Hey Howdy! Im a long time coffee drinker and an overindulger/overenjoyer at times. Sometimes down on 9th st I like to get an espresso an hear a li' opera on the radio at onna the li'l caffes there. Damn then crazy Italion chiks can sing! Annyhow, I really enjoy that espresso, I getem to gimme 4 shots in a cup with cream an sugar. I havnt been there in a while so I got me an espresso machine. I been enjoyin my espress at home for a while now but whats that other fancy shitt? In my manual it says I can froth milk up if I want and make lattes an capichinos, could someone explane what these coffee base beverages are? I had some capichino once but someone elce made it. Could someone please give a briefe description of what a latte and a capichino are and what they consist of,I know they got milk an sugar innem but waddaya put other stuff in it? I just wanna get more familuar with them before I start tryinna makem. Anny tips? I got a DeLongi machine with an automatic milk frother so I aint gotta do the swishin thing with the milk, it dose it in the machine and dumps it in your cup. Could some espresso/capichino and latte xperts gimme some tips? This is incredible with your Herb. Is there any way to incorperate chocolate in thiss? Thanks in advance for any tips or advice! Im gonna go have another quad espresso an another bowl! Blessins!
ok, i'm a barrista at starbucks. i think i can answer this. a latte is espresso at the bottom (along with whatever flavoring you're adding, if you so choose) filled with mostly steamed milk and topped with milk foam. a cappucino is similar, but it's filled halfway to the top with steamed milk and then the rest of the way with just foam. using whole milk is best because it foams best, but 2% would be a good low-fat substitute. skim milk doesn't work QUITE as well, but it will still work, too. to steam milk your espresso machine should be equipped with a steaming wand. to use it, simply take a pitcher of cold milk (only fill about 3/4 of the way at most-it will increase in volume) and put it up to the machine so the end of the steam wand is touching the bottom of the pitcher (should be made of metal or something else heat resistant) turn on the steamer, and immediately pull the pitcher down so that the wand is JUST BARELY below the surface. this will allow a certain amount of air to get into the top layer of the milk. after maybe 10 seconds of this or so you can go ahead and put it up so the wand is farther down in the milk. the aerating the milk like this will allow for thick, rich foam, and will also help to really bring out the sweetness of the foam. at starbucks we sell drinks in four sizes, though i think only three are advertised. these sizes are short (8oz), tall (12oz), grande (16oz) and venti (20oz). the recipes for lattes and cappucinos follow certain patterns and you can make any of them at home using the same recipes. shots of espresso short and tall - one shot grande and venti - two shots pumps of flavoring syrup (approx. 4 pumps will fill a shot glass, so you can use that to help measure at home if you choose to buy syrups) short - 2 tall - 3 grande - 4 venti - 5 one of our most popular espresso drinks is a carmel macchiato. macchiattos involve putting the shots in ON TOP of foam. for a carmel macchiato (different from a regular macchiato...more like a latte) you start by adding one pump less than normal of vanilla syrup to a cup. so for a 12oz cup, that would be 2 pumps instead of 3. then its steamed milk, and a layer of foam. this should not bring the cup to being full. dump in your shot (or shots, if you want it stronger) and on top of the foam make two circles with a cross hatch pattern of carmel sauce. it's delicious, trust me! but theres no reason to pay so much money for all these fancy drinks if you can make them at home. there are a lot of benefits to drinking your espresso in milk instead of on its own. for instance, i dont have the healthiest diet in the world, so when i get free drinks on the clock i often get things that are made mostly from milk (i usually choose skim milk) so that i get a little nutrition such as calcium. second, espresso is very concentrated and can go stale in a matter of about a minute. when we pull shots of espresso for a drink, we are not allowed to use them if they sit for more than 15 seconds without being mixed with something because the quality will decrease. espresso stays good for longer when mixed with milk and such. also, you can impress your guests making all sorts of fancy coffee shop drinks in your kitchen oh, btw, since espresso drinks are really more milk based than coffee based in the case of things like lattes and cappucinos, they're better for dental hygeine. regular brewed coffee or dopios (double shot straight espresso) will stain your teeth very easily if you consume them every day. mixing a couple shots of espresso with some milk will help greatly reduce this. some of our specialty drinks use whipped cream in place of milk foam. this is delicious, but just an extra ingredient and an extra expense. an example would be mochas, which are mocha syrup and shots filled with milk and topped with whip cream. if i can make suggestions about syrups - a little goes a long way, for me. they drastically change the flavor, and too much will distract you from the coffee. get em if you like, but i like to use less than recipes call for, usually. one of my favorites is mixing mocha sauce and raspberry syrup. you can probably make a decent faux mocha sauce by mixing equal volumes of marshmallow-free swiss miss and hot water. also, most coffeeshops will use an almond/amaretto flavored syrup....FUCK THAT! at home you can make REAL amaretto lattes
I had the canned Starbucks doubleshot espresso the other day. It was not half bad. Although I was driniking it in a Dunkin Donuts, so it was a bit awkward.
yeah, the canned doubleshots taste pretty good, but it's not pure espresso, its just made with espresso. theres also a good bit of dairy and sugar and stuff in there. if you were to drink a doppio, you'd have a MUCH different flavor. i'm not sure i like straight espresso very much, but a half caff doppio with about an equal volume of steamed milk and a little sugar or something would be pretty fucking good. personally i'm a much bigger fan of regular coffee, especially from a coffee press. so far most of my favorite coffees are african/arabian coffees, though there are a few of the more full-bodied latin american coffees that i can enjoy. my favorites that starbucks offers are the arabian mocha sanani (our most expensive year-round coffee, it's very very rich and flavorful. it's a yemeni blend), the ethiopia sidamo (sidamo is a coffee growing region in ethiopia...this has a floral aroma with a citrussy flavor, often with notes of lemon), and the black apron exclusive we just got done with called shirkina sun-dried sidamo, which ran at about $26 a pound....sheesh! but it's amazing, its another sidamo coffee, but these beans are sundried while still in the coffee cherry, so it gets a LOT of the fruity flavors mixed in. on top of the floral/citrus aspects of normal sidamo, there's STRONG hints of a berry flavor. very smooth and delicious, even my mother who drinks her coffee with a million packets of sugar thought it was delicious straight. i like some of the latin american coffees, too, such as colombia nariño supremo, guatemala antiqua, and fincas de chiapas. of course, the fancy names are just labels starbucks gives their coffee, but it is top quality. however other coffee companies likely offer comparable blends, and some even buy from some of the same farms as starbucks does, and so its really the region and specific growers that provide most of the flavor variations. when properly roasted, high quality sidamo beans are high quality sidamo beans, whether you buy it from starbucks or someone else.
I love lattes. Unfortunitely, it's an expensive habit. I need to look into purchasing an espresso machine.
Thanks for the expert info Nesta! I think I get it. A latte is an espresso with a blob of frothed up milk and a capichino is kinda the same thing but with more steamed milk and less froth? So pretty much if I made me an espresso and dumped a blob of froathy milk on it Id have a latte? Next time I have an espresso I think Im just gonna put some milk in the frother and try to make a latte! Im gonna get some swiss miss goin on in there soon enoughf too. Thanks again!
Pretty much, just make some espresso and add frothed milk and you have generic coffee drink. And the chocolate shit is good in it too.
you kind of have it. basic espresso and/or steamed milk drinks: no foam latte - shots and steamed milk. latte - shot or two of espresso in the bottom of the cup, fill most of the way with warm milk from the bottom of the pitcher (the creamy liquid stuff, not the foam) and top with about 1/4" layer of foam [more milk, less foam] cappucino - a shot or two in the bottom, fill only halfway with milk and then fill the top half of the cup with foam spooned off of the top of the pitcher. [half milk, half foam] macchiato - shots with foam and no liquid steamed milk. macchiato translates as "marked," because you add the shots to the top of the foam and mark it with the coffee. the espresso sinks to the bottom. (some people disagree as to what exactly makes a macchiato a macchiato, and it may be a completely different drink depending on who makes it - this is what i know as a macchiato) [no milk, just foam] misto - half drip-brewed coffee and half steamed milk. not terribly popular, also not terribly well known. supposedly delicious, though. i've not tried one yet. americano - shots and hot water. makes it much like a mild coffee. helps take the edge off the intense flavor, helps it keep longer. however if you like the taste of espresso, an americano is probably not for you unless you make it rather strong. [dairy free] any of these drinks can be flavored, but a macchiato would be tough to flavor properly. to properly steam milk put the tip of the wand against the bottom of the metal milk pitcher, turn on the steam, and immediately lower the pitcher so the end of the wand just barely alternates between under the surface of the milk and exposed to air. it should make a loud but consistant and nonthreatening hissing sound with a little sputter to it, rather than a dangerous and messy sound. the longer you aerate, the more foam you'll get. you'll want to get a thermometer for your pitcher if it isn't an automatic steamer. anywhere between 130 and 180 fahrenheit is appropriate. steaming will heat milk rather quickly, so its a great way to make milk ready for hot chocolate. you can also make other noncaffeinated steamed milk drinks. a popular one at my store is called a vanilla creme, and its just steamed milk with vanilla syrup. raspberry and other flavors also work. steamed apple juice with a little cinnamon flavoring topped with whipped cream and carmel sauce is delicious. better yet would be cider. also, since its a home machine and not in a store, with a little experimentation it might be possible to find a way to make steamed bhang with high-fat milk and high-grade cannabis...
btw, dont feel you have to limit yourself to coffee labeled as "espresso roast" for your machine. you can get any kind of whole bean you want and have it ground at the finest setting and it will work in your espresso machine just the same. there is very little special about "espresso" blends, no more caffeine or anything like that. different beans have different flavors so feel free to experiment! the only requirement is that you have it ground fine enough for an espresso machine. some people like a french or italian roast for their espresso. personally, i'd like to try some good kenyan coffee for espresso. you can use espresso roast beans for regular drip or press brewing if they're ground properly, and you can use non-espresso roast beans for espresso machines if it's ground properly.
Damn Nesta! You the best! Thanks alot for gettin me a bit more familiar with these coffee products. I havnt frothed any milk yet but after readin your posts I think Im comfortable enoughf to try. My machines got an automatic frother, I just didnt know what to expect. Now Im confortable enoughf to froth! So the milk gets kinda seperated into a heavy part and a frothy part rite? Cool! I think a bit later Im gonna froth up a li'l milk for my espresso and make it a latte! Ya know what really did it for me tho.. Its when ya bought up Bhang. I never had Bhang but I read bout it. Now theres something Id like to make. I figure if I get good at frothin and makin capichinos and lattes the experiance might help me out later when I try makin some Bhang! Thanks again Nesta! You wouldnt happen to have any Bhang makin theories would ya? I just might end up makin Bhang before I froth up my first latte! Im gonna go have me another quad espresso and take care of a couple short chors. and Hey SoullessChaos! Thanks for the reashurance !
i'm really not sure how to implement it in making bhang, but i'm sure there's got to be a way. even perhaps using hashish, simmering in some whole milk/half and half for a bit, then strain, steam, and use it in a chai latte (steamed milk and chai concentrate you buy in a box) basically what happens is the top layer (which receives the most aeration) foams up a lot. the mechanics aren't too similar, but think of pouring a bottle of beer into a big glass. when it settles, you'll have a liquid layer of beer at the bottom of the glass and a bunch of beer foam chilling out at the top. the milk ends up pretty much like that, but if you do it just right the foam gets real good and thick, almost stiff like shaving cream or whip cream. to pour liquid milk out of the pitcher without foam, simply hold it back with a spoon near the mouth of the pitcher. perfection isn't too important, especially at home. then you can scoop the foam off the top with the spoon, as well. even if you dont create too much foam, simply steaming the milk will cause some increase in volume, so it's important not to fill the pitcher to the brim ever. you can also steam soy milk with decent results, but the foam is a lot more like soap suds....real weak, goes away quickly, etc. nonfat milk can sometimes have a similar problem, but it's not so bad. i drink nonfat lattes at work all the time so that i can get some calcium and other nutrition, but theres enough sugar and stuff in there that i dont need to be drinking a lot of whole milk with it. soy is particularly good in chai. to make a chai latte from a box of chai concentrate (instead of the simple chai or iced chai recipes on the box) put some chai concentrate in a cup and fill it halfway with hot water, then top it with steamed milk and foam. it's great.
Thanks alot for takin the time Brudda! I got it now. My wife even got 2% milk and I frothed it anyway! This shitts the best, its like havin another slice of Heavin in my kitchen! Blessins on ya Brudda!
no problem man, glad to be of service! i like this job....being a coffee slinger, along with bartender or tobacconist, is about the closest thing you can legally be to a recreational drug dealer plus i love learning new things about it and sharing the info, and i love meeting new people which i get to do constantly. anyhow, thats a good looking cup of coffee and a good looking bud sitting next to it, i'd say thats a good looking start to a good day if you asked me....
I love my lattes (hot or iced) with at least an extra espresso shot. I used to down two or three espresso shots to keep me going throughout the day. And shit, it worked! But dammit do you get hardcore jitters.
