What's the Difference Between Espresso and American Black Coffee? Recommendations for Italian Blends and SOE Single-Origin Coffee Beans

Many newcomers to coffee often find themselves troubled by several questions, such as: What is Americano coffee? Is there a difference between espresso and Americano? Which one is more authentic and tastes better? Today, FrontStreet Coffee will address these questions one by one. First, let's clarify a few relationships:

What is Americano Coffee?

Americano coffee is made by using espresso as a base and adding hot water in proportion, with the diluted coffee becoming Americano. Americano originated during World War II when American troops landed in Europe. Since Americans weren't accustomed to Italy's concentrated coffee, they came up with the idea of diluting it with water to make it more palatable.

Although Americano coffee is diluted with a large amount of water, its flavor is much milder than regular espresso, while the aroma remains undiminished. However, nowadays many coffee shops don't pay much attention to the order when making Americano coffee. Some believe it's simply a matter of preserving or dispersing the crema.

FrontStreet Coffee's Hot Americano Ratio

FrontStreet Coffee makes Americano using espresso extracted from FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Sun Blend, which combines FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Natural Red Cherry and FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry beans. FrontStreet Coffee dilutes the 40g coffee liquid extracted from 20g coffee grounds in different proportions, finally making Americano with a 1:6 ratio (40g coffee liquid to 240g water).

A good Americano should have a balanced and rich taste overall; it should not taste thin, burnt bitter, or sharply acidic. When we find Americano coffee bitter, it's due to over-extraction of the espresso, while sharp acidity indicates under-extraction. Thin taste is easy to understand—it simply means the water ratio is too high.

What is Espresso Coffee?

We can understand this question as follows: any coffee extracted using an espresso machine is called espresso coffee.

What is Espresso?

Espresso is also known as Italian concentrated coffee. Espresso is both a coffee beverage and a coffee brewing method. Under approximately 9 BAR of pressure (9 times normal atmospheric pressure), near-boiling water is forced through finely ground coffee powder, extracting a cup of highly concentrated coffee with intense flavor. The parameters for extracting espresso are influenced by dose, ratio, time, grind size, water temperature, and pressure.

This highly concentrated coffee extracted in an extremely short time has a volume of about 30ml, with a beautiful golden-brown coffee crema floating on the surface! The crema has a rich and delicate texture, appealing and delicious. We generally call this layer crema. Crema is responsible for aroma, while the extracted liquid is responsible for taste.

Espresso is a very classic Italian coffee with rich, layered flavors that can highlight certain flavor characteristics of coffee. Savoring it carefully reveals a unique taste. Here's an important point to remember: Espresso also serves as the base for popular coffee beverages like Americano and latte. To put it bluntly, as the base for many espresso drinks, if the espresso isn't made well, then other espresso beverages can't be expected to taste good either.

Why Drink a Sip of Ice Water Before Drinking Espresso?

Because ice water can make your tongue more sensitive while also opening up your taste buds, enhancing your perception of flavors. If you've eaten something strongly flavored before drinking coffee, your mouth will definitely be filled with residual flavors, which will inevitably affect your judgment of the coffee's flavors. Drinking a sip of ice water can both cleanse your palate and eliminate some taste interferences.

Should You Add Sugar to Espresso?

Some people like to add sugar, others don't—whether to add sugar or not varies from person to person. However, from a health perspective, FrontStreet Coffee recommends adding less or no sugar at all.

The traditional way to drink espresso is to immediately add a small spoon of white sugar to the served espresso, then stir while drinking; the coffee's texture becomes milder, the bitterness less obvious, and appropriate acidity emerges.

If you're a coffee enthusiast, you must go to a coffee shop and order an espresso. Why? Because you'll discover that espresso made by an espresso machine is so rich~ it brings you more than just bitterness, but also fruit acidity, floral notes, nuts, and even wine-like flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that selecting a suitable espresso blend is also very important. Blended coffee, also known as mixed coffee, involves combining various single-origin coffee beans to fully leverage the strengths of each individual bean. Blends are made from coffee beans of different origins to create a more balanced flavor. Before blending coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee believes it's essential to first understand the different varieties and flavors of coffee from around the world, as beans from different origins have distinct characteristics. Different coffee beans have different personalities due to varieties and origins, with subtle differences in acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, and body.

Currently, there are two types of espresso beans on the market: single-origin espresso beans and the more common blended espresso beans. Single-origin coffee beans often focus more on expressing the unique characteristics of a particular type of coffee.

Single-Origin Espresso Beans

Single-origin espresso can be said to be a very popular espresso base in recent years. Single-origin espresso means "single origin espresso," abbreviated as SOE, which we often hear. Single-origin espresso means using only one type of coffee bean, which often represents a specific coffee-growing region, so this characteristic is actually similar to one of the characteristics of pour-over coffee in expressing regional flavors.

The difficulty in making SOE single-origin espresso lies in two aspects: first, the cooperation of roasting, and second, suitable extraction conditions. In terms of roast degree, as we just shared, the roast degree of single-origin espresso beans cannot be too deep to avoid losing the regional flavors, but it also cannot be too light. Why? Because espresso is an extraction method that must withstand high-pressure environments. Light roasting makes the roasted coffee beans too hard, and after grinding, there are large gaps between coffee particles. Even after tamping, it's difficult to achieve sufficient density. At this point, adding pressure causes water to flow quickly through the coffee puck, resulting in too-fast flow rate, short extraction time, and under-extraction, leading to sharp acidity in the entire espresso and insufficient body.

FrontStreet Coffee's Espresso Bean Blending Solutions

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce you to several of FrontStreet Coffee's blends. Based on different coffee types, FrontStreet Coffee's espresso beans will have different flavor characteristics.

1. Balanced Flavor Espresso Beans - FrontStreet Coffee's Premium Blend

Formula: Brazil (70%), Colombia (30%).

This comprehensive blend is relatively balanced in acidity, bitterness, and aroma—neither too acidic nor too strong, making it suitable for those new to espresso. FrontStreet Coffee combines Colombian coffee beans with both acidity and rich body, and Brazilian coffee beans with mild bitterness in proportion, ultimately forming a balanced, medium-strength comprehensive blend suitable for daily coffee shop service.

2. Bitterness-Focused Espresso Beans - FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Blend

Formula: Colombia (30%), Brazil (60%), Robusta (10%).

FrontStreet Coffee considers the diversity of customers and believes that to create a bold-flavored blend, one must select coffee beans with intense flavors. These include Colombian coffee beans with rich nutty and chocolate flavors, Brazilian coffee beans with mild bitterness, and Robusta coffee beans known for their rich body and abundant crema. The resulting coffee has a heavier bitterness, deeply loved by coffee enthusiasts, and can meet daily coffee shop needs.

3. Slightly Acidic and Rich Espresso Beans - FrontStreet Coffee's Basic Blend

Formula: Yunnan coffee beans (40%), Brazil (60%).

FrontStreet Coffee's basic blend offers the most popular flavor profile at an extremely high cost-performance ratio. Whether you're new to coffee or a heavy coffee enthusiast, you can easily accept this espresso bean. FrontStreet Coffee selects Brazilian coffee beans for their balanced flavor as the base, then harmonizes them with Yunnan coffee beans that have a slightly weaker flavor profile than Brazilian beans. This Frontsteet basic espresso blend is suitable for coffee shops and home users who prioritize cost and have moderate flavor requirements.

4. Wine-Aroma-Focused Espresso Beans - FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Sun Blend

Formula: FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry (70%), FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry (30%).

FrontStreet Coffee named this espresso bean "Sunflower Warm Sun," and just as its name suggests, this special FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Sun espresso blend has an aroma as comforting as warm sunshine, with a flavor profile that's eye-opening. With FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry coffee beans, rich in fermented wine aroma, as the main component, complemented by FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans known for their acidity, it creates an aromatic and rich comprehensive coffee blend.

Espresso vs. Americano: Which Tastes Better?

FrontStreet Coffee uses double-shot espresso for making espresso. Currently, the shop uses its own roasted FrontStreet Coffee Sunflower Warm Sun blend beans. The blend uses FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopian Natural Red Cherry + FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras Sherry coffee beans in a 7:3 ratio. The extracted espresso flavor has distinct fruit acidity upon entry, with a lingering faint berry aroma, rich wine and chocolate flavors, and a comfortable sweet aftertaste.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473