American style and pour-over are the two most popular black coffees on the market today. Because there are differences in the production methods and price systems between the two. Therefore, it is inevitable that friends will often compare the two black coffees. In the end, many people came to a conclusion based on "multiple considerations", which is: "American style is not as good as hand punching." This relationship is shown in the picture of the coffee contempt chain that has been circulating on the Internet for a long time.
Although Front Street often says that chains of contempt should not exist, there are actually not many friends who have these misunderstandings. Therefore, today Front Street will share with you why some friends think that Americano coffee is inferior to Pour over(V60) coffee. First of all, let’s briefly understand what Americano is and what is Pour over(V60) coffee!
What is Americano?
Americano is a member of the Italian coffee system. It is made by adding a certain proportion of water to the espresso extracted by a coffee machine at high pressure. It was born during the war because American soldiers were not used to drinking high-concentration espresso, so they asked the store to add water to the espresso to dilute it. Since the main people who drank like this at that time were American soldiers, people named such a cup of coffee "Americano".
Because of its affordable price and good refreshing effect, American coffee has now become the mainstay in most coffee shops and is the daily ration of many office workers. For American style, baristas prefer the Front Street Classic Blend and the Front Street Strawberry Candy Geisha Blend. One is a medium-dark roast coffee with an explosion of oil, and the other is a medium-roast coffee bean with a floral and fruity flavor.
What is pour-over coffee?
Hand-brewed coffee is a method of coffee extraction, in which hot water is artificially injected to dissolve the flavor substances in the coffee powder. The coffee liquid is released at the same time during brewing, so it is also called drip coffee.
Since Pour over(V60) coffee requires human participation in the entire extraction process, its variables are basically controlled by humans. Different utensils and different parameters will change the final coffee performance. It is extremely playable, coupled with the affordable price of the utensils and excellent flavor performance, Pour over(V60) coffee has become the favorite of many friends.
Hand-brewed coffee generally uses single-origin beans with unique flavors, such as the berry-flavored Front Street Cherry Tomato, the jasmine-flavored Front Street Fruit Ding, the herbal-woody Front Street PWN Gold Mandheling, the orange-flavored Front Street Red Label Geisha...
At this point, we can already know that Pour over(V60) coffee and American coffee are not comparable due to their different production methods. This is like discussing whether an egg tastes better steamed or fried. So why do many friends still think that American coffee is inferior to Pour over(V60) coffee? Front Street believes that it mainly consists of three aspects.
Different beans used: The first reason comes from the difference in the beans they use! The beans used to make Pour over(V60) coffee are basically single-origin beans, while the beans used to make espresso are generally blended coffee beans. Since most blended beans are made from commercial beans, commercial beans are traditionally considered inferior to single-origin beans, so Italian blends are naturally not as good as Pour over(V60) beans.
Price comparison: The second reason is the price issue! Generally, the price of Pour over(V60) coffee is higher than that of Americano coffee. Take Front Street Street as an example. The lowest price for Pour over(V60) coffee on Front Street Street is 30 yuan per cup, while the price of Americano coffee is 23 yuan per cup. Because quality is often linked to price, people will assume that more expensive Pour over(V60) coffee must be better than American coffee.
Difference in approach: The last reason is the difference in approach! The way to make American coffee is as mentioned above, just add water directly after extracting a concentrated portion. Hand-brewed coffee requires manual labor throughout the brewing process, which looks more refined. Naturally, people would think that coffee made with more effort would be better than coffee made simply.
That being said, the quality of things cannot be judged based on their appearance alone. Although Americano coffee uses blended beans, what we need to know is that blended beans do not necessarily mean that the quality is low. Many times, merchants use blending because single-origin coffee beans cannot have a perfect performance.
For example, although the No. 1 bean has outstanding flavor performance, its taste is thin; while the No. 2 bean has a mellow taste, but the flavor intensity is slightly weaker. For this reason, if we want both flavor and taste, we can combine the excellent flavor of No. 1 beans and the mellow taste of No. 2 beans through blending. By combining the two, we can get all the advantages.
Take the Nuanyang Blend from the front street as an example. Although it is a blend, it is a blend of two single-origin beans, Honduras Shirley and Ethiopian Red Cherry, in a ratio of 7:3. The flavor expression includes calm aromas such as whiskey and butter cookies, as well as some lively berry notes of Ethiopian beans, which are very rich in layers. Although it is not a single product, it performs very well. Even though not many people do this, we can see from here that blended beans for Italian coffee are not necessarily worse than Pour over(V60) single-origin beans.
Let’s answer the price question again. Generally, the amount of beans used in a pot of Pour over(V60) coffee will be about 15g. If you add machine-washed beans, it may only reach 16g. The espresso required to extract an American coffee starts at 18g (the Front Street powder bowl uses 20g of powder). If it is made according to the Front Street method, the cost of Americano coffee will actually be higher. But even so, Front Street still chooses to sell Americano coffee at a lower price. Why?
Because it has a larger audience, it sells more! This will lead to more purchases, and the price will naturally be lowered to a cheaper price (other costs will also be reduced). At the same time, because the extraction of espresso mainly relies on machines, it can save people a lot of time. So overall, the price can naturally be lower.
The final issue is the operation. Although the operation process of American coffee is very simple when it is produced, in fact the effort behind it is not simple. Not only does the barista need to pre-grind, but he also needs to control the distribution of coffee powder, extraction time and liquid volume during the extraction process. If the same beans are used for making Americano and Pour over(V60) coffee, it will actually be more difficult to make a cup of Americano coffee than Pour over(V60) coffee.
As for the taste, as Front Street said, due to the different extraction methods of the two, each coffee has its own unique meaning of existence, so it is impossible to compare at all. And this is why Front Street has always emphasized that contempt chains should not exist~
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
