Espresso Plus Milk: Part 1

As I continue my coffee favorites, next comes the group of espresso drinks with milk added. Each coffee drinking culture adds its own unique stamp to espresso with their milk additions.

It’s great to write about this as it forces me to ‘research’ so I can better describe the different drinks. Ah, rough life, but I’m up for the challenge.

The first of the traditionals is cappuccino. Cappuccino is espresso with steamed milk and its foam poured onto the top.  The cappuccino is then garnished with a dusting of chocolate powder.

Cappucinno is the most easily prepared and most often abused in its preparation. If you could look at a cappaccino through a clear glass you would see the layers of equal parts espresso, steamed milk and foamed milk.  The steaming of the milk gives a sweet taste to the milk and a velvety smoothness. Too often the milk is scalded giving a burned not sweet taste to the cappucinno.

The layering is important as it gives cappuccino its unique taste. The foam on the top acts as an insulating blanket keeping the drink hot and delicious for a longer period of time. The dusting of the chocolate powder is a dusting not another layer. The chocolate adds an accent to the milk and the rich coffee oils of the espresso.

A latte, another favorite is espresso with hot milk added then a thin layer of gently foamed milk. Ideally latte is served in glasses to show off the color.  Lattes have more milk than cappucinno with its equal proportions of espresso, milk and foam. The caffe latte has a smoother milky taste to it.

Macchiato served in the tiny espresso or demitasse cup is an espresso with just a dash of foamed milk. Wikipedia refers to the dash of milk as a ‘stain’ or as the Portuguese word for a macchiato is "pingo," which means "drop".

A little milk, more or a lot, the choice is yours to enjoy.

Not the usual grind,

A tip of the mug to Elvis Santana  from Hialeah where my passion for coffee began.  Elvis took the photo of the cappucino sign featured here.