A serious Long Black

What exactly is a Long Black?

Similar to an Americano, it's espresso shots and hot water. Technically, you add the espresso first for an Americano, and then the hot water. A Long Black is this process reversed.

Since pouring hot water on espresso destroys it, an Americano becomes redundant and we should all be drinking Long Blacks. So how come we aren't?

Well, we don't really know. We realise that this is something which we most definitely should know, but honesty is important to us, and it's also less time-consuming than reading a Wiki page.

In lieu of accredited knowledge, let's stick with subjective assumption - Americano certainly sounds better, and if we adopted the Long Black, not only would it cost us all a small fortune in menu reprints, but we'd probably have to call an espresso a Small Black. And that just sounds silly.

Americano serves its purpose when it comes to fulfilling our ambition to emulate the Italians. Long Black serves little purpose except further complicating the linguistic minefield of speciality coffee jargon.

Our menu offers you an Americano (which we'll make without burning the espresso), but please don't let that stop you professing your overwhelming desire to down a hot Long Black.