Caffè americano — Recipes

Name: Caffè americano
Cook time: 25 s
Yield: 1
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 7 g Ground coffee; Hot water

Parameters

Ground coffee: 7 g
Yield in cup: 0.8 fl oz
Water temperature: 190 °F
Pressure: 131 psi
Extraction time: 25 s

Grind: The same as for espresso: you lengthen the drink, not the extraction.

Served in: Large cup

The extraction time does not change: you pull more espressos, not one longer espresso.

Ingredients

7 g Ground coffee
Hot water — No source declares a quantity

Method

Pour the water first

Put the hot water in the large cup before the coffee: that way the crema stays on the surface.
Pull the espresso

25 ml to the parameters of Certified Italian Espresso, poured over the water.

Common mistakes

It tastes burnt → boiling water was poured on top of the crema. Water first, coffee second, and the crema survives.
It tastes of nothing → too much water for a single espresso: add a second shot, do not extract for longer.
Do not stretch the extraction to reach the same volume: you pull the bitter compounds of the tail.

An americano is an espresso lengthened with hot water, and it should not be confused with filter coffee: the extraction method is the espresso one, and the water is added afterwards.

There is no codified proportion. It is the one genuinely free parameter of the preparation, and also the one that varies most from country to country: which is why we leave it empty rather than declare a measure that has no source.