If you have an espresso machine and an espresso grinder at home, the best way to prepare a long coffee is a Cafe Americano. This involves pouring a single or double espresso over a chosen amount of water.
The advantage: since part of the liquid in the final drink does not have to pass through the coffee, it is not over-extracted. This way, we avoid bitterness in the coffee that doesn't taste good.
A good alternative is preparing a Café crème. However, this requires a second grinder. Constantly adjusting the grinder between different drinks is not practical, as precise grinder settings take a lot of time.
Cafe Americano Recipe
Pour 100 grams of water into the cup.
Then pull a "standard" double espresso and let it flow into the water.
The final drink will then have a volume of approximately 145 milliliters. We generally recommend not drawing the water from the coffee machine's tank, but heating it separately to about 75 degrees.
The amount of water added can also be adjusted using the bypass calculation, allowing you to specifically control the strength.
Cafe Americano, Caffè Americano or Lungo
As is often the case with coffee, you could write entire etymological coffee treatises about the Americano and search for the origin of the word. The Italian spelling and pronunciation are probably formally correct. After all, we owe the Americano to visitors in Italy who found the concentration of espresso hard to get used to. But diluted with water, the espresso becomes much more accessible. It quickly earned its name: Caffè Americano.
The drink's spread throughout the world pushed the Italian spelling into the background, replacing it with the popular "Cafe," which also corresponds to "coffee" in Spanish and French and is widespread in German through the term "Cafés."
The Cafe Americano should by no means be compared to a Lungo. With a Lungo, all the brewing water runs through the coffee, which leads to a distinct bitterness. The Cafe Americano is also significantly stronger in its concentration than a filter coffee.
Which coffee for an Americano?
By using an espresso grinder, you are often tied to espresso beans when preparing a Cafe Americano. As a result, the Americano also tastes and smells "espresso-like." However, the Americano makes a significant leap in quality if you choose lighter coffee roasts for preparation. Even filter coffee roasts are well-suited for an Americano. Due to the large amount of water, the sharp acidity of the filter coffee roast is very well balanced, and the drink is very well-rounded.
