What Are the Five Ways to Drink Americano? What's the Difference Between Americano and Long Black? How to Make Quicksand Iced Americano? How to Create Latte Art on Americano? Can You Add Milk to Americano?

As everyone knows! In Italian coffee, the combination of milk and coffee has extremely rich ways of preparation. Just by slightly changing the method or parameters, there are countless ways to prepare just milk and coffee. Familiar examples include latte, cappuccino, flat white, piccolo, cortado, macchiato, and so on.

However, looking at the combination of water and coffee, what most people can probably think of is only Americano coffee. Compared to the milk coffee series, this seems somewhat monotonous...

Actually! Americano coffee also has very "fancy" ways of drinking! FrontStreet Coffee recently shared many different Americano preparation methods. Although they're all called Americano coffee, their taste and texture are completely different from regular Americano coffee! So today, FrontStreet Coffee wants to share with everyone the fancy ways to drink Americano coffee! When you get tired of regular Americano coffee, you might want to try these methods - perhaps you'll have a quite wonderful experience~

1. Full Ice Americano

Full Ice Americano is a preparation method that many coffee connoisseurs particularly enjoy. What is a Full Ice Americano? It's an iced Americano made without water, using only ice cubes and espresso to complete the preparation.

We all know that the regular method for Americano coffee is water and espresso, using water to dilute the concentration of espresso, thereby making it easier to drink. However, for some friends who prefer stronger flavors, the concentration of Americano coffee is somewhat too low, tasting plain and not satisfying. But drinking espresso directly has too high concentration and is hot, making it not easy to drink. The Full Ice Americano perfectly balances the dilemma of Americano being too diluted and espresso being difficult to drink. Because no water is added, the coffee retains a higher concentration, but at the same time, the ice cubes in the cup will melt, bringing cooling and dilution to the coffee, so the coffee's flavor and concentration won't be as strong and difficult to accept as drinking straight espresso.

Moreover! Full Ice Americano also has a very rich layered texture. Because ice cubes continuously melt, the coffee's flavor and concentration constantly change over time. If you drink it over a longer period, you can clearly feel the coffee continuously changing - from strong to weak, from concentrated flavor to distinct notes - which is very interesting. Interested friends can try it; the method is exactly as FrontStreet Coffee described, super simple. Just pour espresso into prepared ice cubes. For specific detailed methods, you can refer to the article "Full Ice Americano." But it's worth noting that Full Ice Americano is not recommended to be consumed with straws; it's best to use a short glass to serve it, which allows us to more fully enjoy the layered changes in the coffee.

2/3. Quicksand Iced Americano / Latte Art Hot Americano

These two are methods that FrontStreet Coffee often shares - Quicksand Iced Americano and Latte Art Hot Americano. Although they look like completely different products in appearance, in reality, they have many similarities. Both Quicksand Iced Americano and Latte Art Hot Americano need to inject air to create foam. The presence of foam can bring two changes to a cup of coffee: first, a more beautiful appearance, and second, it changes the texture of the coffee. (The process of frothing coffee foam using a French press)

Quicksand Iced Americano is called "quicksand" because when iced Americano with foam is poured into a transparent glass, it produces a phenomenon similar to "quicksand." Because foam is light in weight and coffee liquid is heavy, when coffee with foam is poured into the glass, the foam quickly rises while the coffee liquid sinks. Due to the color difference between the two, it looks like quicksand, hence the name "quicksand."

Latte Art Hot Americano also utilizes the principle of difference between foam and coffee liquid to achieve foam imitating milk to create latte art on the coffee surface. And because the coffee has the presence of foam, both cups of coffee have a creamy texture that regular Americano doesn't have, while also tasting richer and smoother. But relatively speaking, they don't taste as light as regular Americano - it can only be said that each has its own merits. (The top right image shows Latte Art Hot Americano)

So if you want your Americano to have a richer texture, you might want to try Quicksand Iced Americano and Latte Art Hot Americano. The specific methods are equally simple. FrontStreet Coffee has shared detailed methods in the articles "Three Methods for Quicksand Iced Americano" and "Latte Art Hot Americano." Interested friends can check them out. (Please note: FrontStreet Coffee stores don't produce don't produce don't produce these~)

4. Americano with Milk

This method is slightly more niche compared to the previous two, but only compared to them - overall it's still quite common. The preparation of Americano with milk is just as the name suggests - add a certain amount of milk to the cup before tasting the Americano, stir well, and then begin to enjoy.

Through the addition of milk, the coffee will have a higher sweetness, the flavor becomes softer, not as stimulating as drinking straight Americano, while its texture also becomes smoother, and it won't be as sweet and rich as a latte. But if we talk about specific drawbacks, it's that you can't taste the pure coffee flavor. But compared to the coffee flavor, we need to focus more on our experience. So if you don't want to drink too bitter coffee and don't want coffee with a lot of milk, FrontStreet Coffee believes that Americano with milk will be a good choice. Similarly, it's very simple to make, but requires slightly adjusting the ratio of coffee liquid to water to prevent the coffee from tasting too weak.

Take FrontStreet Coffee as an example. FrontStreet Coffee uses beans from FrontStreet Coffee's classic Italian blend on the bean list - this is a medium-dark roast blend. During extraction, FrontStreet Coffee typically uses 18-20g of coffee grounds to extract 35-40ml of coffee liquid, then uses a 1:4 ratio, pairing it with about 160ml of hot water to make an Americano. This hot Americano has moderate concentration when drunk directly, fragrant and rich, with a sweet aftertaste. If you want to add milk to the Americano, then FrontStreet Coffee will adjust the ratio to 1:3.5-3.8. For 40ml of coffee liquid, about 150ml of hot water would be added to make the Americano. Then add 20-30ml of milk to the Americano, so that both the coffee's concentration, texture, and aroma can achieve a good effect.

5. Long Black

And then there's the variation of Americano coffee, also Americano coffee's "rival" - Long Black. FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in the article "Why Long Black is Rarely Seen in China" that many friends mistakenly think the difference between Long Black and Americano coffee is only in the order of pouring water and espresso, but in reality, it's more than that. Besides the different order of pouring espresso, Long Black and Americano coffee also have differences in concentration. The reason is that Long Black uses a larger ratio of coffee to water.

Like flat white, Long Black is a product of localized improvement after Italian coffee entered Australia. Because Australians prefer "stronger" flavors, preferring to directly taste the "essence" of coffee, they reduced the amount of water added to Americano coffee to increase the coffee's concentration, ensuring they could directly taste the fragrant, rich coffee flavor. At the same time, to allow people to experience the aroma provided by Crema from the first sip, Long Black preparation uses the method of pouring water first, then espresso, ensuring that the "soul" of espresso (coffee crema) isn't dispersed by water. And these are the two main differences between Long Black and Americano.

But in daily life, to make products look more beautiful and for more convenient production, most coffee shops use the method of pouring water first, then espresso when making Americano coffee. Therefore, the main difference between Americano and Long Black lies in concentration. So, if you want to drink a cup of richer-tasting black coffee, then Long Black will be a very good choice. Again, taking FrontStreet Coffee as an example, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, when making hot Americano, FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a 1:4 ratio - for 40ml of coffee liquid, it would be paired with 160ml of hot water. But if making Long Black, it would be changed to a 1:3 ratio - 40ml of coffee liquid would be paired with 120ml of hot water, pouring hot water first, then espresso. Please note: FrontStreet Coffee stores still don't produce don't produce don't produce Long Black~ (because too many people ask)

So above are the four fancy ways to drink Americano coffee. Interested friends can try them all - I believe it will be a wonderful experience~ (probably~)

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