The americano is sold in almost every cafe and is a must-order black coffee for many coffee lovers: it is quick to make, full of flavour and easy to drink, so even commuters heading to work have learned to make one at home for a caffeine boost. Yet plenty of people say that compared with milk drinks such as the latte, an americano tastes bitter. So what can be done to make it easier to drink?
Making an americano is simple and comes down to two main steps: pulling an espresso, then adding water to the coffee. Simple as it is, the drink still tests a barista's extraction skill to the full, because a good americano depends on its most basic element - the espresso, the first of those two steps.
An americano is nothing but water and coffee, so the character of the beans themselves has the greatest influence on its taste. The first reason an americano tastes bitter is therefore that the espresso blend itself may be built around a deep, heavy bitterness. For consistent extraction Front Street normally recommends medium-dark roasted espresso blends, and for anyone who enjoys a full-bodied, aromatic cup, Front Street Classic Blend is an excellent choice for americano: a recipe combining beans from Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam, roasted to a medium-dark level so that the sweet aroma is emphasised and a rich, dense crema is easy to extract.
If you are especially sensitive to bitterness, try the medium roast Front Street Strawberry Candy Espresso. This blend combines the berry-like sweet acidity of honey-processed coffee, the floral notes of Geisha and the creamy, nutty character of Colombian coffee; as an americano it opens with the delicate sweet acidity of grape juice, blueberry and fruit gummy, clean and transparent - ideal for anyone who dislikes bitterness.
Beyond bean selection, bitterness in americano also comes from mistakes during extraction, such as channelling causing uneven extraction, or a grind that is too fine leading to over-extraction.
Front Street often points out that, measured by weight, only about 30% of a coffee bean can actually be extracted - and extracting more of that 30% is not automatically better. According to the range recommended by the Golden Cup standard, an extraction yield of roughly 18% to 22% is ideal. Below 18% we call it under-extraction, which shows up as sharp acidity and a thin, hollow taste; above 22% we call it over-extraction, the familiar bitter, harsh cup.
If you find it hard to judge the ratio, start with the basic formula Front Street often quotes: ground coffee to espresso liquid = 1:2, with the shot finishing in 25-32 seconds and no spitting, no jumping flow and no pale crema. If the americano still tastes clearly bitter after the water is added, change the ratio to 1:1.75 so that the heavy aftertaste from large molecules in the final phase of the shot is trimmed back.
The base of the drink is closely tied to grind size, dose, pump pressure, water temperature and the coffee-to-liquid ratio. A grind that is too coarse tends to under-extract, giving a sour, weak cup, while too fine a grind over-extracts and turns bitter and harsh; aim to keep the shot time between 25 and 35 seconds.
The tamp after distributing the grounds matters just as much. It looks like nothing more than pressing the coffee down with a tamper, and anyone proud of their strong arm may put their whole body weight into it, risking a cracked basket in the belief that brute force will work wonders and that a human push is nothing compared with the 9 bar the machine delivers. In fact, tamping that hard compresses the puck far too densely, greatly reducing - or completely closing - the gaps water needs to pass through, which easily causes over-extraction.
Also take care that the tamper is kept perfectly vertical to the basket, otherwise the puck is pressed unevenly and the extraction becomes uneven as well.
When pulling the espresso, the basket Front Street uses holds 20 g of ground coffee; extraction pressure is around 9-10 bar, water temperature 94C, and the shot yields 40 g of liquid in 27-32 seconds. Once the espresso base is ready, only the final step of adding water remains. So what ratio of americano should you use?
A traditional americano uses a ratio of 1:8 espresso to water, but that ratio does not suit every coffee. Front Street once ran comparative tests with two different blends at 1:6, 1:7 and 1:8, tasting both hot and iced americanos.
The result: an espresso pulled from Front Street Classic Blend and diluted 1:8 with iced water gives a clear, balanced, sweetly aromatic americano of moderate strength with little bitterness, while as a hot americano 1:7 tastes best. With the other blend, Front Street Strawberry Candy Espresso, adding hot water at 1:6 brings out its bright floral notes and the sweet acidity of blueberry and grape far better, and the flavour lasts longer than at 1:8; served cold, Strawberry Candy made 1:7 with half ice and half water opens up even more layers of flavour.
Many people find that a hot americano tastes more bitter than an iced one. The higher the temperature, the more active the molecules, so a hot americano not only shows more aroma but also makes every nuance - bitterness included - easier to perceive. An iced americano, on the other hand, has a freshness the hot version lacks: the ice dulls the palate, so both bitterness and acidity read lower. If you want to enjoy the aroma and the lingering finish, Front Street suggests a hot americano; if you want something refreshing, iced americano is an excellent choice.
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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
