What Should the Water Temperature Be for Americano Coffee? What's the Right Ratio of Coffee to Ice and Water? How Does It Differ from Moka Pot Coffee, Despite Both Being Black Coffee?

How to Make a Delicious Americano Coffee

How do you make a delicious Americano coffee? This is something many friends want to know. Because whether following café methods or replicating popular parameters from the internet, it's difficult to make an Americano that truly satisfies you. The reason is quite simple—everyone uses different equipment and beans, so naturally, it's hard to make an Americano that tastes equally good. Even with identical ingredients and equipment, different taste preferences lead to different definitions of what constitutes a "delicious" coffee.

So today, let's put aside replication. FrontStreet Coffee will share how to make an Americano that you personally consider delicious, based on your own beans and taste preferences!

Three Key Elements for a Perfect Americano

To create a delicious Americano coffee, three essential elements must be considered: the coffee base, coffee concentration, and the amount of crema. Let's explore each one.

Coffee Base

Although devices like moka pots and capsule coffee machines can extract similar black coffee, only espresso extracted from an espresso machine can be used as a base to make what can properly be called an Americano. And since this is the foundation, the quality of the espresso shot is crucial to the final Americano! Therefore, the first step to making a delicious Americano is to prepare a delicious espresso shot. (In fact, these principles cannot be ignored in other black coffee brewing methods either.)

Selecting the Right Beans

To make a coffee that you personally consider delicious, selecting suitable beans is naturally the first priority. Acidity and bitterness are the two main flavor profiles in today's coffee beans. The roast level of coffee beans is a crucial factor that determines the balance between these two characteristics. If you want your Americano to have more vibrant acidity, then medium-light roasted "acidic beans" should be your first choice, with origins from Africa and Central America; if you prefer a more mellow-flavored Americano, then dark roasted beans from Asian and South American regions are not to be missed! Once we've selected our coffee beans, to bring out their characteristics and extract a delicious espresso, an appropriate extraction recipe is essential!

Finding the Right Extraction Recipe

Within the extraction recipe, finding the right grind size for the coffee beans is the most challenging part. That's why, as FrontStreet Coffee often says, we can start by applying an extraction formula—that is, using a specific amount of coffee grounds to extract a certain liquid weight within a specific time frame. Using this formula to constrain extraction helps us quickly find the appropriate grind size for this particular bean.

The coffee dose should be determined according to your portafilter basket. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's portafilter basket capacity is 20g, so the amount of dark roasted coffee grounds that can be filled falls in the 19.5-20.5g range, while light roasted coffee grounds can be slightly more. For the espresso's brew ratio, we can initially choose the Italian "golden extraction ratio" of 1:2. Similarly, for extraction time, based on the above parameters, dark roasted beans' extraction time can be controlled within the 28-32 second range, while light roasted beans, due to their higher density and difficulty in extraction, can have the time extended to 28-35 seconds.

Then, as long as we fix the time and brew ratio, we can find the grind size by adjusting based on extraction time! If the extraction time is too fast, make the grind finer; if too slow, make the grind coarser (small differences can be adjusted through the dose amount). When the extraction time reaches the target range, we can then make fine adjustments based on taste. Sharp acidity might indicate under-extraction—slightly increase the extraction rate by extending the liquid weight; burnt bitterness suggests over-extraction—we need to reduce the extraction liquid weight or make the grind coarser.

Coffee Concentration

Once we've extracted an espresso shot with the right flavor profile, the next issue to address is the amount of water to add!

By adding water, we can dilute the concentration of the espresso, making it more palatable—which is the fundamental reason Americano coffee was created. How much water to add and how much to dilute the concentration becomes a major challenge in making an Americano.

Hot Americano Ratios

For a hot Americano, FrontStreet Coffee uses a ratio of 1:4—that is, 1 part espresso to 4 parts water. However, there's no need to rush to replicate this, as this ratio is measured based on the coffee beans used at FrontStreet Coffee. As you probably already know, FrontStreet Coffee uses the medium-dark roasted "Warm Sun Blend," which has balanced acidity and bitterness with a mellow flavor. Under these conditions, adding four parts of water allows the coffee to perfectly showcase its flavors while maintaining a certain concentration intensity, resulting in a rich mouthfeel.

(For aesthetic purposes, photos are taken by pouring water first then adding espresso—don't start a debate about this!) However, if you're using light roasted coffee beans, the coffee concentration can be appropriately higher. Because light roasted beans have slightly weaker expressive power in espresso, we need to amplify the concentration to allow the coffee's flavors to be better expressed. If you're using dark roasted coffee beans, excessive concentration will make the bitterness too profound, preventing the flavors from being expressed. Therefore, we can appropriately reduce the ratio to dilute the concentration and distribute the bitterness.

Then there's the coffee temperature, which is another point of concern for many. Similar to lattes, controlling the temperature at around 65-70°C is ideal. This temperature range won't scald your mouth easily and will maintain a high temperature for an extended period, allowing you to slowly experience the layered changes that a hot Americano offers.

Iced Americano Considerations

Iced Americanos require slightly more attention, as they involve not just water but also ice cubes. Ice cubes not only provide a cooling effect but their melting will also dilute the Americano's concentration. Therefore, when determining the ice-water ratio for an iced Americano, we must simultaneously consider the melting speed of the ice cubes.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's iced Americano as an example: the ratio of coffee to ice water is 1:6.5, with an ice-to-water ratio of about 1:1.8. That means 38g of coffee with 90g of ice cubes and 160g of water. The ice cubes used are "old ice" that has been frozen for multiple days, with each cube weighing about 30g, totaling three cubes. Even about 15 minutes after serving, ice cubes are still visible.

If smaller ice cubes are used, with their larger surface area and lower density, their melting speed at the same weight will be much faster than old ice. With faster melting, the coffee concentration will be significantly diluted, and as the concentration decreases, the flavor and mouthfeel will be diluted accordingly. Therefore, more ice cubes are needed to slow down the dissolution rate, maintaining the excellent mouthfeel, flavor, and concentration for a longer period.

But measuring the melting speed of ice cubes is obviously too complicated—everyone drinks at different speeds. Some friends might finish it in one gulp, while others might sip it slowly like a hot Americano. Moreover, most people don't want to study the melting speed of ice cubes, as it's not particularly necessary. This is when FrontStreet Coffee's little trick comes in handy: directly take the cup you usually use for iced Americanos, fill it completely with ice cubes, add water to about 8/10 full, and finally pour in the espresso and stir well. Determine if the concentration is suitable by tasting—if it's too strong, reduce the ice and add more water; if too weak, do the opposite.

Of course, the same applies to hot Americanos—everyone has different taste preferences. FrontStreet Coffee still recommends trying and recording different ratios to find the Americano ratio that works best for you and the beans you're using.

The Role of Crema

Finally, let's discuss some small details! You should know that espresso crema is an important factor affecting the mouthfeel of an Americano, so this detail cannot be overlooked! As FrontStreet Coffee often discusses, the composition of espresso crema, besides carbon dioxide and coffee bean lipids, also contains many very fine coffee particles. These fine particles not only enhance the coffee's body to some extent but also bring a certain bitterness.

At this point, we need to make a choice. If you want a richer, more aromatic Americano, then the espresso crema can be added directly as usual. However, if you don't want too much bitterness, you can choose to remove the crema, which will give you a cleaner Americano! But the body and aroma will also be reduced, after all, you can't have both fish and bear's paw.

- END -

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473