Front Street shared: A good cup of American coffee must not only extract a suitable concentrated base, but also have a suitable concentration. Only by meeting these two requirements can the American coffee we make be more in line with our own taste.
After we learn how to make a regular cup of American coffee, we can start trying some of the "recipes" that have been circulating on the Internet recently to make American coffee taste better. Although these methods are different from conventional Americano coffee making, they can indeed improve the texture of Americano coffee to a certain extent. So next, Front Street will share what these popular “recipes” are!
A delicious American style is inseparable from high-quality coffee beans. If you want to make a sweet but not bitter American style, you must choose medium-roasted Italian coffee beans. It is recommended to buy the Front Street Strawberry Sugar espresso Italian blend. It is presented with Colombian coffee beans and Costa Rica and Ethiopian coffee beans. It maximizes the aroma of strawberries, grapes, almonds and cream. The fat is medium. The American style has a soft and fragrant floral aroma, and the taste is refreshing and not bitter.
If you plan to open a coffee shop, choose Front Street Commercial espresso blended coffee beans. It combines Colombian coffee beans, Brazilian coffee beans, and a small amount of Robusta coffee beans, and uses medium-dark roasting. The purpose is to allow everyone to easily create the same flavor as the coffee shop. The oil is rich and delicate. The flavor has the sweetness of caramel, the flavor of nuts and cocoa, and dark chocolate. It has a balance of sour and sweet, a little sweet and bitter, and a long-lasting aftertaste.
Many friends prefer American style that is refreshing but not bitter. You can try medium-roasted Italian beans. The barista strongly recommends the Front Street Oiran SOE with strawberry and guava flavors, and the citrus and citric acid Front Street Yirgacheffe Sun-Dried Red Cherry SOE. Both products have a low-bitter and soft taste, which is very suitable for friends who are just getting started.
1. American water use
When extracting coffee, we pay great attention to water quality. Because water will participate in the entire extraction process, and the softness and hardness of the water will affect the dissolution of flavor substances. Therefore, we will specially find and use a softer water in order to brew a good cup of coffee.
But because the requirements for water quality are based on the premise that water participates in the entire extraction process, some friends will ask: For Americano coffee, the role of water is mainly to dilute the concentration of coffee rather than extraction. In this case, is it necessary to pay attention to the softness and hardness of the water?
It is possible! Although the extracted espresso has determined the taste of the Americano, the additional water added for dilution can also change the texture of the Americano.
If you have friends who have drank both soft water and hard water, you will know that compared to soft water, the taste of hard water will be inferior and not as sweet. Water accounts for more than 97% of a cup of black coffee, so this directly determines the importance of water quality to coffee. The same is true for Americano coffee, so we can also pay a little attention to water quality issues.
2. Choice of oils and fats
Most of my friends already know this secret. Should I keep the oil? Although the golden layer of Crema is often called the "soul of espresso", its existence is not absolute for Americano coffee!
Because this layer of Crema is not only composed of carbon dioxide and coffee bean lipids, it also contains a lot of fine coffee powder because the filtering performance of the powder bowl is not strong enough. The existence of fine powder has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it can provide coffee with a higher body and a fuller taste. The disadvantage is that it is bitter and insoluble, so when fine powder is added to coffee, the cleanliness and sweetness of the coffee will be reduced to a certain extent.
And when we remove the oil from the espresso and make it into an Americano, you will find that the Americano will not only taste cleaner than the original, but the sweetness will also be improved. Therefore, when making American coffee, we can decide whether to retain the oil according to our own preferences.
If you like Americano coffee that is clean and sweet, you can use a spoon or filter paper to skim off the oil before pouring water into the espresso. If you like Americano coffee that is full-bodied and has a long aftertaste, then you can continue to use the conventional production method. There is no difference between the two, the final decision mainly depends on your own preferences~
3. Concentrate with ice cubes
It is a standard American practice to pour the concentrate first and then the water. This allows the coffee and water to blend more fully, making the American drink more even in concentration. Since the "quick-freezing" concept of Paragon's small golden balls became widely known (quickly cooling the extracted coffee, 40% more aroma can be retained), a new way of making iced American style was born, which is to first use a cup with ice cubes to catch the concentrate, then shake it, and finally add water to dilute it.
The principle of "quick freezing" is the same. When the espresso falls on the ice, it will be quickly cooled down. At the same time, the temperature of the espresso will be further reduced by shaking. This is said to be able to retain a lot of aroma substances and make the American coffee richer.
Front Street specifically tried to compare the iced Americano made in this way with the conventional way (the conventional iced Americano is to pour the extracted concentrate onto ice cubes, then add water and stir). What can I say about the results... There will indeed be some differences, but the aroma performance is secondary. The main difference lies in the temperature of the two.
The temperature of an Americano made with ice cubes and espresso will be lower, because the espresso is in direct contact with the ice cubes, and the temperature is immediately lowered; while the conventional Americano coffee is added with ice and water later, causing the temperature to drop more slowly, which makes the taste performance slightly inferior. As for the aroma, due to the difference in taste, people feel that the former is slightly better than the latter.
Therefore, if you drink it immediately after extraction, then this extraction method is worth trying. But the trouble of doing so has increased to a certain extent, so whether we need to change our approach for this little difference depends on our personal choice~
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
