Is Americano Soda the Perfect Summer Coffee Drink? | Moka Pot Recipe

Hi everyone, Matteo here. In this video, we are going to make the Americano Soda. That was one of the drink Uncle Ty served me when I went to visit him in Bangkok. We're going to start with making the coffee. If you saw already the video, you know how to make it, but if you didn't watch it yet, I invited you to look into the method so you know how to make a very nice, strong, concentrated, but well-extracted coffee from mocha pots. In my opinion, that strategy of tamping and pre-wetting doesn't make much difference in the preparation of the coffee. So if you follow same dose, grind size, the same strategy, the quantity of the water, the temperature of the water, and the way of brewing the coffee, we're just tapping the coffee, packing very well. It's enough to create the same extraction, the same intensity without. Splitting the dose and tamping and pre-wetting. And this will make the workflow easier and with less tools. And we like when, you know, we find a easy path to achieve the coffee that we want to make. 20 grams of coffee, grind size. Again, 19 clicks, following the same strategy. And we grind. Again, three cup mocha express. I haven't tried yet the method with other mocha pots. Probably I will do it soon because I'm very curious to understand if I can achieve the same results that I'm achieving with this technique using the three cup mocha pot with another mocha. For example, two cup, or Venus, for example. So if you already try, of course, leave a comment. Let me see if you achieve that kind of like intensity and extraction that is what we want to achieve with this method. Again, filter at the bottom, place the coffee, and distribute. This is something that I always say. I always remind how important is distribution even for this method. While I'm distributing, I want to take a few seconds to say thank you very much for the amazing response that I received in the previous video, in the one where I was showing the Ango Tai method. It was an incredible response. Thank you very much for everyone that's watched the video, that if you didn't watch it yet, you're going to watch, and for the comments, and how many people subscribe, actually, after that video. And, I don't know, I was very surprised, and it was like, wow. I mean, yeah, I am speechless. So thank you so much. Distribute, tap very well. Kind of be aggressive, but not too much. Once again, if you think that after this tapping, you have too much coffee that's coming from above the basket, it means that you might need to reduce a bit your dose. That can happen if you are, you know, like brewing a coffee that is very dark roast. So even if you put 19 or even 18, but the coffee is very nice, and flush the basket after you do a very nice tapping on the counter, that's enough. And then, of course, you need to play with the quantity of water when you're going to brew on the stove. But that is a strategy, okay? Now, coffee's done. Very nice, tap, nothing else. So it's very easy, this method, in this way, but we achieve the same result. Now we do the water. The water, again, 120 grams. Hot water, I keep it at 90 degrees Celsius. I think that you can play also with other temperature if you want, but I keep it hot. This is one of the few things that I keep from the Uncle Ty method, because it works so well. Why change it? Again, paper filter as well. I use the AeroPress paper filter on top, just if it's slightly wet, just to make sure that the filter paper sticks on the metal filter. Now we can put the basket in, close the pot. It's hot, just be careful, get the towel. And now we go on the stove. So basically, brewing the same way I did the coffee in the other video. So if you want to get more information, you know where to check it. Now, in this video, we focus on the Americano Soda. So we're gonna make a very nice refreshing drink. Here is very hot, summer, Italy, super hot. So this is going to help me for after making this video. While the coffee is brewing, let's talk about the other ingredients. First of all, we are going to need salt. If you have already ground salt, it's fine. Then we need lime to make the juice. You can use also lime juice already done, that's not a problem, but this is one of the ingredient. And also we need some sugar. I'm just using some caster sugar. It's fine, you can use sweetener. You can use another sweet element. You can have, I don't know, coconuts, sugar, or other kind of sugar. Maybe also syrup as well. Maybe it might work as well. This is not going to bring like a high sweetness in the drink. It's not gonna be extra sweet, but this is a very nice element to create a balance with the other ingredients. So I suggest you to put sugar, any kind of sugar you want to put, but it's important, okay, for the drink. Then a soda. I'm just using a classic one. And of course, a glass to put the drink in. The ice, I will get it after I finish to brew the coffee. So it's not going to melt while I'm waiting. Now we wait for the coffee, and then we are going to build the drink. All right, the coffee is coming, very thick, very nice. That's what we wanted. I actually find a lot of more consistency doing this method without pre-wetting and tamping. So yeah, it's perfect. Just tapping and pack it very well on the counter. Again, we are going to aim for a yield of in between 55 and 60 grams is good, but also I found that 50, 52 also for the drink, not for drinking by itself, but for the Americano soda, a 50, 52 grams of yield is giving a better result when you mix the coffee together with the other ingredients. So that's the aim of today, of this video. But then, of course, depending on the coffee you're brewing, you can decide, you can experiment. That's perfect. All right, so we said around 50, 52. Okay, perfect, 52. From this, we're going to use the whole yield. So the first thing we're going to do is to place the sugar in, so we melt it. The dose that we use with a regular sugar is five grams, like Uncle Ty does. So five grams of sugar. I mix this inside the hot coffee so it melts easier. Five grams equals this on the side, and I mix it for a bit. So again, this is not going to make this drink super sweet. You will not feeling the sweetness of the sugar, but together with the salt, with the acidity of the lime is going to make the drink balance. So yeah, and also the bitterness. That can come from the coffee, but also from the soda, because you too taste bitter. Okay, we mix it for a bit, and we leave this on the side. Now let's build the drink. First of all, we take the glass. I'm going to grab some ice. We put ice inside. That's up to you how much ice you want to put inside your drink. You can even use a bigger glass if you want, and put more ice. It will dilute more the drink, but if you like it to be more diluted and also like it to last longer, that's very good. You know, this is a reference recipe that I took from Uncle Ty, but you can adjust it as you wish. Let's start to put some ingredients. I'm going to start with the salt. Pinch of salt, okay? Not too much because otherwise you're going to feel the saltiness in the drink. When you put just a little pinch, it's nice because it helps to enhance the flavor of the drink, but if you put too much, then it starts to be salty. That is not enjoyable anymore. So a bit of salt. Now, the lime. You can use lime juice. It's fine. If I don't have any lime juice, I usually cut it, and after that, I store the remaining of the juice in another container to not waste it, but if I don't have it, I have to make it. I can also buy it, but yeah. Lime juice. And of this lime juice, we place three grams. Three grams of lime juice. After the lime juice, we take the soda, and we put 120 grams. After the soda, if you want, you can place a slice of lime or lemon if you want, up to you. I like it to have a bit of garnish inside the drink, make it nice and more enjoyable, and then at the end, I top it up with the coffee mixed with the sugar. Perfect. There you go. This is the Americano Soda recipe from Uncle Ty. So refreshing. It's very nice, sparkling. The coffee is very present. I like in this way with a few ice cubes and not too much diluted because I want to feel the coffee taste. Here, I have coffee taste. Of course, it is diluted. It's not that strong because there is a soda, there is a bit of ice as well, giving that dilution. But if you put a big glass of ice, a lot of ice, you're gonna get, yes, colder, definitely. Still cold. But yeah, you can get a very nice, colder drink and more diluted. The coffee is still present, but not as much as when I do it with this glass. I follow the same ratio of Uncle Ty. I just put less ice. Salt. It's very nice. Not overpowering. You can feel the salt bringing up the flavor, but it's not salty, so that's great. Remember, just a little bit. The first time I tried this recipe, I put too much salt and it was just undrinkable. So, just let you know. Just a little bit of salt. It's enough. The lime is very nice. It's not overpowering. You can feel the acidity, but you have the soda, the bitterness of also the soda, and the coffee together with the salt and the sweetness from the sugar balancing everything together. I really like this drink. Even if I'm not a really big fan of soda with coffee, I prefer tonic with coffee. So, of course, you can try and substitute the soda with the tonic if you are like me. I just make it because I wanted to follow the recipe, but I tried it with tonic and I like a bit more. But it's fine. Personal preference. It's perfect. It's summer. It's very hot. It's a perfect drink. That's just a reference, just the beginning. You can make other drinks if you want and just be creative. I really like, actually, this recipe. It's very well put together. I can see Uncle Tai putting some effort to find the right balance between the ingredients. It's very popular. A lot of people order it, especially in Bangkok, it's super hot. So that's something that helps you to beat that heat that you have over there. Here in Italy, it's more or less the same. It's almost 40 degrees Celsius, so it's hot. If you try to make this at home, leave a comment. Let me know what you think. And if you already put a twist in the drink, let me know. I'm very happy to taste it because now is the ice drinks period here because it's very hot. I am enjoying very nice cold drinks. This, the coffee, you know, like the base of this coffee, you can, you know, we were talking about, you can make it with milk, you can make it ice, you can make it like an Americano. You can use this as a base for other drinks. So probably in the next days, I will try to make other drinks with this base. Let's see what we can create. I'm very happy to explore these ice drinks right now. Very hot. Did I say that? Maybe not. Okay, let me say another time. Very hot here. So ice drinks is the solution. Keeps me sane. If you enjoyed the video, give it a like. Subscribe if you haven't yet. And as always, thank you very much for watching. I will see you in my next video. And in the meantime, I wish you a wonderful day and delicious coffee. Ice, because it's very hot here. Did I say that yet? I don't know. It's very hot. Ciao.