How to correctly taste the quality of a cup of American coffee? What does American Americano mean?

As a well-known drink in the circle, American coffee, which is only made of Italian concentrate and water (ice water), will appear in almost any cafe and play a leading role in entering the store.

There are many reasons why people like to drink American style, perhaps for the purpose of refreshing, relieving thirst, relieving summer heat, or to reduce swelling and fat. Of course, there is another possibility, that is, simply craving coffee, which happens to be one of the fastest and most affordable black coffee. For a variety of reasons, this cup of black coffee diluted with water in espresso has become a well-known hot drink.

Nowadays, American coffee is very common, so as ordinary consumers, what perspective can we use to judge whether this cup of rations coffee is good or bad? Today, from the perspective of taste, Qianjie will discuss with you what kind of "diluted coffee with water" can be regarded as a delicious American style in a broad sense.

American coffee = American coffee?

We can probably imagine from the name that Italian coffee comes from Italy, so American coffee (Americano) should come from the United States. But did you know that the name "Americano" was not coined by Americans, but by the Italian who invented the espresso machine?

Legend has it that at the end of World War II, when the US military was in Italy, because it was really not used to drinking espresso with a strong taste, it chose to dilute it with water, so that it retained a certain flavor of coffee and got a cup of refreshing coffee, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone. Later, with the wave of immigrants, Italians in the United States opened cafes, also launched this "light version of black coffee", and named it "American-style Americano", soon became very popular.

What is the difference between the American style in the cafe?

Once, Qianjie was asked by a regular customer why the American refreshing glycol made by some coffee shops was still unfinished after drinking the whole cup, while the American style in some coffee shops was so bitter that they could not even drink half of the pain mask at the moment of the entrance. It is obvious that they are all American style, but what factors have caused such a big gap?

Whether it is the classic version of extract and then water, or the improved version of Oceania, which is concentrated after adding water, it is essentially a cup of espresso with a concentration of about 7-12%.

Among them, more water and less water generally depends on the shape of the cup and the customization of the products of the store, and the water temperature is also the same, from 60 °~ 70 °suitable for immediate taste to 80 °~ 90 °to prevent the belt from cooling too fast in winter. there are even cases where boiling hot water is added directly. While these details do make a difference in the taste of American coffee, it is by no means the key reason for these significant differences.

Since we all know that a cup of American water is made up of water and Italian concentrate, water is usually colorless and tasteless and only dilutes, so the cause of the problem is only on espresso. So in the final analysis, when we drink a bad cup of American coffee, the problem obviously comes from the type and quality of beans used, as well as the barista's extraction. On the question of production, you can refer to our previous article: why does your American coffee always mean something?

So, what is a good cup of American coffee?

From the consumer's point of view, whether a cup of coffee tastes good or not is very subjective. After all, it is difficult to adjust a cup of coffee. Some people like to drink thick, deep-baked blends, and naturally some people like light baked products with refreshing fruit acid. others prefer the type of fermented wine, and different preferences deeply affect our final impression of a cup of American style.

But if we put aside the sour, bitter, strong, light, or other taste preferences of coffee for a while, and just look at the flavor brought by espresso, a good cup of American coffee should be inseparable from the following three points:

1. Smooth, comfortable tail rhyme

As we all know, a standard American upper layer will float a good-looking golden foam-Crema, which not only affects the oral touch of coffee, but also provides some aroma substances for coffee on the sense of smell, and is one of the important signs of coffee freshness. So in order to ensure a stable extraction, while giving espresso both good aroma and rich oil, American beans produced in most coffee shops still prefer medium-and deep-roasted beans.

Qianjie once in the article "shallow baked beans drink fruit acid, that deep baked beans drink what?" In contrast to the rich and varied flavor of sour coffee, deep-roasted coffee is mainly caramelized, such as chocolate, cocoa, cream, nuts and so on, which leads to the singleness of the coffee itself. Compared with those ever-changing acids, this kind of American style pays more attention to whether it has a good taste such as mellow, smooth and sweet.

In short, a good American style must have a smooth entrance and nothing uncomfortable after swallowing. On the contrary, if you feel the smell of scorched tires, dryness, roughness and a stuck throat at the entrance, it must be very difficult to call it "good coffee".

two。 The taste is balanced, not bitter, not bitter.

Unlike other coffee brewing methods, Italian concentration is a high-pressure extraction process, it is like a magnifying glass, the good things in the coffee will be magnified, the bad things will also be magnified, in other words, bitter coffee tends to become more bitter, sour coffee tends to become more sour. Therefore, to judge whether a glass of American style tastes good or not depends more on whether the taste can be balanced and bitter after being concentrated and diluted with water. Will it be poignant? If none, then needless to say, we can know that this must be a palatable cup of black coffee.

3. There is fragrance, not light.

In the world of coffee brewing, the management of the extraction rate is very important. If the extraction is insufficient, the coffee is light and tasteless; over-extraction, the coffee is astringent and tasteless. As a cup of coffee diluted with water after extraction, whether it is hot American coffee or iced American coffee, the core of its flavor is still in the dozens of milliliters of concentrate.

Take the sunflower sunflower mix produced daily in Qianjie store as an example to ensure that the concentrate can show vanilla, cream, chocolate, fermented wine, sweet and sour berries and other flavors, and will not become light after adding a certain proportion of clear water. and have a balanced tone, then the barista's debugging task is completed that day.

To sum up, when you drink an American cup that tastes smooth, the tail is clean, the overall sweetness is balanced, and shows the main flavor characteristics of coffee beans, congratulations, this cup of coffee is really right!

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Front Street Cafe

No. 10 Baoqian street, Yandun road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu district, Guangzhou, Guangdong province