How Do Italian Macchiato and Other Espresso Drinks Differ?

Espresso's bitterness has pushed drinkers to build variations that soften it without changing what espresso is. Ristretto and Lungo adjust the extraction itself, while Cuban espresso uses brown sugar, the macchiato is topped with milk foam, and Con Panna adds whipped cream. Each keeps the espresso base intact but makes it easier to drink and adds a richer mouthfeel.

The habit started with dark roasting: early roasters went very dark to mask the faults of poor-quality beans, and the resulting burnt bitterness was hard to accept, so sugar, milk, cream and lemon were added to dilute it. The Italian macchiato and its relatives follow the same idea, and they remain a straightforward route into espresso for anyone who finds the plain shot too harsh.

The bitterness of espresso puts many people off, so people have come up with various ways to add flavor and reduce the bitterness. From adding sugar and milk to adding cream, many classic Italian coffee drinks have been derived. Today, Front Street Coffee will sort out several fancy ways to drink espresso, including Ristretto and Lungo from short and long extractions, Cuban espresso with brown sugar, Macchiato topped with milk foam, and Con Panna with whipped cream. Each one, without changing the essence of espresso, makes the coffee easier to drink and brings a richer taste and tactile experience. If you also can't get used to the bitterness of pure espresso, why not follow Front Street Coffee and see which one suits you better.

In the early days, in order to cover up the negative flavors of poor-quality coffee beans, people usually used very dark roasting levels. The espresso extracted from beans roasted this way had a particularly strong burnt bitterness, making it hard for drinkers at the time to accept. So people like those at Front Street Coffee who couldn't stand bitterness began to think up various methods to try to dilute the bitter taste of espresso. For example, the "Roman espresso" that Front Street Coffee introduced not long ago, made by adding lemon and sugar to espresso, is one such approach.

Besides lemon, many other ingredients are also added to espresso. They do not change the essence of espresso, but they can weaken the bitterness and make the whole drink easier to take in, allowing people to enjoy this brief deliciousness. So what Front Street Coffee wants to talk about today is exactly what the title says: fancy ways to drink espresso! Let's take a look at how else espresso can be enjoyed.

Extract a little less, extract a little more

I believe everyone is already very familiar with Ristretto and Lungo, so Front Street Coffee will only give a brief explanation here. Both belong to the espresso system and are the short-extraction and long-extraction versions respectively. By shortening or extending the extraction time of espresso, the bitterness is reduced or the concentration is diluted, making espresso easier for the general public to accept.

(Left in the picture is Lungo, center is regular Espresso, right is Ristretto)

Add sugar directly

Adding sugar to coffee is the most common practice. Sugar can suppress the bitterness of coffee, and because of the sweetness, it also makes the whole cup easier to drink. So if you don't want too much trouble, adding sugar is definitely the easiest solution.

There are also many types of sugar. The most commonly used in coffee are white sugar and brown sugar. If you don't need it too sweet, a 40ml double espresso with 5g of white sugar is enough; if you want it sweeter, you can increase the amount of sugar to 10g, or switch to brown sugar. If you still think that's not sweet enough, you might as well try "Cuban espresso."

Cuban espresso with brown sugar

Besides the mojito in Jay Chou's song, another famous Cuban drink is Cuban espresso. By adding a large amount of brown sugar, it blends the coffee into a more popular flavor. Although traditional Cuban coffee is made with a moka pot, with the development of the times, espresso has become more favored. The specific method for this Cuban specialty espresso is to divide the extraction of espresso into two stages. During extraction, first capture a small amount of coffee liquid, pour it into a cup containing a large amount of brown sugar, and stir until it foams.

When the sugar has completely melted and the coffee has become viscous, then add the remaining espresso and stir evenly again.

Macchiato with a small amount of milk foam

But many friends do not like the sweetness brought by sugar, so why not try adding a small amount of milk, using the lactose and flavor of milk to dilute the bitterness and concentration of the coffee. Macchiato happens to be exactly that.

Macchiato, when translated, means "marked." Because in the past, people would ask baristas to add a little milk to espresso to reduce the bitterness. However, an espresso with only a small amount of milk does not look very different from other espressos.

No-prize quiz: which of the following espressos has milk added?

(Answer revealed: the one on the right~)

When coffee orders pile up, baristas can easily hand the wrong product to customers. To distinguish them, baristas would dot a little milk foam on the surface to mark the espresso with milk added, and that is how Macchiato got its name.

Con Panna with cream

If you want to drink a cup of espresso that is not bitter, and at the same time want a very dense and smooth texture, then Con Panna is absolutely the best choice. Like Macchiato, Con Panna is a very traditional Italian coffee. Its full name is "Espresso Con Panna," which translates to "espresso and cream," but people are used to abbreviating it as "Con Panna," which is directly transliterated as "康宝蓝."

As the name suggests, this coffee consists only of espresso and cream. The cream not only softens the bitterness of the coffee, but its dense and soft texture also brings a richer mouthfeel to the coffee. The specific method is very simple: just squeeze cream into the espresso. As for the amount of cream, please decide according to your own taste preference; add as much as you like.

Many friends may also think of Affogato, but Affogato belongs to coffee desserts and has already gone beyond the category of drinking, so it is not included here.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.