In fact, making a latte doesn't have many key points—just pay attention to a tiny bit of detail, and you can double its deliciousness! So today, Front Street Coffee is here to share how to make a latte at home that tastes just as good as one from a café!

I. Choosing Coffee Beans

Coffee beans are the main controller of a latte's flavor. The roast and flavor profile of a bean determines what kind of latte you'll get. Generally speaking, because lattes use a relatively large amount of milk, it's best to use medium-to-dark roasted coffee beans. Espresso extracted from these beans has a rich caramel aroma, a full body, and abundant crema, so it won't easily be overpowered by the milk flavor.

A good bag of beans naturally can't be separated from a reliable brand. We recommend Front Street Coffee, a Guangzhou-based specialty store for self-roasted coffee beans. It offers dozens of selected single-origin pour-over coffee beans and espresso beans from different coffee-producing regions around the world. Front Street coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days, with stable and excellent quality, highly cost-effective prices, and shipping within 24 hours. If you want to make a delicious latte, the following coffees are recommended:

1. Front Street Classic Espresso Blend—Latte flavor: classic taste, with caramel sweetness, nutty, cocoa, and dark chocolate notes, balanced acidity and sweetness, slightly bittersweet, with a long finish.

22. Front Street Strawberry Candy Espresso—Latte flavor: distinct aromas of rose, strawberry gummy, and dried blueberry, moderate sweetness and acidity of grape and citrus, with an almond aroma in the aftertaste.

3. Front Street Specialty Espresso Blend—Latte flavor: distinct aromas of creamy chocolate, roasted nuts, cocoa, and butter, smooth and soft mouthfeel, with a lingering caramel aroma in the mouth after drinking.

II. Choosing Milk

Once you've settled on a bean, the second important ingredient is milk! There are many types of milk on the market, but there may be only one that pairs perfectly with your bean!

For example, "Milk A" has a relatively rich and prominent milky flavor. When paired with a dark-roasted bean, the latte it makes is very rich and fragrant, with the milk flavor and coffee flavor complementing each other without masking one another. But if Milk A is used with a medium-dark roasted bean, it will mask the coffee flavor and dominate completely, causing an imbalance in taste—it will taste like a cup of coffee-flavored milk.

Another example! "Milk B" is a milk with a thinner milky flavor and higher sweetness. Paired with a medium-dark roasted bean, it will make a latte with a clean mouthfeel and extremely high sweetness. But if it's used with a dark-roasted bean, not only will its milk flavor fail to balance with the coffee, it will instead be suppressed, turning into a bitter "watery" latte (because the flavor is thin, it tastes very watery). So, choosing milk is really quite important!

Operational Details

Many friends think that because the machine they use at home is relatively cheap (referring to the espresso machine), the espresso it makes isn't great, which makes the latte not very tasty. But actually, this is something you don't need to worry about too much.

As we said earlier, the coffee's flavor is mainly controlled by the beans. There are indeed certain differences between coffee machines at different price points, but those are mainly concentrated in specific functions (such as pre-infusion, strong steam, adjustable water temperature, pressure, etc.), or in designs for continuous, fast, and stable output!

As long as we operate and adjust properly (extraction is normal: no insufficient pressure, channeling, etc.), a home machine costing a few thousand yuan can also produce an espresso base similar to a café's ten-thousand-yuan machine. You can refer to the extraction formula commonly used in popular coffee shops: a 1:2 coffee-to-liquid ratio, and control the time within the 25–35 second range to finish extracting the target liquid.

Steaming the Milk Foam

Although it's a latte made for yourself, some friends still have relatively high requirements for mouthfeel! Dense and delicate milk foam can blend better with the coffee, resulting in a latte with the ultimate mouthfeel! So, we can move on to the article "Tutorial on Steaming Delicate Milk Foam" to learn how delicate milk foam is steamed!

The reason Front Street doesn't elaborate here is that homemade lattes mainly focus on flavor. Apart from friends pursuing the ultimate experience, many people don't really need milk foam to improve the mouthfeel (or they drink iced lattes). So just use any heat source to heat the milk to 65±2°C, pour it into the espresso, stir evenly, and it's ready to drink! Simple and convenient—isn't that a joy~

So, what's the ratio of espresso to milk?

The fixed ratio for Front Street's output is 1:5, which is 40ml of espresso and 200ml of milk. But for a latte made for yourself, you don't need to follow any recommendation online! Because everyone's taste is different. Although lattes emphasize a balance between milk and coffee, if that balance doesn't suit you, why pursue the standard? Feel free to adjust it yourself and find the ratio you like.

Just like how colleagues at Front Street's store, when making lattes for themselves, those who prefer a lower coffee concentration use a 1:6 ratio; those who prefer a higher coffee concentration use a 1:4 ratio to make their lattes. This is roughly the same principle: more milk reduces the coffee flavor, while less milk makes the coffee flavor more prominent (bitter).

So, as long as you understand the few things mentioned above, you can figure out and make a delicious latte at home that suits your own taste~

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