Both are black coffee, which one tastes better, Americano or hand-brewed single-origin coffee?

What is Americano?

Americano is a type of Italian coffee, usually made from medium-dark to dark-roasted blended coffee beans. The pressure of an Italian coffee machine allows hot water to pass through ground coffee powder to extract espresso. Generally, a cup of Americano is made from one or two servings of espresso diluted with hot water.

So what is hand-brewed single-origin coffee?

Single-origin coffee beans are usually used as raw materials. The degree of roasting of coffee beans ranges from light roasted, medium roasted, and dark roasted. Hand-brewed coffee is mostly brewed with a filter cup. First, grind the coffee beans into powder and put them into filter paper. After slowly pouring hot water, pour it evenly on the entire coffee powder. The coffee liquid extracted through the filter paper and the filter cup slowly drips downwards, and a cup of hand-brewed coffee is ready.

Since hand-brewed coffee is usually intended to show the regional flavor characteristics of single-origin coffee beans, it is recommended to be brewed without sugar or milk, which is also a type of black coffee.

But if you want to make a delicious cup of hand-brewed coffee, the key lies in grinding, water temperature, the ratio of coffee to water, etc. Compared with machine-made coffee, there are more details.

Next, let me explain the difference between these two types of coffee.

Americano

The base of American coffee is espresso. Espresso originated in Italy and is mostly extracted with Italian coffee machines.

During the production process, first put the ground coffee powder directly into the powder bowl, spread the coffee powder evenly to the edge of the cup, then use the powder tamper to press it into a coffee cake, place the handle on the espresso machine, and start extraction. The coffee cake will withstand the pressure of about 9Par atmospheric pressure after passing through the machine. It is extracted in just 20-30 seconds, releasing a small amount of coffee liquid with a thicker taste. The extracted espresso can be diluted with hot water or ice water in proportion to make American coffee.

Pour over coffee

Before you make a cup of hand-brewed coffee, you need to prepare the utensils, filter cup, pot, filter paper, bean can, bean scoop, bean grinder, kettle, hand-brewed pot.

First, put the filter paper into the filter cup, then pour in the ground coffee powder and gently flatten it through the outside of the filter cup. Next, use a kettle to pour hot water into the filter paper containing the coffee powder. Supply and cut off the water steadily and continuously. When the hot water is in full contact with the coffee powder, the coffee substances in it are extracted, and a cup of delicious hand-brewed coffee is filtered out.

What is the difference between American style and pour over?

Compared to hand-brewed coffee, espresso is ground into finer powder. When brewed under high pressure through an Italian coffee machine, more coffee substances can be dissolved and a higher concentration of coffee can be filtered out compared to other methods of making coffee.

In terms of brewing time, the extraction speed of Italian coffee machines is extremely fast: an average of 30 seconds can produce a cup of coffee. The steps are simple and a set of standard specifications are easy to learn. It has become the preferred brewing method of almost all coffee chains. Of course, "popularity" does not mean mediocre quality. The extraction of Italian coffee also needs to be adjusted regularly according to the state of the coffee beans to better show the flavor of the coffee beans.

Hand-brewed coffee is ground with coarser particles, and the entire brewing process takes about 3 to 4 minutes. It requires skills and techniques. From the degree of coffee bean grinding, water temperature, water quality, water flow, extraction time, and even the method and timing of water injection, every tiny change will have an impact on the final flavor.

Compared to espresso machines that can use fixed parameters to stably provide coffee of the same quality, hand-brewed coffee requires mastering more details to fully display the layers and flavors of each cup of coffee.

After all the popular science, let's do an experiment to compare them. Use the same bean to make Americano and hand-brewed single-origin coffee to see which one tastes better!

Light Roast: Sun-Dried Yirgacheffe Cherries

Medium roast: Yunnan Huaguoshan

Dark roast: Jamaican Blue Mountain

Whether it is lightly roasted red cherry, medium roasted Huaguoshan or dark roasted Blue Mountain, the sweetness is significantly improved after being made into American coffee, and the flavor is more balanced, but the taste is thin, the flavor is monotonous, and the layers are insufficient; while the black coffee brewed by hand-brewed coffee has a more distinct personality, more diverse changes in flavor and layers, and a relatively mellow taste. As for which one tastes better? It depends on personal preference~