Does Pour-Over Coffee Taste Better Than Machine-Made Americano? What Are the Benefits and Advantages of Pour-Over Coffee

"Is pour-over coffee better tasting than Americano coffee?" Although both are black coffees, they each have their own unique characteristics! In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss the differences between pour-over coffee made using drip method and Americano coffee made using espresso machines. When you go to a café, should you choose pour-over coffee or Americano?

What is Pour-Over Coffee?

Pour-over coffee belongs to the drip coffee category. When drip coffee first appeared, it was for filtering coffee! Brewed coffee was filtered through perforated copper cups and blotting paper to remove coffee grounds, resulting in a clean coffee liquid. Later, with the promotion of specialty coffee concepts, people began to realize that coffee can have delicate flavors, but they need to be perfectly expressed under specific water temperatures and extraction times. So people started improving the filtering equipment and filter paper, then grinding coffee beans to the appropriate fineness and directly pouring them into filter cups for water injection extraction. This way, the coffee extraction time and water temperature can be effectively controlled. The improved pour-over coffee uses coffee filter cups with filter paper/other filtering media to block coffee grounds, ultimately obtaining a cup of coffee with layered flavors.

Why Does Pour-Over Coffee Have "Layered" Characteristics?

Traditional coffee involves adding coffee powder to water for boiling extraction, with extraction time being rather casual. High temperatures and long extraction times can easily lead to over-extraction. Although it smells fragrant and tastes mellow, it's always accompanied by unpleasant bitterness. Only 30% of a coffee bean consists of flavor compounds, while 70% is woody fiber. From this 30% of flavor compounds, we only need to extract 18%-22%!

The flavor compounds in coffee also have a sequence: acidic substances are released first, followed by sweet substances, and finally bitter substances. If we extract all 30% of flavor compounds, once bitter substances are over-extracted, even if they mask the acidity and sweetness, the coffee will taste very bitter with astringent notes. Pour-over coffee effectively controls the extraction of coffee compounds by changing the coffee grind size, water temperature, pouring method, and brew ratio. When the acidity and sweetness of coffee are fully extracted, appropriate bitterness can also add richness to the coffee. As the coffee temperature decreases, different tastes/flavors will perform best at certain temperatures, so pour-over coffee presents different layers as you drink it.

What is the Best Temperature to Drink Pour-Over Coffee?

Coffee beans have different optimal drinking temperatures depending on their roast level. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Gold Mandheling coffee beans use dark roasting to highlight the coffee's richness. Rich coffees have prominent sweet and bitter notes, and the best performance temperature for these flavors is 40-60 degrees Celsius.

For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Sidamo Natural Guji 5.0 coffee beans use medium-light roasting to highlight the fruit-like acidity and sweetness. The best performance time for acidity and sweetness is at 30-50 degrees. Of course, this is just the optimal performance for specific flavors/tastes! When FrontStreet Coffee brews coffee for guests, they always recommend tasting in three stages: high, medium, and low temperatures. If we only taste at the optimal temperature, we would miss many "flavor surprises" brought by other temperatures.

What is Americano Coffee?

Authentic Americano coffee is made by adding an appropriate amount of water to espresso for dilution, achieving the concentration desired by the drinker. The production of espresso is completely different from drip coffee! Espresso is quickly extracted by using a specific coffee machine at 9bar pressure to produce a cup of extremely concentrated coffee liquid. When this extraction method was first invented, it was for quickly getting a cup of high-caffeine coffee for refreshment, with no consideration for flavor! But as everyone's quality of life improved and specialty coffee was promoted, today's espresso focuses on coffee bean selection and flavor expression. By adding water in appropriate proportions to dilute the espresso concentration, the coffee's flavors can be expressed more clearly even when rich.

What Does Americano Coffee Taste Like?

The flavor expression of Americano coffee depends on the blend of coffee beans used to make the espresso. FrontStreet Coffee's daily production of espresso drinks uses FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Natural beans blended with FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry beans. This FrontStreet Coffee "Sunflower Warm Sunshine" espresso blend produces espresso with whiskey aroma, berry acidity and sweetness, vanilla cream-like smoothness, and nutty cocoa-like aftertaste. The dilution ratio for Americano coffee is 1:6, but because FrontStreet Coffee's "Sunflower Warm Sunshine" espresso blend has rather special and gentle flavors, the dilution ratio is this low. Generally, café Americano dilution ratios are around 1:7-1:8.

When I Go to a Café, Should I Choose Pour-Over Coffee or Americano?

FrontStreet Coffee recommends both! You can decide based on your time. If you're not in a hurry, you can sit down and slowly savor a cup of pour-over coffee, experiencing the layers and surprises it brings at different temperatures. Sitting quietly at the bar watching the barista make a cup of coffee is truly healing!!! But if you're in a hurry, then choose Americano coffee! Pour-over coffee usually takes 3-5 minutes to prepare, while Americano coffee can be ready in 1-2 minutes.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473