On the menus of specialty coffee shops, the Piccolo latte is appearing more and more frequently. This mini milk coffee, with a capacity of only about 3 ounces, is centered on using Ristretto as its base, so its concentration is far higher than that of an ordinary latte. So, what exactly is the difference between Ristretto and regular espresso? What coffee beans should be chosen to make a Piccolo latte? And how should the ratio of milk to coffee liquid be controlled? Starting from Front Street Coffee's extraction practice, this article will break down the key points of making a Piccolo latte one by one, and also recommend espresso blend coffee bean options suitable for espresso extraction, to help you make a cup of balanced mini latte.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee)

In recent years, the Piccolo latte has appeared on the menus of many specialty coffee shops in China. Compared with a regular latte, the unique feature of this beverage is that its capacity is usually only 3 ounces, and it uses Ristretto as its base, making it a milk coffee with a relatively high concentration.

Reading this, many friends may ask: What is Ristretto? What is the difference between it and regular espresso? How do you make a Piccolo latte? What beans should be used? Next, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will explain them one by one.

To make espresso, espresso blend coffee beans are recommended

Whether making standard espresso or Ristretto, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends using blend coffee beans for extraction. Although using single-origin beans to make espresso is also popular now, stability is often insufficient, and it is difficult to ensure that every cup of coffee liquid presents a consistent flavor and quality. Some single-origin beans perform well in pour-over and other drip methods, but once used to make espresso, they easily become sharply acidic, bitter, or thin in body.

The advantage of blend beans is that they combine coffee beans from different producing regions and with different flavor directions, allowing flavor complementation during extraction. For example, the "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend Coffee Beans" used in Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) shops is made from 70% Honduras Sherry coffee beans and 30% Yirgacheffe natural Red Cherry coffee beans.

If only Sherry coffee beans were used to make espresso, although the winey aroma, vanilla cream flavor, and smoothness would all be very prominent, the finished product would lack layers and seem somewhat thin; after adding Yirgacheffe natural Red Cherry coffee beans, the coffee gains a layer of soft berry acidity and sweetness, which both improves the overall layering and reduces the cloying sweetness brought by the vanilla cream flavor.

In addition to Sunflower Warm Sun Blend Coffee Beans, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) also sells three espresso blend beans. They are "Front Street Specialty Blend Coffee Beans," blended from Arabica beans from Brazil and Colombia, with a mellow mouthfeel after extraction and main notes of roasted nuts and dark chocolate; "Front Street Commercial Blend Coffee Beans," mainly Arabica beans from Brazil and Colombia with a small amount of Robusta beans from Vietnam added, rich in crema and dominated by dark chocolate flavor; and "The Espresso Coffee Beans Recommended by Many Baristas - Front Street Dark Cocoa Blend," using Arabica beans from Brazil blended with those from Yunnan, with a rich coffee flavor and a dark chocolate profile with slight fruity acidity.

The difference between Espresso and Ristretto

Ristretto, like Espresso, is coffee liquid obtained by direct extraction with an espresso machine. The difference is that Ristretto is like a "limited edition" of Espresso—using the same dose of coffee grounds, the final liquid yield is smaller, so the concentration is naturally higher.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)'s parameters for making Espresso with Sunflower Warm Sun Blend are: 20 grams of grounds extracted to 40 grams of coffee liquid, a coffee-to-liquid ratio of 1:2, taking 30 seconds. When making Ristretto, only about 70% of the Espresso is taken, that is, 20 grams of grounds correspond to about 28 grams of coffee liquid, and the time is shortened accordingly.

But it should be noted that the extraction plans for different blend beans are not the same, so Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) suggests observing more of the flow rate and color changes of the liquid during extraction when making Ristretto.

At the beginning of extraction, the flow rate is relatively slow, the color is dark brown, and the texture looks viscous; in the middle stage, the liquid turns golden yellow and the flow rate gradually speeds up; in the final stage, the liquid is light yellow and looks relatively thin, and extraction should be stopped before the crema turns white. Extraction data is only for reference; ultimately, sensory judgment is still needed to determine whether each shot of espresso is extracted reasonably.

How to make a Piccolo latte

The capacity of a traditional Piccolo latte is 3 to 4 ounces. When making Piccolo coffee, 2015 World Coffee Championship champion Sasa used a 3-ounce cup, combined milk and coffee at a ratio of 1:2, and then topped it with a layer of light milk foam. A proper ratio of coffee to milk allows the coffee flavor to be fully released without being too intense.

This time, Front Street chose a 100 ml cup to make the Piccolo latte. After steaming the milk, first pour in 60 ml to fully combine with the coffee liquid, then add a thin layer of milk foam; you can also pour in the milk, complete the combination, and then do latte art.

The base for making a Piccolo latte also uses Sunflower Warm Sun Blend beans to extract a single shot of espresso. Front Street's extraction parameters are 20 grams of grounds extracted to 30 grams of coffee liquid, in 23 seconds (actual adjustments are still needed depending on the situation).

For milk steaming: Front Street uses a 350 ml milk pitcher and pours in 100 ml of milk for steaming (too little milk makes it hard to steam). The milk foam for a Piccolo latte is thinner than that for a flat white, about 0.5 cm thick, and the steaming temperature should be controlled between 55℃ and 65℃.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee)

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