Latte and Café au Lait are the first two milk coffees that many coffee enthusiasts encounter when they begin exploring coffee. Latte is based on espresso, topped with an equal amount or even more hot milk, giving it a smooth, sweet taste; Café au Lait originates from France, where espresso and hot milk are poured simultaneously into a large cup, then topped with milk foam, expressing a relaxed and free-spirited flavor. Although both blend coffee with milk, they each have their own particularities in preparation methods, equipment used, and drinking habits. This article will break down in detail the Italian, American, and Macchiato variations of latte, and include the complete steps and ratio formula for Café au Lait, helping readers easily replicate them at home.
Caffe Latte
Latte is the most familiar type of Italian coffee among domestic consumers. It is made by adding an equal amount, sometimes even more, of milk to rich and full-bodied Espresso. The warmth of the milk reconciles the original bitterness of the coffee, making the overall drink smooth, sweet, and richly delicious. Even people who normally don't drink coffee find it hard to resist the charming flavor of a latte.
Similar to cappuccino, latte is suitable for morning drinking due to its higher milk proportion. Italians are also accustomed to using it to warm their stomachs, enjoying it together with breakfast. In Italian household morning kitchens, coffee and milk are often brewed simultaneously on the stove where sunlight reaches. For Italians who drink latte, rather than saying they prefer espresso, it's more accurate to say they are fonder of milk—and only Espresso can make ordinary milk radiate an unforgettable flavor.
【Italian-style Latte】requires a small cup of Espresso and a cup of milk (150–200 ml). Latte has more milk and less coffee, which is a clear difference from Cappuccino. The method for making latte is extremely simple—just pour nearly boiling milk into freshly made espresso. In fact, there is no hard standard for how much milk to add; it can be freely adjusted entirely according to personal taste.
If you add a layer of frothed cold milk foam on top of the hot milk, you get an 【American-style Latte】. Starbucks' American latte is exactly this method: espresso at the bottom of the cup, milk heated to 65–75°C in the middle, and a layer of cold milk foam no more than half a centimeter on top.
If you skip the milk and instead place two large spoonfuls of milk foam directly on top of espresso, you get what Italians call Espresso Macchiato, which is 【Macchiato Coffee】.
Café Au Lait
The French are the most loyal devotees of Café au Lait. On French breakfast tables, you'll often see round, plump café au lait cups filled with the source of their good mood for the day. Interestingly, if you compare various coffee cups together, the cups French people use for café au lait are probably the largest.
The method for making Café au Lait is also not complicated: pour a cup of espresso and a large cup of hot milk simultaneously into a large cup, and finally place two spoonfuls of whipped cream foam on the surface.
Café au Lait can be seen as the European version of latte, but it is quite different from both American latte and Italian latte. Its most prominent feature is the requirement that milk and espresso be poured into the cup together, allowing the two to meet at the very first moment, colliding into a mood of leisure and freedom.
Many people can't distinguish the relationship between latte and café au lait. Actually, latte belongs to the Italian-style milk coffee, using machine steam to heat the milk; café au lait is French-style coffee, using fire to heat the milk. Both have equally smooth and luscious flavors.
Method: Equipment and ingredients used. Appropriate amount of dark-roasted coffee beans. Appropriate amount of milk (coffee:fresh milk ratio = 1:1)
1. Soak the cup in hot water (warm the cup), let its temperature rise, then pour out the excess water before use.
2. After grinding the dark-roasted coffee beans, pour the coffee grounds into the portafilter, use a tamper to press the coffee grounds flat, then lock the portafilter onto the espresso machine's extraction outlet and extract Espresso (coffee:fresh milk ratio = 1:1).
3. Take an appropriate amount of milk and place it under the steam nozzle of the espresso machine to steam it into hot milk.
4. Pour the steamed hot milk into the cup.
5. Shake the cup up and down to make the milk foam rise.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
