A long black is hot water in the cup first, then a double shot of espresso poured on top. That order is the main difference from an americano, which is espresso first, then water poured over, so less of its crema survives. A long black keeps more of the crema on the surface, and usually uses less water.
Levent Doganay, quoted by Perfect Daily Grind, describes the Australian and New Zealand build as “pouring a double shot of espresso or ristretto over 100 to 120ml of hot water from the espresso machine.” That is about 3.4 to 4 fl oz of water.
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Why the pouring order matters
Perfect Daily Grind sets the two builds side by side in a single list:
- “To make an americano, baristas pour hot water over espresso”
- “For a long black the opposite is true – so baristas add espresso to hot water”
- “This helps the drink to retain more crema, more than it usually would for an americano”
Crema is not decoration that happens to survive. It is part of what an espresso is expected to arrive with: the World Barista Championship’s official rules state that “Crema should be present when espresso is served, with no break in coverage” (2025 WBC Official Rules and Regulations, §3.1). Dropping a stream of hot water through it disperses it; floating the espresso onto still water does not.
Doganay adds one detail that is easy to miss and costs nothing to follow: he “recommends using water that is heated to around 70°C”, because “If the water is too hot when the espresso is poured over, the crema will dissipate more quickly.” That is his recommendation rather than a published standard, and it is not a brewing temperature — the espresso itself is already brewed. Brew water for the coffee is a separate number with a separate source, covered on our page on the best temperature for coffee brewing. The WBC sets its competition machines to the same range, “between 90.5-96 degrees Celsius (195-205 degrees Fahrenheit)”.
How to make a long black
- Warm the cup, then empty it.
- Put the hot water in first: 100 to 120 ml (about 3.4 to 4 fl oz), per the figure above.
- Pull a double shot of espresso, or a double ristretto if you want it heavier.
- Pour the espresso gently onto the surface of the water. Do not stir.
On proportions: the WBC defines espresso as “a beverage (around 1 fl. oz. / 30 ml)”, so a double shot is roughly 60 ml (about 2 fl oz). Against 120 ml of water that works out at one part espresso to two parts water; against 100 ml it is a little stronger than that. So a long black is roughly one-third espresso and two-thirds water.
Let it cool before you drink it. Doganay’s recommended water temperature, around 70 °C, is already above 65 °C, so by our arithmetic a fresh long black is likely to start above that line. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies drinking very hot beverages as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A) for cancer of the oesophagus, on limited evidence, mostly from places where tea or maté is traditionally drunk at about 70 °C, and defines the term: “‘Very hot’ refers to any beverages consumed at a temperature above 65 °C.” (IARC press release N° 244, 15 June 2016). Its Q&A adds that “the typical drinking temperature for tea and coffee in most parts of the world is below 65 °C” (IARC Monographs Q&A, Volume 116). This is general information, not medical advice.
What is the difference between a long black and an americano?
| Long black | Americano | |
|---|---|---|
| Order | Water in the cup, espresso poured on top | Espresso in the cup, water poured on top |
| Crema | Largely retained as a surface layer | Broken up by the incoming water |
| Water volume | 100–120 ml for a double shot (Doganay, via PDG) | “Typically, baristas also prepare a long black with less water than an americano” |
| Where you will see the name | Australia and New Zealand, and specialty menus elsewhere | Almost everywhere |
One thing a long black is not is a lungo. Perfect Daily Grind is explicit: “It should not be mistaken for a lungo, which is an espresso shot extracted with more water than usual.” A lungo changes the extraction; a long black changes only what the finished shot is poured into.
Where does the long black come from?
The regional association holds up. We have not found a source for when the drink began, or why, and an earlier version’s origin story had none (see the corrections below).
What can be supported is narrower. Perfect Daily Grind, reporting from the region, says only that “The long black is a popular coffee shop drink in Australia and New Zealand” and that “Outside of Australia and New Zealand, the drink is usually on café menus under a different name.” That is a statement about where the term is used, not about when or by whom the drink was invented. A dictionary does record the name: the Australian National Dictionary added “long black” in its 2016 second edition, according to an AAP report on the new words. We could not open the entry itself, so we cannot say how early its evidence goes, and we found no historical or trade-body source that dates the drink. Wikipedia’s article says the drink was “introduced in the 1950s and 1960s”, but that clause is cited to a coffee-machine review site, which is not a source we will pass on as history.
This is a familiar shape in Australasian coffee. The flat white’s origin is contested between the two countries in the same unresolved way — Perfect Daily Grind quotes one professional saying “I wouldn’t be able to say whether the flat white originated in Australia or New Zealand… It’s a debate that will likely go back and forth for a long time.” Drinks that grew out of café practice rather than out of a written recipe tend not to leave a paper trail.
Nobody at this site has pulled a long black to a scale and a stopwatch, so there are no tasting notes here and no timings of our own. If you want the same espresso base taken in the opposite direction — with milk rather than water — start at the difference between coffee and a latte. If you are drinking it black because milk gives you trouble, why almond milk curdles in coffee covers that.
Corrections to earlier versions of this page
- A placeholder link. An earlier version ended its brewing section with a link to an unfilled placeholder address. It has been removed.
- An unsourced origin story. An earlier version said the long black “emerged during the mid-20th century as the local coffee culture evolved” and was “crafted for a palate that appreciated stronger coffee notes”, with no source for either.
- The dictionary. An earlier version said we had found no dictionary that dates the long black. The Australian National Dictionary added the name in 2016; we have not seen its dates.
- A caffeine figure with nothing behind it. The page’s FAQ stated that “a typical long black has approximately 120 mg of caffeine”. No source, and the number cannot be typical of anything — caffeine in the cup is set by the dose of coffee and how it was extracted, not by the drink’s name. This page prints no caffeine figure. For how wide the real spread is, and the FDA’s own numbers, see what food group coffee is.
- Health claims borrowed from a third-party listicle. The page said a long black “can contribute to a healthy heart and may lower the risk of certain types of cancers”, linked to a general-interest health site. Those are claims about coffee, not about this drink, and they do not belong on a page explaining a pouring order. On the cancer half specifically: when the International Agency for Research on Cancer reviewed the evidence it found “no conclusive evidence for a carcinogenic effect of drinking coffee” and classified coffee as Group 3, not classifiable — which is not the same thing as coffee lowering anyone’s risk. That evaluation, and the finding about drinking anything above 65 °C, is covered on is coffee bad for a sore throat.
- An FAQ block and a duplicated pull-quote. The same sentence about “lengthening of the shot” appeared twice, once as body text and once as a block quote directly beneath it. The FAQ repeated what the body already said. Both removed.
