Is Hot or Iced American Coffee Better? Why Does Hot American Coffee Taste as Bitter as Traditional Chinese Medicine?

How to Make Hot Americano Less Bitter

As everyone knows! Hot Americano has long been nicknamed "Chinese medicine" or "Cantonese herbal tea" because it tastes more bitter compared to other coffees. Therefore, people tend to choose iced Americano over hot Americano.

But even though iced Americano tastes excellent and has a refreshing mouthfeel, few warriors dare to challenge it in cold weather, and most people still need a cup of hot coffee that can warm their hearts. So, the question arises: is there any way to make hot Americano less bitter and more palatable?

The answer is yes! We just need to know where the "bitterness" in hot Americano comes from, and then we can know how to adjust the bitterness~ Many friends might first think of adjusting temperature and concentration, because FrontStreet Coffee previously mentioned in the article "Why is Hot Americano More Bitter Than Iced Americano?" that the main reason hot Americano is more bitter than iced Americano comes from sensory changes caused by different physical characteristics, as well as differences in concentration levels. But unfortunately, these two are not the main targets for adjustment. Because they are merely the reasons why hot Americano tastes more bitter than iced Americano, not the root cause of why hot Americano tastes bitter. But! We can find clues for the adjustment targets from this~

The reason why hot Americano is more bitter than iced Americano is mainly because its high temperature increases our taste buds' perception of bitterness, while its higher concentration makes the flavor more concentrated, thus making the bitterness more prominent. In other words! These two factors amplify the original taste of the espresso itself, which is why hot Americano tastes more bitter than iced Americano. If the coffee itself doesn't have so much bitterness, wouldn't we avoid making hot Americano coffee that tastes like "herbal soup"?~ At this point, FrontStreet Coffee believes everyone already knows that the real targets for adjustment are the coffee beans and the extraction method itself. Most friends choose darker roasted beans (espresso beans) and extraction methods with higher extraction rates to accommodate the production of milk coffee. If our requirement is only Americano coffee, then we can have more choices of coffee beans and extraction methods, no longer limited by these constraints.

Choosing Coffee Beans

The preparation of Americano coffee simply involves adding water to dilute the espresso, so the coffee's flavor is not interfered with, and what we taste mainly is the original flavor of the coffee. Therefore, if we don't want the coffee to have too much bitterness, the first thing we should choose is a coffee bean that isn't roasted so darkly.

But the lighter the roast, the higher the requirement for coffee bean quality. Because without the roasting aroma from long roasting to cover up imperfections, the coffee's flaws will be completely exposed. This is also why coffee roasting in the last century was dominated by dark roasts - the quality of coffee beans at that time was generally not so high, so it was necessary to rely on the bitter taste from dark roasting to cover up flaws. To sum up, our direction for coffee bean selection is very clear: if everyone wants to make hot Americano coffee with less bitterness but also not too much acidity, you can choose some medium-dark roasted coffee beans, for example, beans from the Brazil region are excellent, with low acidity and affordable prices (if they haven't increased), producing Americano coffee without prominent bitterness while also accommodating the production of milk coffee.

Of course, you can also choose a premium blend like FrontStreet Coffee's "Sunflower Warm Sun" that achieves the best of both worlds through blending. This medium-roasted blend has balanced sweet, sour, and bitter flavors, with distinct layers, and can simultaneously accommodate the production of milk coffee. (Just an example, not an advertisement)

If you want the Americano coffee to have weak bitterness and fuller sweet and sour flavors, the direction for bean selection should preferably be medium-light to medium roasted coffee beans from regions like Ethiopia, Panama, Colombia, etc. Coffee beans from these regions will have very prominent floral and fruity aromas, though the prices will be relatively higher.

Adjusting Extraction Method

After selecting the coffee beans, we can move to the next step: adjusting the extraction method. Most of the time, to prevent the espresso flavor from being masked by milk, we specifically increase the coffee's extraction rate to have more bitter substances to compete with the milk's flavor (because cup sizes in coffee shops are already determined and difficult to change, so we can only adjust the extraction). If we don't need to make milk coffee, we naturally don't need such high extraction rates and so many bitter substances. So as FrontStreet Coffee said, we can have more extraction methods. For example, the Ristretto version of high-concentration, low-extraction espresso is an excellent choice, taking only the front to middle stages of extraction, avoiding the bitter substances from the later stages, thus creating a high-sweetness espresso. The Americano made from it naturally won't have such prominent bitterness~ (For the Ristretto extraction method, you can check out the article "What is Concentrated Espresso Coffee?")

It's worth mentioning that because Americano coffee is made by adding water to espresso, using water to dilute the coffee's concentration. Therefore, when extracting espresso, we don't need to consider the concentration of the espresso. Whether you extract 36ml of coffee liquid from 18g of powder, or 90ml of coffee liquid, it! doesn't! matter!

Because the final coffee will be diluted anyway, it doesn't matter whether you extract more or less, we just need to ensure this coffee has a relatively complete extraction rate~ But if friends don't thoroughly understand extraction theory, it's best to use conventional extraction methods~

Whether to Keep Fine Powders

FrontStreet Coffee has mentioned many times in previous articles that because the holes in espresso portafilters are not so fine, some extremely fine coffee particles will also be carried out by the oils during extraction. They initially mix in the oils and gradually sink as the oils dissipate, blending into the coffee.

The presence of fine powders can enhance the mouthfeel of the coffee, but at the same time, they are also contributors to bitterness. If we don't want to taste too much bitterness in Americano coffee, we might try placing 1-2 circular filter papers at the bottom of the portafilter, which can reduce the amount of fine powders in the cup and thus lower the coffee's bitterness (by a small amount).

Of course, we can also filter out the oils and fine powders through filter paper after the coffee liquid is extracted, but this will make the operation process more cumbersome and make the coffee lack some aftertaste. But as the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too - how to make the trade-off depends on everyone's own choice~

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