Surprising that anyone would want to take ownership of the Americano
yeah, it’s one of my favourite coffees. I like perc-brewed black coffee already, americano has all the, uh, “perks” of it but also the richer flavour of an espresso. So good.
I thought the same thing … I thought Americano was basically just an espresso with a lot of water added to it
One of the reasons why I enjoyed espressos and why a lot of Europeans preferred it was due to the fact that it makes you pee less … same hit of caffeine but no need to go pee every half an hour.
I will sometimes have a pot of coffee a day at home and every time I do, I end up heading to the toilet to pee just about every hour. I really should just switch to espressos but my wife prefers the drip stuff.
It’s not to say they can’t be delicious and can certainly be nicer than a lot of preparations if it is rooted in a nice espresso shot.
However, the origin story is that American GIs couldn’t handle espresso and made Italians water it down to make it more like “coffee back home”, hence the name.
I’d imagine an authentic Canadiano would at least have some cheese curds in it.
This took me a second to process. Is filter coffee “coffee” in north America?
More or less, yes. Decades ago, the dominant kind in the US was perk (percolated) but that fell by the wayside1. The only time it makes sense to order an Americano by name here is at a coffee bar where it’s wise to specify how you want your cup made.
1. Honestly, it’s a tad more eco-friendly but many coffees are just not to people’s tastes like this - you get a very bitter cup this way.
Writing as a fan of the americano, I think we should just call it what it is. After all, what’s more american than taking something good and watering it down?
Alternatively we could call it the italiano since that’s where it originated. Or “café à l’eau” perhaps, what’s more Canadian than randomly adding french. Calling it “canadiano” feels too “freedom fries” to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffè_americano#Origin
That said, why not Canadiano. Sometimes you want more and a litttle hydration in there. It’s hard to sip an espresso for more than a couple of minutes.
Agree it feels kind of “freedom fries”-ey but remember that freedom fries were a US republiQan idiocy in a pathetic attempt to mock the French for being too smart to get balls-deep in the Iraq II war. No one but complete koolaid-drinking Qanuts say ‘freedom fries’ now because (a) the French were correct anyway and (b) fries are Belgian.
In that sense, this is probably better and has a chance of sticking.
It’s not the same situation as freedom fries at all, but it has the same sort of cringe feel to me. Just like french fries, the americano isn’t really american. We’re not ‘sticking it’ to anyone here, so it rubs me the wrong way a little. I hardly have a strong opinion on it though.
Wait, so does it refer to American as in USA or belonging to the western hemisphere? I’m asking this as someone who doesn’t live in the Americas and don’t drink coffee at all and didn’t know the term before reading this post.
It refers to the US (American) servicemen stationed in Italy during WWII.
Way to offend the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese languages, possibly.
If it doesn’t have a hint of maple it’s just watered coffee.
Weirdest experience I ever had back in my barista days was an older gentleman approaching my counter and ordering a “GI Coffee”. I had no idea what he meant and he had to explain it to me. It’s an Americano.
