves placing ground coffee powder directly into the portafilter basket, leveling the coffee powder flush with the rim, then using a tamper to apply pressure to form a coffee puck. The portafilter is placed on the espresso machine, and during extraction, the coffee puck withstands about 9 bars of atmospheric pressure through the machine's pressure, extracting a small amount of coffee liquid in just 20-30 seconds. The resulting concentrated coffee has a thicker texture, and the extracted espresso can be diluted proportionally with hot or cold water to make Americano.

Pour-Over Coffee | Pour over coffee

To make a cup of pour-over coffee, you need to prepare equipment first: dripper, pot, filter paper, bean jar, bean scoop, grinder, kettle, and pour-over kettle.

First, place the filter paper in the dripper, pour in the ground coffee powder and gently tap the outside of the dripper to level the coffee powder. Then, use the kettle to pour hot water into the filter paper containing the coffee powder. Maintain a stable continuous water supply and pause. When the hot water fully contacts the coffee powder, it extracts the coffee substances, filtering out a delicious cup of pour-over coffee.

Where Do Americano and Pour-Over Differ?

Compared to pour-over coffee, espresso is ground into finer powder. Through high-pressure brewing with an espresso machine, it can dissolve more coffee substances than other coffee-making methods, filtering out coffee with higher concentration.

In terms of brewing time, espresso machines extract extremely quickly: averaging 30 seconds per cup, with simple steps that are easy to learn as standardized procedures, making it almost the preferred brewing method for all chain coffee shops. Of course, being "commonplace" doesn't mean mediocre quality. Espresso extraction also requires regular adjustment of fixed brewing parameters according to the coffee bean's condition to better showcase the coffee bean's flavor.

Pour-over coffee uses coarser grinding particles, with the entire brewing process taking about 3 to 4 minutes. It emphasizes technique and method—from coffee bean grinding degree, water temperature, water quality, water flow, extraction time, to even the pouring technique and timing—every small factor's change affects the final flavor.

Compared to espresso machines that can use fixed parameters to stably provide coffee of the same quality, pour-over coffee requires mastering more details to fully showcase the layers and flavor of each cup.

After all this knowledge, let's finally experiment and compare. Using the same beans, let's make both Americano and pour-over single-origin coffee to see which tastes better!

Light roast: FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Natural Yirgacheffe Red Cherry

Medium roast: FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Huaguoshan

Dark roast: FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1

Whether it's the light-roasted FrontStreet Coffee Natural Yirgacheffe Red Cherry, medium-roasted FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Huaguoshan, or dark-roasted FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, when made into Americano, they all show a significant improvement in sweetness, with more balanced flavors but thinner texture and monotonous flavor with insufficient layers. Meanwhile, the black coffee brewed through pour-over has more distinct personality, with more diverse flavor and layer variations, and relatively richer texture. As for which one tastes better? That depends on personal preference!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473