What is an americano?

An americano — or caffè americano — is an espresso (30 to 40 ml) lengthened with hot water (100 to 180 ml) to reach a filter-coffee volume while keeping an espresso-derived aromatic profile. The name came from American GIs stationed in Italy during World War II, who diluted the intense Italian espresso with hot water to approximate the filter coffee they drank back home.

The origin of the americano is well documented: during the 1943-1945 Italian campaign, American soldiers in Italian bars ordered diluted espresso to get closer to the filter coffee they were used to. Italian baristas ironically labelled the drink 'caffè americano', a nickname that stuck after the war and spread across Europe through Italian bar culture.

Technical baseline is one espresso shot (30 ml) lengthened with 100 to 120 ml of hot water at 85-90 °C, for a total volume near 150 ml in the Italian version and up to 180-220 ml in North-American chains. The pouring order is debated: water first with espresso poured through preserves the crema and gives what antipodeans call a 'long black'; espresso first with water added on top produces a classic americano where the crema partially dissolves.

Despite a persistent myth, an americano does not automatically carry more caffeine than a single espresso — both drinks start from the same shot, so extracted caffeine is equivalent (about 60-80 mg for a single, 120-160 mg for a double). What changes is concentration: TDS drops from 8-10 % (espresso) to about 1.2-1.5 % in the americano, close to filter coffee.

Flavour-wise, an americano is not a filter coffee even though volumes overlap. Pressure extraction pulls oils and compounds that gravity percolation does not; an americano keeps a rounder, oilier body and a residual crema, while a V60 or Chemex gives a cleaner texture and more open aromatics. In Belgium, the americano is often the de facto filter option in bars that run only an espresso machine — typical of urban brasseries in Brussels, Liège or Antwerp without a dedicated batch brewer.

Americano vs long black vs espresso vs filter

The Espresso Extended for a Different Drinking Style

The Americano — hot water added to espresso, or espresso added to hot water — has a mythology of origin that is almost certainly apocryphal but culturally irresistible: American soldiers stationed in Italy during World War II, accustomed to the longer, milder cups of percolator coffee common in the United States, allegedly asked Italian baristas to dilute their espresso with hot water to approximate the coffee style they knew from home. Whether or not this story is accurate, the name has stuck and the drink has become a global café standard, existing in the specific middle ground between espresso intensity and filter coffee volume. A standard Americano is a double espresso (30-40ml) diluted with 120-180ml of hot water to produce a 150-220ml beverage at filter coffee strength but with the extraction character of espresso.

The Americano is not simply espresso and water — the order of combination matters to the cup character. Adding water to espresso (the most common café approach) preserves the crema layer by adding water beneath it, pushing the crema to the surface where it dissipates gradually. Adding espresso to water (sometimes called a "Long Black" in Antipodean tradition) preserves the crema more completely by allowing the espresso to settle on top of the water without being submerged. The Long Black variant typically shows more aromatic expressiveness because the crema — which contains the most volatile aromatic compounds of the espresso shot — remains intact at the surface where it is most accessible to the nose. The flavour difference between the two approaches is subtle but noticeable in a careful tasting.

Practical Recommendations

The Americano is one of the most forgiving espresso-based drinks to prepare at home because dilution masks some espresso extraction errors that would be obvious in a concentrated shot. This makes it a useful transitional drink for home espresso beginners who have not yet fully dialled in their extraction — a slightly over or under-extracted shot is more tolerable diluted than concentrated. That said, a truly well-dialled Americano from a quality specialty roast is an excellent daily driver: the espresso extraction concentrates sweetness and aromatic compounds while the water dilution makes the drink approachable at any time of day without the intensity commitment of a straight espresso. Use filtered water at 88-90 °C (not boiling) for the hot water component to avoid adding a flat, mineral-tasting water note to the subtler espresso flavours.