Aroma Bar Archives - Clean Slate Coffee

The term “Americano” means “American”, and comes from American Spanish, dating to the 1970s, or from Italian. The term “caffè Americano” specifically is Italian for “American coffee”. There is a popular, but unconfirmed, belief that the name has its origins in World War II when American G.I.s in Italy would dilute espresso with hot water to approximate the coffee to which they were accustomed.

Earlier, in his 1928 novel Ashenden: Or the British Agent, Somerset Maugham has his protagonist order and drink something called an americano in Naples during World War I, but there is not enough information to indicate whether it is the same drink.