Mastering the Americano: Avoiding common mistakes when pulling long shots

The Caffè Americano, with its beautifully simple composition of espresso and hot water, is a staple in coffee shops worldwide. Its quality, however, is anything but simple. A great Americano is bold, rich, and nuanced, while a poor one is often thin, bitter, and disappointing. The culprit is almost always the espresso base. Many baristas, both at home and in professional settings, opt to pull a “long shot,” or lungo, to create a larger volume of coffee for the drink. While the intention is good, this technique is fraught with peril. This article will explore the common mistakes made when pulling long shots for Americanos and provide clear, actionable advice on how to avoid them, ensuring your next Americano is balanced and delicious.

Understanding the long shot and its pitfalls

Before we can fix the problem, we need to understand the tool. A long shot, or lungo in Italian, is an espresso extraction that uses more water than a standard shot (normale) or a restricted shot (ristretto). The goal is to create a larger volume of espresso, often with a milder, less intense flavor profile. While a standard espresso might follow a 1:2 brew ratio (e.g., 18 grams of coffee grounds yielding 36 grams of liquid espresso), a lungo pushes this to 1:3 or even 1:4.

The fundamental mistake is assuming you can just let the machine run longer with your standard espresso grind. This leads directly to the single biggest enemy of a good lungo: over-extraction. Coffee extraction is a sequence. The initial water pulls out bright acids and sweet sugars. As you continue to push water through the coffee puck, you begin to extract less desirable compounds—the bitter, astringent, and woody elements that create a harsh, hollow taste. When you simply extend the time of a standard shot, you are forcing the water to strip these unpleasant flavors from the depleted coffee grounds. The result is a cup that tastes burnt and papery, with a thin, weak crema that vanishes in seconds.

The right way to pull a long shot: Adjust your grind

So, if letting the shot run longer is the wrong approach, what is the right one? The secret to a balanced, non-bitter lungo lies not in time, but in your grinder. To correctly pull a long shot, you must grind your coffee coarser than you would for a standard espresso. This might seem counterintuitive, but it’s based on the physics of extraction. A coarser grind creates more space between the coffee particles, reducing the resistance in the portafilter. This allows more water to flow through the puck more quickly.

By grinding coarser, you can achieve a higher liquid yield (e.g., 54 grams out from 18 grams in) in roughly the same time it takes to pull a standard shot, typically between 25-35 seconds. This prevents the water from dwelling on the grounds for too long, thus avoiding the extraction of those bitter compounds. You are essentially recalibrating the entire shot for a higher volume from the start, rather than just tacking on extra, flavor-destroying seconds at the end.

Here’s a simple process to follow:

1. Start with your usual dose of coffee in the portafilter.
2. Adjust your grinder to be a few notches coarser than your standard espresso setting.
3. Pull your shot, aiming for a 1:3 ratio within a 25-35 second window.
4. Taste the result. If it’s watery and sour (under-extracted), your grind is too coarse. Make a small adjustment finer. If it’s bitter and harsh (over-extracted), your grind is still too fine. Adjust coarser.

This “dialing in” process is crucial. It transforms the lungo from a bitter mistake into a genuinely different and enjoyable expression of the coffee bean.

Superior alternatives for an exceptional Americano

Even a perfectly pulled lungo isn’t for everyone. Its unique, often lighter and more tea-like body can be beautiful, but many people seek the rich, syrupy intensity of a classic espresso in their Americano. If that’s you, there are far better and more reliable methods than attempting a lungo. These techniques prioritize a perfect core extraction, guaranteeing a delicious foundation for your drink.

The best and most classic approach is to simply use a perfectly extracted standard shot. Pull a double espresso (a 1:2 ratio) that is sweet, balanced, and full-bodied. Then, top it with hot water (around 85-90°C or 185-195°F) to your desired strength. This method preserves the integrity of the espresso, giving you all of its best flavors in a diluted form. You have complete control over the strength and you entirely sidestep the risk of over-extraction.

Here are some other professional-grade alternatives:

• The split double: If you want a smaller Americano, pull a standard double shot but only use one of the two streams to build your drink. This ensures you’re still using coffee from a perfectly dialed-in extraction.
• The double shot Americano: For a stronger, richer drink, use a full double shot as your base. This is the standard in most specialty coffee shops and provides a robust flavor that stands up well to the hot water.

By focusing on the quality of the base espresso—whether it’s a single or a double—you are building your Americano on a foundation of excellence, which is a much safer bet than chasing a tricky lungo extraction.

Conclusion: Build on a better base

The journey to a perfect Caffè Americano is paved with good intentions, but the common practice of pulling a long shot without proper technique is a major pitfall. This method, born from a desire for more volume, often results in a bitter, over-extracted mess that ruins the final drink. We’ve learned that simply extending the extraction time is the primary mistake. The correct way to pull a lungo involves a coarser grind, allowing for a higher yield in a standard timeframe, thereby preserving flavor and avoiding harshness. This requires careful “dialing in” but can yield a uniquely delicate and complex coffee.

Ultimately, while a well-executed lungo is a valid choice, the most reliable path to an outstanding Americano is to abandon the long shot altogether. Instead, focus on perfecting a standard espresso shot—rich, sweet, and balanced—and use that as your foundation. By building your Americano on one or two flawless shots and adding hot water, you maintain full control and ensure the delicious, nuanced flavors of the coffee bean shine through every time. This commitment to a quality base is what separates a mediocre coffee from a truly memorable one.