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Tu Vuo' Fa' l'Americano

4:29 PM Thursday, October 27, 2005

[Is an Americano the Ultimate Non-Fat Latte?]

In spite of my efforts to find a good espresso in my local area, I find that lately I've been ordering another kind of espresso drink: the Americano. It consists of an espresso, single or double as ordered, diluted with hot water. The name, of course, refers to the fact that it is as big as, and looks like, a typical serving of American-style brewed coffee, though it's served in a latte glass rather a coffee cup. Until recently, it made no sense to me to order an Americano: If I wanted a cup of brewed coffee, I could get one almost anywhere. Now, however, I find that the Americano is an excellent coffee drink for several reasons: one, you can taste the espresso, even though it's diluted, and it usually tastes better than the brewed coffee that's available in most coffeehouses. Two, it has less caffeine than a brewed coffee, because an espresso is a tiny drink, and the Americano is only a diluted espresso. (Remember, I've been cutting down on the caffeine.) Three, the dilution seems to decrease the bitterness of an espresso made with bad roast, or by an unskilled barista. And finally, an Americano is usually much cheaper than a latte without the lactose and the butterfat, sometimes only half the price. I should mention that when I do get a latte, I always request whole milk. A non-fat latte, in my opinion, is a high-priced Americano with added lactose and the risk of stale milk. (It does have nice foam, however.) Sure, the butterfat in the whole-milk latte may be bad for my health, but the antioxidants in the coffee are good for me. For a cheap, foamless latte, try an Americano with a little half-and-half poured in.

Then, of course, there is decaf, and those baroque drinks (red-eyes, black-eyes, coal-cars) made by adding an espresso to a brewed coffee. So far I have not ventured forth to try one of them (I have never even tasted a Frappucino®.) There is an interesting idea, however, a serving of brewed decaf laced with a single espresso (i'll name it the "bright-eye" and see if the drink shows up on the Internet). In principle, it's a brewed coffee with more flavor, less caffeine, and now that the we know all about it, more antioxidants! A health coffee, perhaps? Perhaps. But somehow it doesn't sound too healthy to me. Also I don't know how the caffeine affects the antioxidant properties of a cup of coffee; I would guess that caffeine is not an antioxidant and does not enhance the health value of the others, but I don't know for sure.

The title of this post, by the way, comes from a Neapolitan song from the fifties by Renato Carosone, in which he ribs his pal for affecting an Americanized personal style, and buying cigarettes with money from his mother's pocketbook. Since I've started to attend the Papa Gianni Giotta songfests, and thanks to the space-age miracle of iTunes, I've become a Neapolitan song buff. Some day, maybe, a trip to Napoli. I'll bet they've got good espresso there, and of course the pizza is legendary.

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