If you’re an everyday at specialist espresso outlets within the UK – the type the place baristas rigorously weigh out your grounds on tiny hypersensitive scales and virtually frogmarch you from the premises should you order syrup – you could have seen that americanos have fallen out of favour. In these fancier espresso spots, everybody’s reliable, unfussy go-to is being eclipsed by a more recent import from Australia and New Zealand: the lengthy black.
Conducting an unofficial survey of espresso spots, I seen almost each barista had a barely totally different clarification of the drink. “It’s mainly precisely the identical as an americano,” one whispered conspiratorially. “It’s a shorter black espresso, the identical measurement as a flat white,” defined one other. The ultimate barista I spoke to only shook her head in quiet disappointment after I requested if lengthy black was only a extra pretentious method of asking for an americano.
What’s the distinction between an extended black and an americano? Final yr, 2.1 million individuals watched a viral Instagram reel from the espresso store Tamp, in Chiswick, west London, which requested that precise query.
Regardless of its identify, an extended black is shorter than an americano, however some baristas additionally swear by including the espresso second, on prime of the new water. This ensures that “the new water is barely cooler within the cup and nearer in temperature to the espresso that’s popping out of the machine”, explains Ollie Simon, of the New Zealand-founded speciality roaster Allpress. “In the event you’re pouring sizzling water straight on to espresso, you’re agitating the drink, and dropping among the extra unstable aromas and flavours.”
Leeds speciality espresso store Laynes additionally provides the espresso second. “It’s a quicker strategy to do it, and espresso is supposed to be fast,” says proprietor Dave Olejnik. “If you wallop a load of sizzling water on to an espresso, you additionally begin to break down among the construction, texture, and the crema, which sits throughout the highest. Actually, you simply get a better-looking drink should you brew espresso into water.”
Gross sales of the lengthy black have been steadily rising within the UK. In 2023, in accordance with one small survey, it was London’s fifth hottest espresso order, and accounted for 9% of all gross sales within the capital. Kaffeine, in Soho, has been promoting lengthy blacks because it opened in 2009. Proprietor Peter Dore-Smith was born in Melbourne, however is a long-term Londoner. Together with close by Flat White (based by Australians and New Zealanders, and extensively credited with first popularising flat whites within the UK), his store is a key fixture in London’s antipodean espresso scene. He additionally reckons that he was among the many very first individuals to promote lengthy blacks in London. “I ought to open a store referred to as Lengthy Black, shouldn’t I?” he laughs. “That’s what everybody comes right here for.”
Dore-Smith ushers me behind the bar to observe Katarina, one in all his senior baristas, in motion. She makes use of an upturned espresso mug to deliver all the things nearer to the spout, and brews right into a 5oz cup with sizzling water: the identical measurement you’d sometimes use for a flat white. Other than measurement, most of these items don’t have a lot impact on style, she explains, nevertheless it all helps to make your cuppa look nicer on the finish. That is necessary once you don’t have the canvas of flashy latte artwork to play with.
“You’ll see there’s fairly a outstanding distinction within the flavour profile,” Dore-Smith says. He’s proper; with an extended black, the flavour of the beans is clearer and way more vibrant, with notes of blackberry, caramel and nuttiness all coming by. Compared, the americano feels weak and watery. I’m bought.
“All people is mainly like: whoa, that’s so significantly better,” Dore-Smith says. “I’ve seen, working behind the bar, that the lengthy black is growing in reputation, and it’s way more prevalent.” Gross sales of the drink at Kaffeine crept up by 4% from November to mid-January, whereas black espresso on the whole can be proving extra standard.
“I’d liken it to individuals shifting from large lattes right down to flat whites,” says Olejnik. “Shifting from large americanos right down to lengthy blacks looks like a mirror motion, should you like.”
Just like the flat white, the lengthy black originated in Australia or New Zealand, relying on who you ask. The 2 international locations are famend for his or her high-quality brews; if a spot is owned by an Australian or a New Zealander, it’s normally a fairly strong indicator that the espresso can be on level.
Dore-Smith attributes the affect of Australian espresso to the wave of Italians who immigrated to Australia within the Nineteen Fifties and 60s and introduced their information of espresso-brewing with them. He additionally thinks the nation’s geography and “very sturdy anti-drink-driving tradition” play their half. “If you wish to exit and meet a mate in London, you go to the pub, have a couple of pints and get the practice dwelling,” he says. However in lots of elements of Australia with poorer public transport, “you need to drive dwelling,” he says. “So that you exit and get a very good cup of espresso as a substitute.”
New Zealanders assume alongside the identical strains. “Public transport is just not a giant factor, so that you catch up over espresso fairly than a pint,” says Simon, who’s initially from Auckland. He additionally gives up the speculation that the espresso scene within the two international locations has developed in relative isolation. “I don’t wish to say it advanced in a bubble, however being so far-off, it has sort of finished its personal factor.”
“They’re far much less influenced by what I might contemplate American cafe tradition,” says Olejnik, “the Starbucks-ification of espresso, and placing an enormous drink in your hand with an important large comfortable couch. That tradition didn’t land down there in fairly the identical method.” As a substitute, it’s about “fine-tuning the unique Italian espresso bar menu, and the notion that there’s worth in top quality, versus excessive amount,” he says. “It has had enormous implications for international coffee-drinking tradition.”
As Aussie and New Zealand espresso creeps on to extra menus within the UK, will the lengthy black begin to turn into as standard because the flat white? The drink is but to interrupt into any of the UK’s main excessive avenue espresso chains. In 2010, Costa turned the primary excessive avenue chain to introduce the flat white to its menu; it’s now one of many model’s hottest orders. Nonetheless, it has no plans to introduce lengthy blacks, a spokesperson confirmed. So the antipodeans haven’t but staged an entire coup – however should you’re a seasoned americano drinker, you would possibly contemplate switching your order up.