How Did Latte Origin Shape Today's Coffee Menus?

Latte comes from the Italian word for hot milk, so a coffee latte is simply espresso blended with steamed milk. In Italy, ordering a plain latte gets you milk, not coffee. As the drink spread worldwide, latte became shorthand for milk coffee, and coffee-free versions such as matcha, hojicha, and red velvet lattes borrowed the same name.

In Italy, coffee latte belongs to the flavored coffee category and is often a breakfast drink, built on the local preference for milk paired with espresso. That italy latte tradition explains the naming split: the word describes the milk-forward style, not the presence of coffee. Checking the menu category before ordering avoids surprises, since shops vary in whether they add espresso.

Walk into a coffee shop and order a latte—does what comes out always contain coffee? Why do matcha lattes and red velvet lattes often show no trace of coffee? To answer these questions, we have to start with the Italian word "Latte" itself. Latte originally meant hot milk, while coffee latte is the classic blend of espresso and milk. As coffee latte swept the world, "latte" gradually became the default shorthand for milk coffee, and so a batch of coffee-free drinks also adopted the name. This article will trace the evolution of latte from Italy to the United States, explain the two practical reasons behind the naming of coffee-free lattes, and remind everyone to take a closer look at the menu category before ordering, so as to avoid getting something different from what you expected.

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The name "latte" comes from the transliteration of the Italian word "Latte." In Italy itself, Latte simply means heated milk; coffee latte, with coffee added, is written in Italian as "CoffeeLatte" and belongs to the category of flavored coffee. The essence of coffee latte is a classic pairing of espresso and milk, and Italians often treat it as a breakfast drink. In Italian kitchens in the early morning, on the stove where sunlight can reach, coffee and milk are often being heated at the same time. Rather than saying Italians who love lattes are devoted to espresso, it is more accurate to say they prefer milk, and only espresso can make ordinary milk burst forth with an unforgettable flavor.

"A cup of Italian coffee with a large amount of milk added"—this is most people's common understanding of "latte." However, many friends have noticed that not all products bearing the name "latte" contain coffee. For example, matcha latte, hojicha latte, red velvet latte, Ovaltine latte, and the like, commonly seen in coffee shops, all have the word latte in their names, yet many versions made by shops do not add coffee. This has caused quite a few misunderstandings and raised many questions.

Front Street is often asked this kind of question: "It's clearly called a latte, so why is there no coffee in it?" and "Since it doesn't contain coffee, why is it still called a latte?"

Why do some "lattes" contain no coffee?

First, it must be made clear that "latte" is the transliteration of Latte, a word derived from Italian. Front Street previously shared a joke circulating online: "If you want to order a coffee latte in an Italian café, and when ordering you say latte (Latte) instead of coffee latte (Caffè latte), the staff will directly bring you a cup of milk."

In earlier years, this situation did indeed exist. Because in Italian, "Latte" means milk, and only Caffè latte refers to milk coffee. Since what you ordered was a cup of milk, what was brought to you was naturally milk without coffee. The "latte" in matcha latte and red velvet latte precisely restores the original meaning of the word Latte, that is, milk. Understood in Chinese, it becomes "matcha milk" and "red velvet milk," so it makes sense that there is no coffee.

However, note that Front Street is emphasizing the "early situation." As coffee latte became more and more popular, the word latte gradually became accepted as the "abbreviation" of coffee latte, so much so that today when people mention latte, the first thing they think of is milk coffee, and only secondarily milk. This is exactly why names like matcha latte cause misunderstandings.

In the mid-19th century, "Caffè" and "Latte" were included in Italian dictionaries and began to be used uniformly. Although the practice of mixing milk and coffee had long existed, these two words were not combined at the time. It was not until 30 years later, in 1867, that the American writer William Dean Howells, in his book Italian Journeys, first used "Caffe e latte" to describe a drink made by mixing milk and coffee.

Since the espresso machine had not yet been invented at the time, "Caffe e latte" then simply meant adding milk to brewed strong coffee, and the name was not well known to the public. Only later, when the espresso machine appeared, did "coffee latte" in the broad sense truly make its "official debut" and enter everyone's view. From here begins a story that Front Street often mentions.

In the 1950s and 1960s, a large number of Italians immigrated to the United States with coffee machines and opened shops there to make a living. But Americans were not used to the highly concentrated coffee made by Italian espresso machines, so shop owners had to localize and improve their products, that is, do as the locals do.

Coffee latte was born in a California shop called "Caffe Mediterraneum." The owner added more milk to traditional cappuccino, using the sweetness of milk to dilute the bitterness of coffee, which greatly increased the drink's acceptability. This cappuccino with more milk was written into the menu, and in order to distinguish it from traditional cappuccino, the owner named it "Caffè e latte" based on its characteristic of having more milk, which translates to milk coffee.

After that, this Italian coffee with a large amount of milk won wide acclaim locally, and with the rise of chain brands and the spread of latte art, it traveled from the United States to the rest of the world. As coffee gradually became part of daily life, people began to get used to abbreviating "Caffè latte" as "Latte."

So since the 1980s, Latte has been accepted as the "abbreviation" of Caffè latte. Outside Italy, when people mention latte, what most think of first is Italian coffee with a large amount of milk. Italy itself has actually been affected to some extent as well: when foreign tourists order with "Latte," what they receive is no longer a cup of milk, but most likely a cup of milk coffee.

This leads to the second question: since being called "latte" easily causes misunderstanding, why do coffee shops still use "latte" to name products that contain no coffee? Why not simply call it "milk" instead of insisting on calling it latte?

There are two reasons. First, the presentation of these products is the same as that of lattes. Whether it is matcha latte, red velvet latte, or hojicha latte, when made, they are all combined with a large amount of frothed milk and a base just like a latte, and then milk foam is used to draw an exquisite pattern on the surface (for the hot version). Whether in appearance or process, they are almost identical to a latte. The word "latte" happens to express these characteristics and makes it easier for customers to understand, which became the first reason for using the name "latte."

Another reason is that shop owners believe using the professional coffee-circle term "latte" to name these coffee-free products can also establish an association between them and the coffee shop. So compared with "milk," most shop owners are more willing to call them "latte."

Usually, however, these coffee-free "lattes" are placed in the "coffee-free section" of the menu. Therefore, as long as you pay attention to which category they are placed under on the menu, or ask the staff in advance, you basically will not run into too many situations where "things turn out contrary to your wishes."

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