Making an iced Americano is a very simple matter. We only need to pour the extracted espresso into the prepared ice water, and the iced Americano is done.
However, just like what Front Street has always shared, making it is easy, but doing it well is more difficult. Although iced American style is only made with ice water and concentrate, the selection and proportion of these materials can directly affect whether the coffee tastes good or not.
The proportion affects the concentration of the coffee, and the choice of materials determines the taste and texture of the coffee. Therefore, to make a cup of iced Americano, we need to pay attention to the proportion and materials used. So today Front Street will share with you what you need to pay attention to in order to make a delicious iced American style.
1. Water
As we all know, in the extraction of coffee, the hardness of the water will affect the dissolved substances and affect the final taste of the coffee, so everyone pays great attention to the quality of the water when brewing coffee.
The same goes for making Americano coffee! Although most of the water in Americano coffee does not participate in the extraction, it still affects the taste and texture of the coffee.
In fact, it’s easy to understand, just like the difference between being able to drink bottled water in our daily life. Because of different water sources and water quality, each type of bottled water will taste very different: some water tastes smooth, and some water tastes astringent...
Regardless of extraction, Americano coffee uses a large amount of water to dilute the concentrated concentration. Therefore, the texture of the water will also directly affect the coffee, affecting the taste and taste of the coffee. Front Street once used different brands of water to make American coffee and compared them. The results were indeed very obvious. Take C'estbon and Nongfu Spring as examples. The American style made with C'estbon will have a relatively high sweetness, while the American style made with Nongfu Spring will taste softer and have a higher mellow taste.
Therefore, when making iced Americano, if we want to further improve the overall texture of the coffee, we can make a choice about the water source. How to choose the water source can be determined according to your own preferences and coffee beans, because everyone has different taste preferences.
Of course, there are formulas that can be copied. The most popular formula currently on the Internet is determined based on the roasting degree of the coffee beans! Medium-dark and dark roasted coffee beans are used with water below 100ppm to make American style, while medium-light and light roasted coffee beans are used with water in the range of 100~200ppm to make American style.
2. Ice cubes
During this time, Front Street often shared with everyone the impact of the quality of ice cubes on coffee. The size and hardness of the ice cubes determine how quickly the ice cubes melt. This is exactly what we need to consider when making iced American style. Because the ice cubes will not only cool down the coffee during the melting process, but it will also dilute the concentration of the coffee.
To put it simply, we need to determine the proportion of ice cream based on the melting speed of the ice cubes. Very easy to understand! For example, ice cubes that are smaller or not very hard usually melt faster. When we use this kind of ice cubes that melt quickly to make American style, we can increase the ice cubes appropriately and then reduce the proportion of water in the whole. The ice American style produced in this way will have a high enough concentration at the beginning. As the ice cubes melt, the concentration of American style will soon become normal.
Suppose Front Street uses 20g of powder when making an iced Americano, extracts 40ml of coffee liquid in 30 seconds, and then mixes it with ice cubes that are smaller and not hard enough. Then the amount of ice cubes will be 120g (or even more), and the amount of water used will be 130ml (or even less). This ratio will give the iced Americano just made a higher concentration, and because the ice cubes melt faster, the concentration will return to normal after a while.
When the ice cube is larger and harder, it usually melts slower. So if we use this kind of ice cube, we don't have to worry about it melting quickly in a short time and diluting the concentration of the coffee. Naturally, the initial concentration of the American style does not need to be so high. The specific method is to reduce the amount of ice cubes used relative to the above parameters, and then increase the amount of water used.
Let’s take Front Street as an example. The ice cubes used in Front Street have the above characteristics and melt slowly. Therefore, when making ice Americano, Front Street will use 3 ice cubes weighing about 90g, and then mix it with about 160ml of water. This ratio can make the Americano have a higher concentration, but not too high, and it is easy to drink. Since the ice cubes melt slowly, the concentration and taste of the coffee will not change significantly from the beginning to the end. And after drinking, we can even see ice cubes remaining in the cup.
The above examples are for your reference only, because everyone uses different coffee beans, extraction environment, and taste preferences, so the ratio needs to be adjusted according to your own coffee. You can also copy it according to the above formula on Front Street to see if it meets your own preferences.
It is worth mentioning because ice cubes will return to water after melting. Therefore, we can also pay attention to the quality of the water used to make ice cubes ~ but whether it is necessary or not depends on each person.
3. Coffee
The choice of coffee beans determines the taste of American style. The American style made from medium-roasted beans will be more sour, fresher, and less oily. You can buy Front Street Blackberry SOE and Front Street Strawberry Candy with high sweetness, which can taste floral and fruity flavors at the same time. The beans made with dark roasting will be richer, with a bitter taste, but more oil. The first choice is Front Street Classic Blend and Front Street Black Cocoa Blend. The nutty aroma and mellow taste will make people wake up immediately after drinking it.
Compared with latte, American coffee can be made more "freely". The Free Front Street here mainly refers to the extraction of espresso, because American coffee does not need to consider whether the concentration of the concentrated base will affect the taste of the coffee. After all, we can adjust it by adjusting the amount of water added. Therefore, the espresso used for Americano can have fewer extraction restrictions.
When extracting the espresso used in American coffee, we only need to pay attention to one key point, and that is to dissolve the coffee substances as much as possible. Under the premise of not extracting, the more coffee substances are dissolved, the more fragrant the coffee we taste.
Take the classic Italian blended coffee beans that are rich in fat as the main ingredient in the Front Street bean menu. In order to take care of the making of latte, Front Street adjusts the morning blend according to the golden ratio of 1:2. The espresso extracted at this ratio has the aroma of hazelnuts, dark chocolate, and cream. The American style and latte made with it are very delicious.
However, for iced American style, we can extract more. Because low temperature can reduce the ability of our taste buds to capture bitterness, even if the extracted coffee is a little more bitter, it will not be obvious and will even give the coffee a richer aroma and taste.
When parameters such as grinding and powder volume remain unchanged, Front Street will increase the concentrated extraction rate by adjusting the powder to liquid to 1:2.2. That is, 20g of coffee powder extracts 44g of liquid, which is 4ml more coffee liquid than the original, and the time is therefore 2 seconds longer.
After the concentrate made in this way is added with water to make it into American style, although its overall flavor performance does not change much, the aroma and taste of the coffee will be more obvious, especially the aftertaste, which can obviously last longer.
So that’s all the content of this article! When you combine the above three points, you can easily make a delicious iced American cup~
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
