Why Do So Many People Love Iced Americano? Are the Effects of Hot and Iced Americano the Same?

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Why Do So Many People Drink Iced Americano? Is Hot Americano Not Good?

Many people have noticed that regardless of the season, when customers go to coffee shops to buy Americano, they more often choose iced... Why do so many people drink iced Americano? Is hot Americano not good?

Regarding why more and more people are drinking iced Americano coffee, FrontStreet Coffee has discussed with many customers about their reasons for choosing iced Americano coffee. The responses center around three points: the new generation's preference for cold beverages, many saying that iced Americano has less bitterness, and iced Americano tastes more refreshing with better palate-cleansing effects.

We all know that the preparation of Americano coffee is extremely simple—it's just regular espresso diluted with water to create a coffee product.

Theoretically, whether an Americano coffee tastes good has a great relationship with the coffee bean quality, espresso extraction, and water ratio. However, many partners also point out that water temperature is also a very critical factor!

For this reason, FrontStreet Coffee will use the same coffee beans, the same extraction parameters, the same ratio, and the same water samples in this article to see what flavor changes occur in Americano coffee under high temperature (90°C), room temperature, and low temperature (ice-water mixture) conditions.

Experiment Setup and Coffee Details

The espresso blend coffee beans used in this experiment are still our old friend "Sunflower Warm Sunshine Blend Coffee Beans"! (Um... because... FrontStreet Coffee's store only uses this coffee bean for espresso products).

Today's extraction parameters are 19.9g of coffee grounds to extract 38g of coffee liquid, with an extraction time of 30 seconds. The flavor presents whiskey aroma, berry-like sweet and sour notes, vanilla cream-like fragrance and smoothness, as well as caramel and nutty aftertaste. The overall taste is rich but gentle.

Therefore, when FrontStreet Coffee makes Americano coffee, the water dilution ratio is not high, typically using a 1:4.5 coffee-to-water ratio (1g coffee liquid to 4.5g water), so 38g coffee liquid is mixed with 171g water, making the total Americano coffee product around 210g.

Flavor Comparison Results

After tasting and comparing three Americano coffees at different temperatures at the same time, it was found that in terms of aroma, hot Americano is the best, emitting vanilla cream and whiskey fragrance. The aroma of room temperature Americano and iced Americano appears very weak.

In terms of taste, hot Americano's caramel, whiskey flavor, and chocolate notes are very full-bodied, and you can feel the vanilla cream aftertaste. Room temperature Americano appears more balanced, with various flavors being weaker than hot Americano. Iced Americano's flavors are not as rich as hot Americano, shifting overall towards acidity, becoming less bitter, with main flavors being whiskey and chocolate in the middle and later stages.

In terms of mouthfeel, hot Americano tends toward full-bodied and rich among the three; iced Americano tends toward refreshing and smooth; while room temperature Americano sits between the two, maintaining moderation.

Analysis and Conclusion

Actually, hot Americano coffee's flavor performance is the best among the three samples, but it greatly tests the quality of the coffee beans themselves and whether the barista has performed proper extraction.

However, iced Americano coffee reduces bitterness due to the rapid temperature drop and continuous dilution by ice cubes, giving customers higher acceptance of an Americano coffee.

Of course, there's also a main reason: iced Americano is the cheapest and most accessible coffee iced beverage (compared to iced pour-over, iced drip, cold brew).

A cup of inexpensive yet good iced Americano coffee can satisfy needs for cooling down, refreshing, reducing edema, and palate cleansing, even giving everyone an opportunity to take a break at work (just kidding).

Of course, besides cooling down, hot Americano coffee has the same effects! Whether it's hot Americano or iced Americano, choose according to your own preferences and physical condition. Some friends with weaker stomachs are still recommended to choose hot Americano products, after all, frozen foods can further stimulate the gastrointestinal tract.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473