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