Is Americano Considered a Specialty Coffee? What Is the Definition of Specialty Coffee? What Is the General Term for Coffee Made with Espresso?

"Specialty Coffee" is a term that frequently appears in various articles. Precisely because the name contains the word "specialty," beginners often interpret it literally, such as: "Specialty means coffee with latte art patterns on the surface," or: "Specialty means coffee that can produce latte art." However, specialty coffee is not actually understood in this way!

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Specialty coffee refers not only to milk-based coffees that can produce latte art, but primarily describes all "secondary creations" of coffee within the espresso system! From the humble Americano with added water to the grand Irish coffee with alcohol and cream, all belong to the family of specialty coffee. Simply put, it's all coffee made using espresso as a base and extended from there. The reason specialty coffee emerged can be traced by FrontStreet Coffee back to the distant era when pressurized coffee machines were first invented...

In the early days of pressurized espresso machines, the coffee beans used for extracting espresso were mostly of questionable quality and extremely dark roasted. Therefore, the extracted espresso naturally doesn't require much imagination—with the combination of low quality, dark roasting, and high concentration, the tiny extracted espresso possessed an extremely stimulating taste. Basically, for most people, such a cup of coffee was difficult to swallow. Therefore, it was necessary to find ways to dilute the coffee's concentration to make the bitterness less concentrated.

Thus, trendy ways of adding water, sugar, milk, or dairy products to espresso gradually emerged. And all these coffees made by extending from espresso, because of their variety, earned the collective name of specialty coffee. This also includes the Americano coffee we mentioned yesterday! It can be said that specialty coffee is the original coffee specialty drink—through the addition of various ingredients to change the coffee's flavor or lower the threshold for drinking coffee, so calling them the first generation of specialty drinks is not an exaggeration!

Categories of Specialty Coffee

Over time, these coffees have all settled into traditional classics. Currently, on the internet, these traditional specialty coffees are mainly divided into three categories. So next, let's take a look at what categories people have divided specialty coffees into!

1. Water-based Series

This series is easy to understand—espresso-based coffee categories made by adding water. Examples include Americano, Long Black, Sparkling Americano, and so on.

2. Milk-based Series

There are many coffees in this series—after all, there are so many milk coffees, it's impossible to count them all! Traditional examples include Latte, Cappuccino, Cortado, while more innovative ones include Dirty and Flat White.

In addition, various espresso coffees with added syrups based on these can also be classified into this category, such as Caramel Macchiato with added caramel syrup, Mocha coffee with added chocolate syrup, and so on.

3. Cream-based Series

This refers to coffees that have cream added during their preparation, such as Con Panna with cream and espresso, Viennese coffee with cream and "Americano," as well as Irish coffee with added distilled spirits.

Actually, to be more precise, specialty coffee could be divided into many more series, but this isn't necessary~ So everyone just needs to have a basic understanding~~ And in the article, FrontStreet Coffee mentioned "Specialty Coffee Drinks," which I believe everyone will be more interested in, so next time, FrontStreet Coffee will explain it in detail.

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