How to Make Delicious Americano Coffee? How to Make Non-Bitter Americano? What's the Difference Between Espresso and Americano?

How to Make a Delicious Americano Coffee

In the article "How to Make a Delicious Americano Coffee," FrontStreet Coffee shared that a delicious Americano not only requires extracting a suitable espresso base but also needs an appropriate concentration. Only when these two requirements are met can the Americano coffee we make better suit our personal taste.

Once we've learned how to make a standard Americano coffee, we can start trying some popular "alternative methods" that have been circulating online recently—ways to make Americano coffee taste better. Although these methods differ from conventional Americano coffee preparation, they can indeed enhance the quality of Americano coffee to some extent. Now, let FrontStreet Coffee share what these popular "alternative methods" are!

1. Water for Americano Coffee

When extracting coffee, we pay great attention to water quality. Because water participates throughout the extraction process, and the hardness of water affects the dissolution of flavor compounds. Therefore, we specifically find and use relatively soft water to extract a good cup of coffee.

However, since the requirement for water quality is based on the premise that water participates throughout the extraction process, some friends might ask: For Americano coffee, water mainly serves to dilute the coffee concentration rather than extract. In this case, is it still necessary to pay attention to water hardness?

It absolutely is! Although the extracted espresso already determines the taste quality of this Americano, the additional water used for dilution can also change the texture of an Americano coffee. If you've drunk both soft water and hard water, you would know that compared to soft water, hard water tastes somewhat inferior and lacks that sweetness (sweet sensation). And water accounts for over 97% of a cup of black coffee, which directly determines the importance of water quality for coffee. The same applies to Americano coffee, so we can also pay some attention to water quality issues.

2. The Choice of Crema

This secret is already known to most friends—whether to keep the crema or not. Although Crema, this golden substance, is often called "the soul of espresso," its existence is not absolutely necessary for Americano coffee!

Because this layer of Crema is not only composed of carbon dioxide and lipids from coffee beans, but it also contains many fine coffee particles due to the insufficient filtering performance of the portafilter. The presence of fine particles has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that they can provide higher body to the coffee, making it taste fuller; the disadvantage is that they are quite bitter and belong to insoluble substances, so when fine particles are added to coffee, the cleanliness and sweetness of the coffee will decrease to some extent.

And when we remove the crema from the espresso and then make Americano coffee, you'll find that the Americano coffee not only tastes cleaner than before, but the sweetness is also enhanced. Therefore, when making Americano coffee, we can decide whether to keep the crema according to our preferences. If you prefer Americano coffee with high cleanliness and sweetness, then before pouring water into the espresso, we can use a spoon or filter paper to remove the crema; while if you prefer Americano coffee with rich body and long aftertaste, then continue using the conventional preparation method. There is no right or wrong between the two methods—the final decision mainly depends on your personal preference~

3. Using Ice Cubes to Catch Espresso

Pouring espresso first and then adding water is the standard Americano method, which allows the coffee and water to blend more thoroughly, making the Americano taste more uniform in concentration. Since Paragon's "rapid freezing" concept became widely known (rapidly cooling extracted coffee can preserve 40% more aroma), a new method for making iced Americano was born—that is, using a glass filled with ice cubes to catch the espresso first, then shaking, and finally adding water to dilute.

Similar to the "rapid freezing" principle, when espresso falls on ice cubes, it is rapidly cooled, and combined with shaking, the temperature of the espresso drops further. This is said to preserve many aromatic compounds, making the Americano coffee's expression more rich. FrontStreet Coffee specially tried this method compared to the conventional method of making iced Americano coffee (conventional iced Americano is pouring extracted espresso onto ice cubes, then adding water and stirring), the result... well, there is indeed some difference, but the aroma expression is secondary—the main difference lies in the temperature of the two.

The Americano coffee made by catching espresso with ice cubes will have a lower temperature because the espresso directly contacts the ice cubes, allowing the temperature to drop immediately; while the Americano coffee made by the conventional method has ice and water added later, causing the temperature to drop more slowly, thus making the taste performance slightly inferior. As for the aroma, because of the taste difference, people feel that the former is slightly better than the latter. Therefore, if you're drinking it immediately after extraction, this extraction method is worth trying. But this method adds some complexity, so whether you need to change your approach for this small difference depends on your personal choice~

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