When is the Best Time to Drink Iced Americano? Is Iced or Hot Americano Better Tasting and How to Make It with the Right Amount of Ice Water

Whether Americano coffee tastes better hot or cold is as debated as whether tofu pudding should be eaten savory or sweet, dividing coffee enthusiasts into two camps. Bystanders often ask: "Isn't it just espresso diluted with water? Shouldn't hot and cold taste the same?" Actually, they're quite different!

What is Americano Coffee?

Americano coffee originated during World War II when American soldiers in Europe found the extremely strong espresso too intense for their taste, so they diluted it with water. Therefore, Americano coffee is essentially about diluting coffee concentration to a level suitable for American palates at the time.

Later, when Italians immigrated to America and Italian coffee houses became popular, they popularized Americano coffee based on espresso. They also established the order of pouring coffee first, then water, expressing the concept of diluting strong coffee. Until now, there aren't many specific rules about the order of making Americano coffee—it's simply about whether to preserve crema or disperse it.

Experiment Theater

In this article, FrontStreet Coffee uses Sunflower Warm Sunshine blend coffee beans (a 7:3 ratio blend of Sherry coffee beans and Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans) to make three espresso shots with the same extraction parameters. These are then added to iced water, room temperature water, and 88°C hot water respectively for aroma, flavor, and texture comparison to see how Americano coffee performs at three different temperatures.

The espresso extraction parameters for this experiment: Faema E78 espresso machine, Faema 900N grinder, grind size 1.9, double portafilter, 20g coffee grounds, extracted coffee 35g (double shot espresso), extraction time 27 seconds. The espresso extracted with these parameters exhibits: whiskey aroma, milk chocolate, vanilla cream, gentle acidity, caramel-like aftertaste, prominent aroma, and rich texture. FrontStreet Coffee uses an espresso to water ratio of 1:6 for making Americano coffee (1g coffee liquid to 6g water).

How to Make Iced Americano

Prepare 110g of ice cubes and 100g of room temperature water to make an ice-water mixture, then pour in the extracted 35g espresso liquid. Since the ice cubes continuously melt, stirring is needed during tasting.

How to Make Room Temperature Americano

First pour the extracted 35g espresso liquid into the cup, then add 210g of room temperature water.

How to Make Hot Americano

First pour the extracted 35g espresso liquid into the cup, then add 210g of hot water (88°C water is sufficient—avoid excessively high temperatures, as overly hot water can easily create burnt flavors in Americano).

Characteristics of Americano at Three Different Temperatures

Hot Americano coffee has very active whiskey aroma, with less noticeable acidity, exhibiting more hazelnut and caramel notes, and high coffee body.

Room temperature Americano has less prominent aroma than hot Americano, with gentle acidity and smooth texture. Since the espresso crema layer isn't dispersed, it mainly presents a vanilla cream-like smoothness with nutty and caramel aftertaste.

Iced Americano has the least aroma among the three, but the most noticeable acidity. Upon tasting, it offers whiskey aroma, berry-like sweet and sour notes, and hazelnut chocolate-like aftertaste, with a refreshing and smooth texture.

Human senses perceive flavors differently at various temperatures, so the benefit of tasting hot coffee is experiencing the flavor changes from high to low temperature. When tasting iced coffee, low temperature reduces the taste buds' sensitivity to bitterness and sweetness, making them more sensitive to sourness. When纠结 about what temperature of Americano to drink, simply choose based on the texture you desire at that moment~

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473