An Americano is just espresso diluted with hot water, so most people assume a bitter one means a bad shot. It usually doesn’t. To make a better Americano, change the water and the crema before you touch the grinder: steam cold water to about 65 to 70°C instead of pulling it from the machine’s boiler, and skim the crema off the espresso before you drink. Both take seconds. Neither requires re-dialing anything. The rest of this is the why, plus two more fixes for filter drinkers and hot weather.
Last updated: June 2026
Why an Americano tastes more bitter than its espresso
An Americano often tastes more bitter than the espresso it came from because dilution unmasks bitterness that the espresso’s concentration was hiding. A neat espresso is intense and syrupy, and that strength covers a lot. Stretch the same liquid out with hot water and the bitter compounds spread across the whole cup with nothing left to hide behind.
So the espresso can be perfectly good and the Americano can still taste harsh. That matters, because it means the first move is not to re-pull the shot. The two biggest, easiest wins sit in the water you add and the foam on top.
By contrast, the fixes most people reach for first, finer grind, different beans, longer extraction, are the slow and uncertain ones. Start with water and crema. You can always dial the shot later if you still want to.
Fix 1: Steam cold water instead of using boiler water
Steam fresh cold water with your steam wand up to roughly 65 to 70°C and use that for the Americano instead of water drawn from the machine. On a side-by-side taste, steamed water wins almost every time: softer, sweeter, and noticeably less bitter. The difference is not subtle once you have tried both next to each other.
Here is the mechanism. Many espresso machines hold water in a steam boiler above boiling point to make steam pressure. Sit there and concentrate, and that water tastes flat and a little harsh by the time it reaches your cup. Worse, boiler-hot water near 100°C scorches the espresso on contact and pulls even more bitterness out of it. Steaming cold water gives you fresh water at a gentler temperature, closer to how you would brew a filter coffee.
Aim under boiling on purpose. You want roughly drinkable temperature, not scalding. Pour the steamed water first, then add the shot.
I have run this split at the cupping table more than once: one espresso, two cups, boiler water in one and steamed cold water in the other. People who swear they can’t taste the difference taste it instantly. Same coffee, two different drinks.
Fix 2: Skim the crema off before you drink
Skim the crema off your Americano with a teaspoon before you drink it. The short version: crema looks good and tastes bad. Drag it to one side, lift it out, and throw it away. The drink underneath is more complex, a little brighter, with a touch more acidity and life. The whole job takes about ten seconds.
Crema is the layer of fine foam that sits on a fresh shot. It carries a lot of the harsh, dry, slightly bitter character of the espresso. In a neat shot, it reads as intensity. Diluted into an Americano, it just reads as bitter and a bit chalky on the finish.
Try it once to convince yourself. Take a teaspoon of straight crema on its own and taste it. It is sharp, dry, and not pleasant. That is the flavor you are spooning off the top. Do not drink it down for the sake of it.
That said, this is a choice, not a law. If you like the look and the body crema gives, keep it. But if you want more clarity and vibrance, get rid of it.
Fix 3: For filter lovers, pull a long shot
If you prefer filter coffee but only own an espresso setup, pull a longer shot to get closer to that flavor. Where a traditional espresso might be 18 grams of coffee in for about 40 grams of liquid out, push the same dose out to 60, 65, or 70 grams of liquid, letting it flow faster while still aiming for a balanced, tasty result. Then dilute and skim as above.
This works best with the lighter roasts that filter drinkers tend to like, which are harder to extract and often taste sour or thin when pulled as a tight, traditional shot. A longer flow gives you more even extraction and a cup that reads as clean and filter-like rather than concentrated and sharp.
Combine the three so far, and you have a recipe: pull a long shot from a lighter roast, skim the crema, add steamed water. What you get is close to a good filter coffee from an espresso machine, and a genuinely enjoyable drink.
Fix 4: Make an aerocano instead of an iced Americano
For iced coffee, make an aerocano instead of a traditional iced Americano. Brew the espresso, add it to ice water, then put the steam wand into the ice water and whip it until it foams and builds texture. That soft foam turns a flat, intense, often bitter iced Americano into something with real body and softness. Compared side by side, it is night and day.
A standard iced Americano is one of the harsher ways to drink coffee: cold, dilute, and bitter all at once, with nothing to round it off. Whipping air into the water before you serve gives the drink a texture that cold dilution otherwise strips away.
When the weather turns hot and you want a quick iced black coffee with great texture, this is the one to make. It is worth the extra thirty seconds.
The honest trade-off: what these fixes can’t do (Fix 5)
None of this saves a bad bean. Steaming the water, skimming the crema, and stretching the shot all reveal the coffee more clearly. They do not improve it. Strip the crema off a flat, over-roasted commodity espresso and you will taste the flatness more honestly, not less.
This is the part nobody selling a clever brewing trick wants to say. These techniques are amplifiers. A coffee with sweetness, acidity, and clarity to begin with gets more of all three. A coffee with nothing underneath gets exposed. The reason a skimmed, steamed-water Americano tastes so much better in most cafes is partly the method and partly that the method lets a good coffee finally speak.
So if you have done all four fixes and the cup still tastes dull, the problem has moved. It is no longer the water or the foam. It is what is in the basket.
What this means for roasters and home baristas
If you are a home barista, the order of operations is the easy part. Steam cold water, skim the crema, taste. You will likely never go back, and you have spent nothing and re-dialed nothing. Keep the long-shot and aerocano tricks for when you want a filter-style or iced drink.
If you roast or buy coffee for a cafe menu, these methods are also a quality test. A clean, well-developed espresso rewards skimming and steamed water with sweetness and vibrance. A tired or carelessly roasted one just gets thinner and sourer when you take its crema away. In practice, a coffee that improves when you strip it back is a coffee with something real underneath.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my Americano taste more bitter than the espresso?
Dilution removes the espresso’s concentration, which was masking its bitterness. A neat shot is intense enough to hide harsh notes; spread that same liquid through hot water and the bitterness has nothing to hide behind, so you taste more of it even though the espresso itself has not changed.
What temperature should the water be for an Americano?
Aim for roughly 65 to 70°C, below boiling. Boiling water near 100°C scorches the espresso and pulls out extra bitterness. Steaming fresh cold water with a steam wand to a gentler, drinkable temperature gives a softer, sweeter, less bitter cup than water straight from the machine’s boiler.
Should you remove the crema from an Americano?
Yes, if you want less bitterness and more clarity. Crema carries much of the espresso’s harsh, dry character, which reads as bitter and chalky once diluted. Skim it off with a teaspoon before drinking for a brighter, more complex, slightly more acidic cup. Keep it only if you prefer the look and body.
What is an aerocano?
An aerocano is an iced Americano made by adding espresso to ice water and then whipping the water with a steam wand until it foams. The foam adds soft texture that a plain iced Americano lacks, making the drink less harsh and more enjoyable than a standard iced Americano.
Can I make filter-style coffee on an espresso machine?
Yes. Pull a long shot, around 18 grams in to 60 to 70 grams out, ideally from a lighter roast, letting it flow faster while staying balanced. Skim the crema and add steamed water. The result is close to a good filter coffee brewed on an espresso setup.
If you want better coffee in the cup
Every fix here reveals the coffee rather than rescues it, so the cup is only ever as good as the bean. Whatever you roast, ask for the current crop year, the full processing description, and a recent cupping score before you commit. If you are sourcing green coffee, Indonesia Specialty Coffee ships 1 kg cupping samples of the Grade 1 Indonesian lots we export from Medan. Check our green coffee beans product list.
The steamed-water and crema-skimming methods discussed here were popularized in a widely shared Americano tutorial by coffee educator James Hoffmann (World Barista Champion in 2007).
