Front Street found that many friends are still stuck in the problem of "should water be added to Americano coffee first or last". Because every time Front Street serves American coffee, a friend will always ask: "The most authentic way to make American coffee is to pour the concentrate first and then the water, but why do most of the American coffees produced now pour the water first and then the concentrate?"
To know the answer to this question, we first need to know the difference between American styles made with different pouring orders. But before that, Front Street needs to remind everyone that the coffee made in the order of pouring water first and then pouring the concentrate is not necessarily Longblack.
Because in addition to the different pouring order, there is also a difference in concentration between Longblack and American. Front Street has been explained in detail in many articles shared before, so I won’t go into details here.
Then let Front Street make two cups of Americano. They use the same coffee beans and parameters. The only difference is the order in which the concentrate and water are poured in. Let's see what the difference is between them!
What is the difference between the American style where the steps are reversed?
When making American-style coffee, it is recommended to give priority to medium roasted coffee beans. One can highlight the caramelized aroma and roasted flavor, while the other retains the slight acidity and sweetness, making the entire taste of the coffee more balanced. The barista recommends buying Front Street Queen's Estate, Front Street Black Cocoa Basic Blend, and Front Street Premium Blend, which can taste the flavors of nuts, toast, melon seeds, and cream.
If you want to drink American coffee that is not bitter, then buy Front Street Oiran SOE. It has the unique berry aroma and bright acidity of Ethiopian high-altitude coffee beans. It is comfortable and pleasant, and is refreshing and thirst-quenching.
The extraction parameters are still: 20g powder, 30s time, 40ml coffee liquid.
After the coffee is extracted, we make American style in different order. The specific steps are: for one cup, first pour 40ml of espresso into the cup, and then pour 160ml of 70°C hot water; for the other cup, do the opposite, first pour 160ml of 70°C hot water into the cup, and then pour 40ml of espresso.
The left side of the picture above shows an Americano where the espresso is poured first and then the water, while the right side is an Americano where the water is poured first and then the espresso. Then we can clearly see that the difference between them is first of all in appearance.
The concentrated Americano is poured first because the water is added later, so the impact of the water when injecting will disperse the concentrated oil. As we can see, the Americano that is finally presented has only a thin layer of white foam on the surface; while the other cup is because the concentration is added later, so the oil is well retained. As we can see, it has a golden and rich layer of oil.
In addition to appearance, another difference between American dishes made in different orders is their taste. The method of pouring the concentrate first and then the water will allow the water to impact the concentration, so that the coffee, oil and water are perfectly blended, and the taste will be the same with every sip;
The method of pouring the concentrate later does not involve too much stirring, so without stirring with a spoon, the taste of the first few sips of coffee will be different from that of the later ones. Not only because the oil floats on the liquid surface, it will have a richer aroma and bitter taste, but also because the concentrate and water have not been evenly blended, the concentration of coffee in different locations is different, so the taste is different.
But what! The difference is extremely subtle. Drinking blindly without direct comparison, most people will not be able to tell the difference between them. For example, the two American cups on Front Street are made from classic Italian blends. They taste mainly of chocolate, butter, and nuts. Compared with the difference between pouring water first or pouring water last, the difference between concentrating more and extracting less is actually greater~
The early American style did pour the concentrate first and then the water, and the reason for this was because of the custom of the production at that time! In many coffee shops, we can see that the espresso machines are filled with coffee cups. The purpose of this is to preheat the coffee cups and make it easy to take them.
Because this way the barista can easily take out the corresponding coffee cup and place it under the coffee outlet when making espresso. When the espresso is extracted, add milk or water to the coffee cup as needed. Therefore, most of the initial espresso shots were made by pouring the espresso first and then adding other ingredients.
Until later, people began to use espresso cups to receive espresso, in order to make it faster and more convenient. When we use an espresso cup to collect the concentrate, we can prepare other materials in advance during the espresso extraction process. For example, like Americano, we can pour water into the cup first, and then only wait for the espresso to be extracted, then we can pour the espresso into the cup and serve it directly.
This approach not only greatly speeds up production, but also gives the coffee a better appearance. Many customers sighed when they saw the rich fat floating on the American food produced by Qian Street. It is enough to show that the visual effect provided by fat is very popular.
So this is why today’s coffee shops don’t pay too much attention to the order of espresso and water (pouring in) when making American style. They focus on making whatever is convenient/comfortable~
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
