Most coffee drinkers have a preferred drinking temperature, from hot coffee at 70 to 80 degrees down to iced coffee at near zero degrees; any temperature you can tolerate works, which is to say it all comes down to personal preference. But the temperature standards we generally define are at most just scalding, hot, cold, and iced, and most people, apart from drinking it hot or as iced coffee, rarely prefer the "middle values"; unless it is a cupping done to assess coffee quality, few people choose to drink warm, cool, or cold coffee.

Qianjie believes the most interesting thing about coffee is that whether you drink it hot or let it sit until it is warm or cool, you get different taste sensations. Of course, if the coffee itself is poor quality, badly roasted, or badly brewed, it may taste bad from start to finish.

Taking advantage of winter, hot Americano, which normally has an extremely low presence, has recently begun to draw everyone's attention. People hold a cup in hand, and although it still has not overtaken iced Americano, it is finally no longer obscure. As more and more people order hot Americano, some friends have noticed that the temperature at which every cafe serves hot Americano seems to differ. Water temperature ranges from 60°C to 80°C, and even higher. So which temperature range gives hot Americano the best flavor and mouthfeel?

To explore the results more objectively, Qianjie next tests separately with a rich-bodied dark-roast espresso blend coffee bean and a medium-light roast single-origin coffee bean focused on expressing fruit acidity, then compares them one by one at four temperatures (60°C, 70°C, 80°C, 90°C), keeping other parameters and preparation details as consistent as possible. Without further delay, let's get started.

Dark roast coffee beans: Qianjie Blend - Classic Espresso Coffee Beans

Espresso flavor: dark chocolate, cream, hazelnut, caramel

Grind setting: 2.0

Extraction parameters: 20 g coffee grounds, duration 30 to 31 seconds, 40 g coffee liquid

Preparation ratio: 1:4.5 (40 g coffee liquid + 180 ml hot water)

The espresso made with the dark roast blend coffee beans carries a rich crema, and all four cups smell of hazelnut and caramel. The 60°C and 70°C hot Americanos can be sipped directly, so tasting them preserves the most complete crema. By comparison, the 70°C Americano is slightly better in flavor, showing rich aromas of creamy chocolate, nuts, and caramel biscuits, with a fairly obvious sweet aftertaste. The 80°C coffee is a bit scalding at first, so you can only take a small sip; the taste is neither good nor bad, and as the temperature drops, the layers of coffee aroma and sweetness change most richly.

After sitting indoors for 20 minutes, the 60°C Americano has dropped below 45°C, its aroma begins to weaken, and at the same time the bitterness increases somewhat, giving it the shortest window for enjoying. As for the 90°C Americano, because the water temperature used is close to boiling, it can only be drunk in big mouthfuls fifteen minutes after it is made, so almost no crema remains, and much of the aroma has been lost, leaving only a roasted taste mixed with a somewhat dull bitterness.

Hot Americano aroma and mouthfeel ranking: 70°C > 80°C > 60°C > 90°C

Medium-light roast coffee beans: Qianjie Costa Rica Baja Coffee Beans

Espresso flavor: grape, blueberry, rose, cream, fermented wine aroma

Grind setting: 1.6

Extraction parameters: 20 g coffee grounds, duration 28 to 29 seconds, 40 g coffee liquid

Preparation ratio: 1:4.5 (40 g coffee liquid + 180 ml hot water)

Because the Baja coffee beans, which focus on expressing floral and fruity acidity, are roasted relatively lighter, the extracted espresso has a fairly thin crema, and after pouring in hot water there is almost no foam left. In terms of flavor, the four freshly made hot Americanos do not differ much, all showing citrus and blueberry acidity along with a faint fermented mouthfeel.

Among them, the 80°C hot Americano gives the best tasting experience; as it cools to close to 70°C, it shows delicate floral notes and a raisin-like fresh sweetness. As with the dark roast blend Americano group, the 90°C hot Americano tastes mainly sour overall, with the flattest aroma. The 60°C and 70°C Americanos are middling in flavor; although they have no negative tastes, their lower starting temperature means they cool quickly, so the best window for enjoying them is also short.

Hot Americano aroma and mouthfeel ranking: 80°C > 70°C > 60°C  > 90°C

From this it can be seen that whether using light-roast coffee or dark-roast coffee, it is not very suitable to use water above 80°C to make a hot Americano. Not only is it easy to scald the mouth, but the burning sensation on contact with the liquid will clearly overpower the perception of the taste buds, making the sense of taste less sensitive. At the same time, an excessively hot Americano also means a longer wait for it to cool down, and the more volatile aromas in the coffee dissipate, greatly reducing the flavor.

In addition, friends who often drink pour-over black coffee should know that coffee liquid shows different flavor expressions at different temperatures, and the bitterness in it becomes more pronounced as the temperature drops, especially below normal human body temperature. Therefore, in addition to the optimal tasting temperature for coffee, Qianjie also takes into account that people usually take more than 20 minutes to finish a cup of coffee, so when serving a hot Americano, it tries to use a preheated coffee cup while controlling the temperature at a medium-high range of 75-80°C. Otherwise, before you have taken more than a few sips, the coffee has already cooled down; let alone appreciating the flavor, even finishing the whole cup becomes a bit difficult.