Does Steaming the Water Really Make a Better Americano?
3 sourcesAI-written, may contain mistakes.
James Hoffmann's Americano recipe — steam the water to 60–70 °C, skim the crema, pour the water under the shot — is about six months old and still being argued over. A new r/espresso thread asks who still makes it that way, and the answers split along the two halves of the recipe.
Quotes
Quotes“The simple version of this is, crema tastes bad.”
“I don't always drink americanos, but when I do, it's the Hoffmann recipe”
“Not worth making my drink take four times as long to prepare.”
“I’ve found it is even faster for me than heating the water in a kettle on my stove. Of course I also think it tastes better so I’d do it anyway.”
“i will die on the hill that the krema is an integral part of good espresso. yes it adds bitterness, but that's fine.”
Facts
FactsSteam water, then pour — Hoffmann's recipe changes the water before the espresso: roughly four times the shot's weight in cold water — 160 g against a 40 g double —
steamed to 60–70 °C in a pitcher, the crema skimmed off, then the shot poured on top.Boiler water concentrates minerals — An Americano is mostly water, so the water is the better thing to fix: water in a
steam boiler concentrates minerals as it repeatedly boils off as steam, which is why he steams fresh cold water instead of the machine's hot-water tap.The forum got there first — Home-Barista members pointed out in April that
the forum had discussed steam-wand water for Americanos long before the video, which makes the demonstration rather than the idea Hoffmann's contribution.
Voices
VoicesVerdict · YouTube · James Hoffmann — Wins blind tastings, unexplained — He reports the
steamed water winning repeated tastings against both machine hot water and kettle water — “you can tell in a blind tasting comfortably” — and credits Gwilym Davies with the idea, saying he cannot explain it and floating dissolved gases he has no meter to measure.Claim · YouTube · James Hoffmann — Crema removal is the disputed half — Crema removal is the recipe's second half and its more disputed one. His position is blunt —
“crema tastes bad” — and he says skimming it is worth the effort in an Americano even though he would not bother doing it to a straight espresso.
More notes
Voice · Objection · Reddit ·
r/espresso — Cost, not taste, is the objection — The strongest objection is cost, not taste: u/pfhlick says he can taste the difference side by side but not when handed one drink, and that it isn't worth making his drink take four times as long — which two replies dispute, saying the wand beats a kettle.Voice · Reaction · Reddit ·
r/espresso — Half the recipe stuck — Most repliers kept half the recipe: steaming the water stuck, often for temperature and workflow reasons rather than flavour, while crema-skimming is where drinkers divide — some like the bitterness and complexity, others prefer the drink without it.
