What is an Americano?

Everything you need to know about the most basic yet refined coffee drink out there

TL;DR The Americano is a regular-sized coffee that consists of a cup of boiling water, topped with a double-shot of espresso. You can ask for it as either black or white. A white Americano has a small amount of cold milk included with it.

What is it?

It wouldn’t be a weekday shift at Hips without an Americano ticket crossing our bar. In the Forest of Dean, the Americano is a fan favorite, and with good reason. Available in two different varieties, the Americano can be picked up as either black or white. 

At its core, the Americano is an incredibly simple drink to make. The barista on shift will use a pre-set amount of 92° Celsius water, deposited straight into one of our regular cups, and will then pull a double shot of espresso straight on top of that poured water. This ensures the two components mix well, and it leaves you with a beautiful crema-rich, black coffee that’s perfect for those with a sophisticated palette or that just want a simple, straight-to-the-point "black coffee" drink.

A Black Americano simply means no milk is required; instead, you get to enjoy the beautiful intricacies of that espresso dialed in and integrated into the water. However, if you do want to temper some of that bitterness, then a White Americano is the way to go. In that case, a small pot of milk will be added to the side of your drink with the milk of your choice to add at your leisure. 

Typically, if the baristas on shift know it’s a Black Americano and the cup itself looks a little low on the water front, they’ll usually add a touch more water to top up the cup.

The Coffee

No matter what caffeinated drink you’re after, all good coffee starts with the best espresso. From the Americano to the latte, the flat white to the mocha, and everything in between, if your espresso is bad, your drink likely will be too, and it’s a key reason why we take a ton of pride in both our espresso and how we prepare it here at Hips.

In the Forest of Dean, our shops use a special blend of both Ethiopian and Brazilian beans roasted to a medium profile by Studio Coffee Roasters in Hereford. Not only does this mix of African and South American beans provide a unique set of flavors, but combined with that medium roast profile, it ensures that it retains an incredibly balanced flavor all around. There’s enough bitterness to keep even the steadfast dark-roast enjoyer satisfied without losing some of that nuance you get from those different coffee bean varieties.

Each drink we create uses 18 g of freshly ground coffee to pull each double shot of espresso. Once this is added to our espresso machine’s group handle, it’s then distributed and tamped appropriately to remove any air pockets before being secured into position in the machine. 

After that, water is forced through the coffee puck with 9 bars of pressure at 92° Celsius, with the aim of ending up with 36 g of espresso. For the best experience, we aim to do this with three seconds of pre-infusion and 28-31 seconds of full-pressure after that. If it runs too quickly, the shot will be too acidic, and if it takes too long, it’ll be too bitter. 30 seconds gives us a perfectly balanced, smooth shot of espresso. That then drips straight on top of our Americano’s water base, blending perfectly together to create our coffee lover’s drink of choice.

Alternatively, if you’d like to keep your caffeine levels down, we also have a decaf option in the form of a Colombian bean, similarly roasted by our friends over at Studio.

Guest Espresso

Depending on what’s available, we may also use our guest espresso for any Americano beverages as well. At Hips, we rotate our guest espresso once every one to two months, depending on availability. This lives in a secondary grinder and typically has very different origins, roasting profiles, and taste because of it.

If you’d like to try a different type of espresso in your Americano, or any drink for that matter, you can always ask the team to swap to the guest free of charge to provide a far different experience. Our guest espresso still follows the exact same criteria as our house blend, with 18g of ground coffee, 3 seconds of pre-infusion, 28-31 seconds of full-pressure, and 36g of espresso out, and our team of specially trained baristas continually dial in our coffee grinders to ensure that remains consistent throughout the day.

The Milk

By default, if you ask for your Americano, white, you’ll be provided with a small pot of skimmed milk to add to your coffee as and how you like. However, there are a number of alternative ways that you can enjoy your drink. 

We of course can provide different types of milk, including oat, coconut, and whole milk, but additionally, you can ask for extra hot milk as well. In this case, the barista on shift will heat some up and place it in the small milk pot instead.

Alternatively, we also provide the option to include pouring cream or double cream with your American too, if you’d like something with a bit more body and creaminess to it.

Takeaway Americanos

Our takeaway cups are naturally slightly larger than our in-house cups. Because of that, the Takeaway Americano has slightly more water than its sit-in counterpart; if you’re after something a little stronger, you can always ask for an additional shot to be added to your takeaway beverage instead, or for less water to be added.

Custom Americano

Fancy something a little more unique? Outside of the different espressos and extra hot milk, you can of course change up your Americano however you’d like. If it’s too strong, we can reduce the number of shots, swap to decaf, or alternatively increase the number of shots as well.

You can also add syrup to your Americano as well, with hazelnut being a particularly popular choice in the Forest of Dean.

The Origins of the Americano

Similar to the cappuccino, there’s a lot of rumors around the true origins of the Americano and not a lot of cold, hard evidence. The first written usage of the word (in relation to coffee) appeared in a Jamaican newspaper back in the 1960s; however, rumor has it that after the Second World War, US soldiers stationed in Italy didn’t particularly enjoy the strong Italian coffee available to them and would often water it down with hot water as a result, although the evidence suggests that this is more of an urban legend, and that's in fact the origin of the Long Black instead. 

That said, “Americano” literally translates as American in Spanish, Italian, and Portugese as well, and some have suggested that it actually originated from Central America as a somewhat derogatory term for a mild or weak coffee from those strong coffee-loving nations.