Iced Americano vs Iced Coffee: What’s the Difference?

CoffeeSphere

4 years ago

What is the difference between an iced americano and iced coffee?

These two coffee drinks are both served cold and may look the same, but they are made differently.

The main difference is that an iced americano is made with espresso. Meanwhile, an iced coffee can be made with coffee brewed using any method.

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Let’s start by going over exactly what each drink is and how to make it.

See if you can spot more of the differences and get familiar with these coffee drinks.

What is an iced americano?

An americano is an espresso based coffee drink. It’s name, caffe Americano, is Italian for American coffee.

Espresso is made with an espresso machine and is the result of hot water pressurized through tightly packed coffee grounds to create a concentrated coffee.

Water is added to the shot or two of espresso, resulting in what we call an americano.

Since it’s essentially a watered down espresso, this is a great coffee drink for those who find shots of espresso to be too strong.

For the americano to become an iced americano is just as the name suggests – the result of adding ice. Typically an americano is made by pulling shots of espresso and pouring room temperature water over it.

The iced americano is made also with shots of espresso. But cold water is added and additionally, ice. You can also add in any of your favorite sweeteners like coffee syrups or creamer or milk.

There are a few theories of how the americano came about.

One popular theory is that during World War II, Americans who were stationed in Italy preferred more coffee than just a shot of espresso (which is typically just one or two ounces), so they would add water to make more coffee.

Shots of espresso may have also been too strong for them, so diluting the espresso with water created a coffee similar to what they were used to drinking back home.

In summary:

Americano = espresso + room temperature water
Iced americano = espresso + ice + cold water

What is iced coffee?

Iced coffee is what we call coffee that’s brewed using any method, with ice added over it.

This could be anything from brewing coffee as you usually would with your Keurig, standard drip coffee maker, Chemex, pour over coffee dripper or French press and then adding ice to it.

You can easily turn how you usually make your hot cup of coffee into iced coffee in seconds.

How to make an iced americano

To make an iced americano, make an americano as you usually would with an espresso machine, then just add ice.

Here’s how:

Grind coffee beans extra fine.
Dose 18 grams of ground coffee and tamp. This is for a double shot.
Load the portafilter into the espresso machine. Aim for 25 seconds of extraction time.
Pour 3 ounces of water (room temperature or cold) into a glass full of ice.
Pour espresso into the glass over the water and ice.
Add creamer or sweeteners.

See our guide with images for steps to make an americano.

If you do not have an espresso machine at home, the closest you can get to espresso is by brewing coffee with a stovetop moka pot. And if you don’t have that, here’s our guide to making espresso with a French press.

You can also use a Nespresso machine. Brew your favorite Nespresso espresso pod like Intenso, Altissio or Diavolitto and then simply add in ice and water. You have an iced americano!

And if you’d like to flavor it, add in a bit of creamer or milk.

To make a caramel iced americano, add in a tablespoon or two of caramel syrup or for a vanilla iced americano, similarly, add in a tablespoon or two of vanilla syrup.

How to make iced coffee

There are numerous ways you can make iced coffee.

If you’re looking for the fastest way possible, one technique is making it with a Keurig.

You can use the Keurig K-Elite Coffee Maker (it’s currently the only model that has an iced beverage setting) but you can also use any Keurig you have at home.

Here’s how:

Brew two K cup pods at the smallest cup setting. Most are at 6 ounces.
Using another cup or glass, put in coffee ice cubes.
Let brewed coffee cool, then pour over ice.

See our guide with images for making iced coffee with a Keurig.

Apart from this fast Keurig method, choose any method that you’d usually make a cup of hot coffee with and instead of drinking it right away, leave it to cool down, then add ice. That’s iced coffee!

And if you’re weary of watered down, diluted coffee due to the ice cubes melting, a hack is to use coffee ice cubes. What we mean is instead of freezing water in your ice cube tray, add coffee.

You can also add flavors to the ice cubes like coffee syrups or make our Vietnamese coffee ice cubes, which uses sweetened condensed milk.

Does an iced americano have more caffeine than iced coffee?

According to Mayo Clinic, one shot of espresso (equivalent to one fluid ounce) contains approximately 64 milligrams of caffeine.

One cup of coffee (8 fluid ounces) contains approximately 96 milligrams of caffeine.

So whether the iced americano or the iced coffee is stronger will depend on the serving size.

If we were to put one shot of espresso in the iced americano, that would be about 64 milligrams versus one cup of iced coffee with 96 milligrams. Iced coffee has more caffeine in this case.

If we were to put two shots of espresso in the iced americano, that would be about 64 x 2 = 128 milligrams versus if we were to keep the same amount of iced coffee (one cup) with 96 milligrams. Iced americano would have more caffeine.

Now that we know what an iced americano and an iced coffee is, you may have questions about the differences between other iced coffee drinks.

Here are a few differences:

Iced americano vs iced latte

An iced americano and iced latte are also very similar, but aren’t the same drink so they shouldn’t be used interchangeably.

You can use the same shots of espresso for both drinks but the main difference between an iced americano and iced latte is milk. In an iced latte, cold milk is added instead of water.

While you can add milk to an iced americano to make it like an iced latte, it would still have more water versus milk. So it wouldn’t exactly be an iced latte.

Here’s the breakdown of each so you can see the difference:

Iced latte = espresso + cold milk + ice
Iced americano = espresso + cold water + ice

So if you feel like having something milkier, go for an iced latte.

Iced americano vs iced coffee vs cold brew coffee

Both iced americano and iced coffee are made with hot coffee. Iced americano is made with espresso but iced coffee can be made with any brewing style, but it is still brewed hot.

Meanwhile, cold brew coffee is brewed by steeping coarsely ground coffee in water for at least 12 hours. It does not use hot water, but room temperature or cold water. The result is that cold brew coffee tends to be less bitter and less acidic.

You also don’t necessarily need any special tools like an espresso machine to make cold brew coffee. While you can purchase a cold brew coffee specific brewer like a Primula, we like using empty jars.

To put it into one sentence, cold brew coffee does not use heat and takes longer to brew than iced americanos and iced coffee.