What Fruits Pair Well with Iced Americano? How to Make Coffee Shop's Specialty Wampee Fizzy Americano?

Wampee is an unassuming-looking fruit that was once little known outside southern China. In recent years, though, fierce competition among tea and beverage brands, together with better logistics and preservation, has brought this earthy-yellow fruit within reach of more and more people in the north. At FrontStreet Coffee, the sight of students finishing exams and starting summer vacation signals that midsummer has arrived — which means wampee season is back.

Compared with dominant-flavored fruits like watermelon, durian and lychee, wampee wins people over with tender flesh, sweet-tart juiciness and a uniquely delicate fragrance. Beyond eating it fresh, it is excellent in summer cold drinks. Wampee iced Americano has become a particularly popular homemade iced coffee of late.

For pairing wampee with iced Americano, FrontStreet Coffee found three quite different approaches. Today we test all of them to see which tastes best, and share some detailed preparation tips along the way.

Plan A: Original Wampee Sparkling Americano

Wampee has a fresh fruity aroma, but it is ultimately more sour than sweet and sometimes even slightly bitter. When making an iced Americano, then, many people add a little sugar to balance that bracing acidity and make the coffee more palatable. For the base, FrontStreet Coffee believes sparkling water lends more layered complexity to a fruit-juice-style coffee than still water: it both lifts the fruit aroma and adds a refreshing quality.

First, wash fresh wampees, remove the seeds, and place them skin and all into a shaker. Crush them with a muddler to release the juice — crush the flesh and skin thoroughly to extract the flavor — then add 15g of syrup.

Next, pour 150g of original sparkling water into the shaker, close the lid, and shake back and forth, or stir with a long spoon several times. The goal is to distribute the syrup evenly through the sparkling water.

Now for the iced Americano: prepare a 300ml coffee cup, fill it with 90g of ice cubes, and pour in the mixed wampee sparkling water. You can reserve some fruit skin and pulp to boost the flavor.

For the coffee, we again use FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Sunshine espresso blend. Extract 40g of coffee liquid from 20g of grounds in 31 seconds, then gently pour it over the ice cubes floating on top.

Plan B: Jasmine Tea Wampee Americano

Eaten on its own, wampee is sweet-tart, and it makes refreshing, thirst-quenching drinks that suit summer especially well when appetite is poor. That is why many people like to pair it with beverages that carry a delicate aroma, and jasmine tea is the most popular choice. Although FrontStreet Coffee could not pin down the exact origin of this combination, it is the most frequently copied version among all wampee Americanos.

Because jasmine tea has a relatively light flavor, adding syrup directly can easily cause the flavors to separate. FrontStreet Coffee therefore uses a homemade wampee jam as the base. The ingredients are much the same — simply heat 5 fresh wampees and 25g of rock sugar over low heat until thickened. Stop when you can clearly smell the sweet fragrance released by the wampee and sugar, then set aside to cool.

First, brew a pot of jasmine tea. Adjust the strength and steeping time to your taste; we suggest a cold-brew method to avoid extracting bitterness. Prepare a 300ml coffee cup and add 90g of ice cubes and 180g of brewed jasmine tea.

Third, place 2 spoonfuls of wampee jam in an espresso cup. Extract 40g of coffee liquid using 20g of FrontStreet Coffee's Warm Sunshine grounds. Stir the jam and coffee together thoroughly, then pour the mixture over the jasmine tea.

Plan C: Wampee Preserved Plum Shaken Iced Americano

As the name suggests, the focus of this specialty drink is the shaking. With the ingredients and a shaker at home, you can put it together in a few simple steps. Note that, unlike the two sweetened versions above, FrontStreet Coffee created this sugar-free wampee Americano specifically for those who prefer less sweetness.

Step 1: Prepare 3-4 preserved plums, add 150g of hot water (above 90°C), and refrigerate to steep for more than an hour.

Step 2: Wash 8-10 wampees, remove the seeds, and place them in a shaker. Crush firmly until the fruit aroma is released, then add 90g of ice cubes and the prepared preserved plum water.

Step 3: Extract 40g of coffee liquid using 20g of FrontStreet Coffee's Warm Sunshine blend and pour it into the shaker as well. Close the lid and start shaking. Finally, pour the shaken coffee into a glass. The point of this method is to use external force to fully integrate the aromas of coffee, wampee and preserved plum.

Taste Comparison

Through tasting and comparison, FrontStreet Coffee found that these three wampee Americanos have completely different flavor profiles.

The first method, using only sparkling water, lets you taste the vanilla cream and berry notes of the Warm Sunshine espresso blend alongside wampee's natural fruit aroma. The overall flavor is fairly light, however, and because carbonated drinks naturally carry rich foam, the coffee can easily amplify unpleasant bitterness once it returns to room temperature.

The second cup, built on jasmine tea with pre-made jam, never achieved good integration among the three components in the glass. Even after stirring, FrontStreet Coffee could barely detect any wampee flavor in the coffee. Not a complete failure, but the recipe needs more work to be truly enjoyable.

The last coffee, though it might look a little like traditional Chinese medicine, was the biggest surprise for FrontStreet Coffee. Thanks to the vigorous shaking, the coffee and wampee integrated beautifully, with a delicate aroma and a sweet aftertaste. The preserved plum lifts it further, leaving a refreshing sweet-tart sensation that wakes up the palate — definitely worth trying.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Fruit iced coffees live or die by the espresso base, and FrontStreet Coffee's Americano lineup covers every style. FrontStreet Classic Blend is the bean to buy if you lack experience: a traditional Italian-style recipe built from Indonesian Mandheling, Brazilian Red Bourbon and Vietnamese washed coffee, it carries the low-acid, full-bodied, herbal and woody character of Asian coffee without losing the balanced, creamy smoothness of the Americas. Extraction yields butter, nut, spice and dark chocolate aromas, and whether you make an Americano or a latte, its wild character and abundant crema are the blend's signature.

For a value-focused daily Americano, FrontStreet Dark Cocoa Base Blend combines Yunnan small-bean coffee with Brazil Cerrado. The resulting Americano shows nut, chocolate and cream aromas with the ripe acidity of Sanhua plum; the overall cup is gentle and the price is friendly, which is why it is also a first choice for opening a coffee shop.

If you are tired of dark-roasted espresso, try the medium-roast FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Espresso Blend. As the name implies, it is an exceptionally sweet coffee: it brings together single-origin Arabica from Colombia, Costa Rica and Ethiopia — three of the world's best-known regions — and uses washed, natural and honey processes to lift the aroma. Beyond its natural rose character and low bitterness, Americano and latte both show grape, dried blueberry, sweet orange and fruit-candy flavors, with a layered structure and a distinctive almond finish.

For a fruitier, more aromatic cup, FrontStreet Ethiopia Huakui SOE and FrontStreet Grana Estate Geisha SOE are worth trying. Huakui comes from the Hambela area of Ethiopia's Guji zone, planted as high as 2,300 meters; its natural process and medium roast give a Huakui SOE Americano creamy strawberry, guava, dried mango, black tea and citrus notes with no bitterness at all. Grana Estate Geisha SOE, from Ethiopian native Geisha, shows clear yellow florals and bergamot on entry with a fresh-strawberry finish; as an Americano it carries a clean lime note and a fermented black-grape sweetness, with medium body.