Before getting on the train I felt like drinking an espresso. A small coffee that is strong enough to hit your senses. At the same time small enough to not hype you up  before you bounce all over the place. Coffee and life.

To smooth the espresso you can go macchiato or americano. If macchiato a.k.a. milk foam is not preferred go, americano. An americano is an espresso with added hot water. How much water you add depends on your sense of (pro)portions.

In general you either go Italian/European with about 20 to 25 ml of water or go for more. American portions tend to go beyond the small European portions with some strange effects. My tall americano had enough coffee for a standard mug.

A standard mug is bigger than a small European coffee cup. Think two to two and a half times the liquid content at least and that makes a difference. As a coffee nut who has little time to think about coffee these days I judge every coffee place by its espresso. A good espresso enables a good americano.

There is one problem to espressos though. An espresso does not have that much coffee inside it. Regular filter coffee can be considerable stronger due to the slower extraction of the coffee grind inside the filter. So when you add too much water to the espresso to make an americano you can create a weaker coffee than you started out with.

The smallest take-away cup at Starbucks is the tall sized one. At least the one I visited at Schiphol. Tall equals a mug. Thankfully at some Starbucks establishments you can get the European cups. My americano was not the best ever but there was still a slow sensation of coffee after a while.

In general Starbucks is okay and if you know what you like excellent with some coffees. Besides that, what is the point of this post about a tall americano?

In short, a good americano is a pleasant compromise. Too much water and the compromise becomes a worse. It strikes me that some people do not like a good espresso like a dry actual fact.

Add too much water and the espresso disappears. When dry facts are drowned out by too much bull shit no wonder people are ill-informed and confused.

Time for some Lou Reed and coffee…