Anyone who drinks coffee regularly knows that American style is black coffee with nothing added, which tastes bitter and has a sweet taste; latte is a fancy coffee with milk mixed with espresso, which is sweet and delicious, and can be easily accepted by drinking coffee for the first time. Other categories are based on this cup of coffee. For example, sparkling American style refers to black coffee with sparkling water, and toffee latte is latte coffee with toffee syrup, so the types have corresponding methods and proportions.
But for friends who make their own coffee at home, there is no need to pay too much attention and rules. Take the most common American coffee. Some people like it stronger, so they add less water. Some people like it lighter, so they dilute the concentration. Some people like to add sugar, and some are used to adding milk. In short, you can make it how you want. So here comes the question, does the Americano become a latte after adding milk? If you make it at home, how much should you add, and how should you add it appropriately? Don’t worry, Front Street thinks we need to start with the birth of American coffee.
Trivia: Didn’t Americano coffee originate in the United States?
The ingredients for Americano are very simple, just espresso and water. Espresso, as the name suggests, comes from Italy in Europe. The purpose of developing espresso is to improve the speed of making coffee. Initially, espresso refers to a way of making coffee, and espres means "quick", which means that a cup of black coffee can be made in a very short time.
The rise of American coffee dates back to the 18th century. At that time, Americans were extremely dissatisfied with the expensive tea import duties imposed by the British government, so the "Boston Tea Party" broke out in 1773 and advocated drinking coffee instead. Gradually, the number of cafes in the United States continued to expand, prompting the coffee industry to flourish in the United States. By the 1880s, about one-third of the world's coffee beans were sold to the United States. During World War II, American coalition troops consumed a large amount of coffee every day to relieve the monotonous life and at the same time improve the spirits of the soldiers.
However, the Italians were used to drinking strong espresso, but the US military couldn't bear to drink such strong and bitter coffee, so they added water to the coffee liquid to dilute it to achieve a concentration acceptable to them. Later, in the cafes opened by Italians in the United States, they also "do as the locals do" and introduced "watered down coffee" based on espresso, which became very popular. Later, this kind of "watered coffee" was called "Americano".
American coffee standard recipe
Since no other excipients such as milk and sugar are added, Americano coffee can better capture the original taste and aroma of coffee beans. At the same time, this also tests the flavor and quality of espresso.The coffee beans used in the front street store are self-roasted "Sunflower Warm Blend", which is a combination of 70% Honduran sherry coffee and 30% Yirgacheffe sun-dried red cherry coffee. The whiskey, vanilla, and cream flavors of sherry are combined with the tropical fruits and fermentation of red cherries, making the coffee in the cup rich in aroma and soft in taste.
When producing Americano coffee, Front Street will grind the coffee beans into powder, extract espresso coffee according to a powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:2, and pour it into water for dilution. That is, 20 grams of coffee powder will be used to extract 40 grams of coffee liquid. According to Front Street's many experiments, the ratio of coffee liquid to water of 1:6 is most suitable for expressing the warm aroma. That is, 40 grams of coffee liquid is poured into 160 grams of 88°C hot water, and the hot Americano is finished.
If iced Americano is produced, the hot water will be replaced with 120 grams of ice cubes and 120 grams of room temperature water. The taste will be best before the ice cubes melt. Front Street's iced American style presents a fresh and pleasant sweet and sour taste, which is easy for even friends who don't drink coffee often.
If you add milk to your Americano, does it make it a latte?
As a well-known Italian milk coffee, latte can be said to be the most well-known among the conventional coffee types, and it is also loved by many players because of its simple production method.
Although there is no detailed record of its origin, we can be sure that latte coffee appeared much earlier than espresso. Since at least the 17th century, there has been a way of mixing milk into coffee in Europe. However, the brewing method is very primitive, either boiling a whole pot of coffee and then using a cloth bag to separate the residue, or extracting it with an old-fashioned Moka pot. Later, with the birth of the espresso machine, the steam wand became the standard for milk coffee, allowing baristas to easily heat milk. Modern latte coffee also gradually took shape, and followed the latte art trend to all parts of the world. Nowadays, latte can be found in almost every coffee shop, which shows that this "old coffee" has long been established as a classic.
Seeing this, Front Street believes that the smart friends of Front Street have figured out that the latte mentioned by the barista is actually using milk to dilute the espresso, giving it the mellow taste of coffee and the sweetness and smoothness of milk. The Americano coffee itself contains a certain proportion of water. If you add milk at this time, the advantage is that the bitter taste in the Americano is weakened and the coffee is easier to drink. The disadvantage is that if you accidentally add too much, the aroma will become weak and it will taste watery.
Therefore, if you want to add milk to Americano coffee to make it the icing on the cake, Front Street recommends giving priority to fresh milk, because it contains higher protein. Adding it to Americano coffee can not only bring a mellow taste, but also add a sweet milky aroma.
In addition, the proportion control of adding milk also requires special attention. After many comparisons and practical operations, Front Street found that the 1:4:1 ratio of espresso, hot water and milk tastes best. Take the hot American style we produce daily as an example.Add 160g warm water to 40g of coffee liquid.Blended with 40g of fresh milk, it has the aroma of whiskey and the richness of vanilla cream in the mouth, accompanied by the tonality of caramel, and the taste is very full.
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
