Waterfall Iced Americano Gone Wrong? Determined Netizens Refuse to Believe It!

The Viral Waterfall Iced Americano Challenge

Anyone who scrolls through TikTok or Xiaohongshu has likely seen videos of people attempting the waterfall iced Americano challenge! "Wow! That looks amazing! It seems simple! I can do this!" And so, tempted by the prospect, you eagerly order an ice cup mold, immediately freeze several ice cups, place them by the window, set up your phone, and prepare to capture a beautifully aesthetic waterfall iced Americano!

However, reality tells a different story... The ice cup tips over when placed on water! The coffee poured into the ice cup leaks through the bottom before you can even place it on the water surface, spilling everywhere! When you finally manage to place it without tipping or leaking, amazingly, the ice sticks to the tongs! When you finally achieve the perfect placement without tipping, leaking, or sticking to the tongs, the coffee flows out from the side instead of the bottom! Or while others' coffee gently flows downward, yours drops into the water in clumps...

What was originally meant to be an aesthetic waterfall coffee has, through various internet challenges, evolved into the "explosive diarrhea iced Americano."

Secrets to Success

To make the ice cup float steadily on water and prevent it from melting too quickly when coffee is poured, first ensure the ice cup walls have at least 0.2mm thickness and are uniform, while the bottom thickness should reach at least 0.3mm and be level. Such ice cups won't easily tilt to one side when placed on water. (Additional tip: After removing the ice from the mold, you can place it back in the freezer for 5 minutes to increase hardness.)

If conditions allow, you can first add crushed ice to the water before placing the ice cup. The crushed ice helps balance the ice cup on the water surface. Additionally, try to keep the tongs used to hold the ice cup as dry as possible to avoid freezing caused by water droplets on the tongs contacting the ice.

Pour the coffee gently into the ice cup only after it has been steadily placed on the water surface, filling it to 70% capacity. When pouring coffee into the ice cup, choose room temperature or warm concentrated coffee liquid, avoiding overly hot or cold coffee. Using pour-over coffee won't create as good a waterfall effect!

Finally, be quick, precise, and decisive—don't hesitate! Because the ice cup dissolves quickly in water, the walls rapidly become thinner. So prepare the coffee before placing the ice cup. After placing the ice cup, use a container with a spout to pour the coffee into the ice cup. The spout design allows coffee to fall evenly into the cup.

Simply put, uniform thickness of the ice cup and using concentrated coffee are the keys to success. As long as the ice cup can float steadily on the water surface, and you slowly and gently pour the coffee to reduce the impact of water flow on the ice cup, you can basically succeed!

However, there's no guarantee whether the final result will be a "waterfall iced Americano" or an "explosive diarrhea iced Americano"—after all, that depends on the ice's temperament.

The Science Behind the Effect

Why can a waterfall iced Americano create a gradual diffusion effect, while a regular iced Americano can't even achieve layering?

At this point, we need to open our long-forgotten physics books... "It's the diffusion phenomenon caused by different concentrations between liquids!" (But isn't that the same for regular iced Americanos?) I'm not finished yet!

Diffusion refers to the phenomenon where molecules transfer from high-concentration areas to low-concentration areas, with the rate proportional to the concentration gradient. When coffee is poured into the ice cup and it melts to create a small opening, this small gap reduces the coffee's diffusion area, increasing the concentration difference of the solution. Under the effect of diffusion, the high-concentration liquid then falls vertically like a waterfall. If the contact surface between solutions of different concentrations is too large—such as pouring concentrated espresso directly into ice water—the coffee will diffuse rapidly and mix quickly with water, making it difficult to observe the diffusion/gradient layering phenomenon.

Why Did It Go Viral?

Some might wonder why the waterfall iced Americano suddenly became so popular. After all, it's just a regular coffee beverage made fancy, and everyone started imitating it... This is probably because these elaborate methods brought coffee closer to the general public.

Compared to Americanos served in coffee shops, the usual machine-made approach makes ordinary people feel that making this coffee is very complicated. The emergence of waterfall iced coffee conveys an important message: making coffee can actually be simple. It can be made with ready-to-use concentrated coffee liquid/instant coffee—these materials are readily available, no machines needed, and everyone can easily make a cup of coffee that pleases their eyes.

To some, this might seem like nothing special, but for those who have little or no contact with coffee, it increases the opportunity to learn about and engage with coffee. It also helps everyone understand that iced Americano is made by mixing high-concentration coffee with water, and doesn't necessarily require a coffee machine.

The success of a cup of coffee lies not just in the taste of the coffee itself, but in the ritualistic process of making it that attracts people's attention to and purchase of coffee. Just like pour-over coffee, people want to learn pour-over techniques mostly because they're attracted to the process.

Although many current coffee-making methods may seem flashy or even unnecessary, it's precisely these elements that attract more attention. Through imitation and interaction, they continuously bring people closer to coffee, making it more mainstream and accessible.

Credits and Resources

Image source: Internet, Xiaohongshu

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