Americano, or a Long Black? ☕
I found out a fun fact this week. As a long-time caffeine addict (mostly for taste
), I like to vary my coffee types throughout the day. Afternoons is americano time when I'm at home, or as my coffee machine settings describe as a "long black". Two things I long thought were synonymous until this week.
Turns out, the difference lies not in proportions of coffee, water or anything, but in time, or specifically, the ORDER which you combine the water & espresso.
AMERICANO = Espresso + Hot Water
LONG BLACK = Hot Water + Espresso
The order is important. When you pour hot water onto your espresso in an Americano, you break up that lovely textured coffee crema at the top, reducing some of the flavour and impact of those gases as they escape your cup. I get it, we're excited to see that coffee, so we almost always pull an espresso first. Americanos are universally more commonly ordered in cafes around the world versus their inverse counterparts.
Now, I'm not saying either coffee order is wrong, but I can't see why you would want to remove some of that beautiful texture & flavour if you can avoid it, even with the same inputs. I'm sticking to long blacks. Warm up the cup first - then add that powerful espresso at the close.
The geek in me can't help but equate this to the marketing world.
So often we see marketing teams focusing too heavily on running sales-focused demand gen advertising campaigns, before realising they need to build brand awareness, as customers admit their cups have not been warmed up yet. So often, we pour those ad campaign budgets into a cold cup, and we risk losing half the power of that delicious espresso we have to offer.
Marketers, warm your cups, and warm your audiences first. Your taste buds - and your buyers - will thank you for it.
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