The popular story says American GIs in World War II Italy thinned espresso with hot water, and Italian baristas mockingly named it. The linguistic record says otherwise. Research connected to the Oxford English Dictionary traces caffè americano to Central American Spanish of the mid-1950s, a decade after the war, where it was a derisive term for the weak, diluted coffee preferred by American visitors in countries proud of their coffee. Its first recorded appearance in English came in the Jamaican newspaper The Sunday Gleaner in 1964, likely carried by Spanish-speaking hospitality workers as Caribbean tourism boomed. Italian adopted the term later still, to serve tourists who were already asking for it.

A standard Americano is one espresso shot to about three or four parts hot water, roughly 120 to 180 milliliters, enough to spread the espresso’s flavors without masking its aromatic oils. In Italy, a caffè americano gets diluted espresso, while a caffè all’americana gets filter coffee. Relatives change the physics: the Australian and New Zealand long black pours espresso onto water already in the cup to keep the crema intact, the western US Italiano uses equal parts espresso and water, and the red eye replaces the water with drip coffee.

• Pouring hot water onto espresso shatters the crema emulsion, which carries the shot’s volatile aromas.
• In South Korea the iced Americano is nicknamed a-a and drunk year round, tied to a hurry-hurry work culture.
• Its most devoted Korean drinkers are known by a phrase meaning even if I freeze to death, iced Americano.
• In 2025 several independent Canadian cafes renamed the drink the Canadiano.
• The Canadiano was a protest against President Donald Trump’s 2024 and 2025 proposals to annex Canada.