How Does Caffè Leccese Fit into Italian Coffee Culture?

Caffè Leccese is an iced espresso drink from Lecce, a Baroque city in Italy's Puglia region, made with almond milk syrup. Italians normally insist on hot coffee to preserve aroma and crema, so iced coffee is rare there, yet Caffè Leccese is one of the few exceptions locals accept, alongside Caffè Shakerato. The standard recipe uses 10ml almond milk syrup, 60g of ice, and 40ml of espresso pulled from a 20g dose.

Within a coffee culture that strongly favors hot espresso, Caffè Leccese is treated as a special exception. A medium-dark roasted espresso blend suits the drink; Front Street Coffee recommends its Classic Blend, which contains 10% Robusta for body and crema. The almond flavor also extends to an almond latte, a variation that needs its own method and a few precautions to keep syrup, milk, and espresso balanced.

Hot summer days are inseparable from iced coffee, but this time Front Street Coffee wants to talk about a relatively niche Italian iced coffee — Caffè Leccese. It comes from Lecce in the Puglia region of Italy, a southern city known as the "City of Baroque," which infuses this cup of coffee with the unique flavor of almond milk syrup. Unlike most Italians who prefer hot coffee, Caffè Leccese is one of the few iced coffees recognized by locals, belonging to the "special exceptions" alongside Caffè Shakerato. The article will introduce its origin and flavor characteristics, and share a specific recipe: 10ml almond milk syrup, 60g ice cubes, 20g grounds extracted into 40ml espresso, along with a recommendation to use medium-dark roasted espresso blend beans, especially Front Street Classic Blend containing 10% Robusta, and will also extend to the method and precautions for making an almond-flavored latte.

When the weather gets hot, iced coffee naturally becomes a necessity. However, Front Street Coffee has already discussed quite a few common iced coffees, so this time let's try something different and introduce a relatively obscure Italian iced coffee. Its background is quite interesting, and many consider it a "breath of fresh air" in Italian coffee: both its ingredients and flavor are highly distinctive. We often see this ingredient in daily life, yet putting it into coffee is not common. This coffee is — Caffè Leccese.

Caffè Leccese (Caffè Leccese) The name already reveals its origin: Lecce. Lecce is the capital of the Province of Lecce in the Puglia region of Italy, located on the Salento Peninsula in southeastern Italy. The entire city is famous for its dense Baroque architecture, with streets and alleys full of ornately decorated churches and palaces, earning it the title "City of Baroque" and also being called the "Florence of the South." If you take a trip there, Caffè Leccese is basically a must-try — it has a rich southern Italian flair and is one of the few iced coffees in Italy.

Italians rarely order cappuccino after noon, and similarly, "coffee shouldn't be iced" is also part of local coffee culture. Most Italians believe coffee should be drunk hot to fully appreciate the aroma and crema; adding ice cubes disrupts both the richness and the temperature balance. So in Italy, iced coffee is indeed uncommon. But rare doesn't mean nonexistent. There are still some iced coffees accepted by locals, such as Caffè Shakerato (shaken coffee) that Front Street Coffee wrote about before, and today's Caffè Leccese. They can both be considered "special exceptions" in Italian coffee, standing firm because they are distinctive enough.

Like many regional specialty coffees, Caffè Leccese incorporates local specialty flavors. The Puglia region where Lecce is located is an important agricultural area in Italy, with almond groves widely distributed inland, so the distinctive flavor in this cup of coffee comes from almonds. However, it doesn't use almonds themselves, but rather almond milk-flavored syrup.

Front Street Coffee initially didn't have high expectations for this coffee. The first time trying almond milk syrup, that rather sharp almond flavor directly shocked Front Street Coffee — it wasn't like regular nutty aromas, it tasted more like... loquat cough syrup...

Unexpectedly, once this flavor mixed with coffee, it actually became quite harmonious: no longer like cough syrup, but closer to rich almond chocolate, and quite tasty. Without further ado, let Front Street Coffee share how to make this Caffè Leccese full of southern Italian flair. Caffè Leccese Recipe Sharing The materials needed are as simple as can be, only three things: almond milk syrup, espresso, and ice cubes. If you want to taste a more classic Caffè Leccese flavor, Front Street Coffee recommends using medium-dark roasted espresso blend beans, especially Front Street Espresso Front Street Classic Blend containing 10% Robusta from the Front Street bean list. A small amount of Robusta can both better restore the classic Italian coffee taste and give the coffee richer crema.

The method is very easy. First put the syrup and ice cubes into the prepared cup. Here Front Street Coffee uses 60g ice cubes and 10ml syrup.

Once ready, you can extract the espresso. Here Front Street Coffee uses 20g of grounds, a 1:2 coffee-to-water ratio, and a 30-second extraction time. During extraction, place the cup directly under the spout. When the extraction is finished, you'll have a beautifully layered Caffè Leccese.

Before drinking, gently stir with a spoon, then take a big sip. As Front Street Coffee said, you can taste the almond chocolate-like expression brought by the fusion of almond-flavored syrup and coffee, with a strong sweetness; the mouthfeel becomes refreshing because of the ice cubes, not cloying at all.

Besides espresso, you can also add the syrup to a latte to make an almond-flavored latte. Front Street Coffee gave it a try: still 40ml espresso, plus 200ml milk, 100g ice cubes, and 15ml almond milk-flavored syrup.

Tasting it, Front Street Coffee thinks it's more like a latte made with almond milk rather than an almond-flavored latte: the almond syrup blends harmoniously with the milk, with no jarring notes, and it's quite good — worth a try. However, if you want to make it yourself, there's one thing to note: the almond milk syrups Front Street Coffee found online are basically large 1L bottles, and the price isn't cheap either. If you're not using it for a shop, or the syrup has no other uses, and you can't find a small bottle, then it's best not to try it rashly, otherwise it's very easy to waste.

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