What's the Recipe for Tomato-Infused Coffee? Can Tomato Juice Be Used for Iced Americano?

At FrontStreet Coffee there's a bean beloved by many for its unique fruit aroma. Served hot or cold, it always delivers a refreshing, juicy sweet-tart sensation. That bean is Kenya's Assalia, whose rich tomato-like character is its most distinctive trait.

The Inspiration Behind Tomato Americano

Recently, FrontStreet Coffee noticed a brand launching a "tomato americano." The name alone sounds eccentric — plenty of people eat ketchup, but very few drink tomato juice. Although FrontStreet Coffee never ordered one to taste, the idea sparked inspiration and an irresistible urge to experiment. Today, FrontStreet Coffee tests this combination for you: what does tomato juice mixed with coffee actually taste like? Without further ado, let's get started.

Which Tomatoes to Choose?

Tomatoes, that beloved fresh produce, are both fruit and vegetable.

Large tomatoes belong to the vegetable camp — sweet, tart, and juicy when eaten raw, though if not fully ripe they carry that raw, vegetal aroma common to garden produce. Cherry tomatoes, by contrast, have thin, crisp skin and, when ripe, a concentrated "tomato flavor" with higher sugar content — a fuller sweet-tart profile and better taste. They can be eaten like fruit, suit juicing perfectly, and are the first choice for baristas developing specialty drinks.

There are multiple ways to get tomato juice. Thanks to recent innovations in beverage preparation, ready-made products can be ordered from major online shopping platforms. But FrontStreet Coffee found that most commercial tomato beverages are sugar-free and thick and viscous — drink them alone and you taste the raw vegetable-fruit flavor plus a throat-catching acidity. Paired with coffee, it's like stirring traditional herbal medicine into thick tomato ketchup. (Don't ask FrontStreet Coffee how we know — those who understand, understand!)

If you have a juicer at home, DIY is the way to go — and you can pick your favorite cherry tomato variety to taste. Following the approach used for the orange Americano before it, FrontStreet Coffee bought eating-quality cherry tomatoes for juicing.

Getting Started

To prepare a 300ml iced coffee, FrontStreet Coffee started by juicing 20 cherry tomatoes: stems removed, fruit washed, halved, and into the juicer. Something quickly went wrong. Unlike oranges, cherry tomatoes juiced without added water produce an almost semi-solid "fruit puree" — visually like mousse, with zero fluidity, let alone suitability for an Americano.

Lesson learned: on the second attempt, FrontStreet Coffee added 120ml of purified water to the pulp.

A sieve filtered out the fruit residue and suspended foam, leaving much clearer cherry tomato juice (add 10–15g of syrup if you prefer it sweeter).

With the main ingredient ready, it was time to combine. First, 90g of ice cubes into a glass, then 120g of freshly squeezed tomato juice. Immediately after, using today's extraction parameters, 19.6g of Nuan Yang (Warm Sun) coffee was ground and extracted for 30 seconds to yield 38g of espresso, poured over the tomato juice. Stir, taste.

How Does It Taste?

The cherry tomato iced Americano opens with the fresh aromas of cherry tomatoes and coffee — then the whole mouth floods with heavy acidity, coffee bitterness, and the astringency of tomato skins. It brought to mind a netizen's sharp remark: it's like the sourness of tomatoes and the bitterness of coffee fighting in your mouth. One-word summary: intense.

As the ice melts and the drink dilutes and cools, the bitterness recedes considerably, but the astringency from the fruit skins remains. Overall, this tomato Americano can hardly be called delicious, and anyone who dislikes vegetable juices should think twice. Curiosity killed the cat, indeed.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Kenya Cherry Tomato: The Coffee That Actually Tastes of Tomato

If the experiment above convinced you to get your tomato fix from the bean rather than the juicer, FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya "Cherry Tomato" is the answer. It's a washed Kenya specialty lot from the Thika region, grown at 1,550–1,750 meters on the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties, with plump, rounded beans. The processing uses Kenya's signature 72-hour double-wash fermentation to fully unlock the fruit character while keeping the cup clean and pure; FrontStreet Coffee roasts it light to preserve the lively acidity and layered fruit. The dry fragrance carries dried cherry tomato and florals; the cup opens with clear cherry tomato and dark plum flavors, bright and solid acidity like freshly squeezed juice, mid-palate sweetness with snow pear and black plum, and a clean, long finish of brown sugar and faint green tea — vividly balanced, sweet-tart, and instantly recognizable.

How to Brew It Best

This is a bean for pour-over and iced brews where its juicy character shines — much better company for coffee than actual tomato juice. Brew it as a pour-over with a light hand on dilution, or try it chilled to let the fruit-acid structure sparkle. And if you want an espresso-adjacent fruity drink done right, the Kenya double-wash character also stands up well as an SOE base for a bright, fruit-forward Americano — no ketchup required.