Italian fancy coffee introduction latte (Latte)

In the summer of 2008, I just learned to make coffee, and then I saw all kinds of amazing flowers on youtube.

"well, it's more handsome this way, and it's more popular with girls." Fortunately, good coffee shops in Melbourne are everywhere. As a result, a pure rookie whose purpose is not very pure began to look for a good coffee shop like Grandma Liu went to the Grand View Garden. Brother Buda Budan, Lier, Lier, St Ali, Sensory Lab. Over time, I found Veneziano Coffee Shop. The barista in the shop, crackling, cloth powder, pressing powder, extract, milking, dividing milk and pulling flowers. A cup of tulips and a cup of clover appeared in front of me.

The first coffee photo that washed my brain.

Well, I know you have to practice, but it's too easy for him to do it. I still remember, I asked a nonsense, you have been practicing for a long time. "well, I've been practicing for a long time. (long long long time)

It took him five minutes to drink it, but it was basically brainwashed. Although his main business has never been coffee, but unconsciously embarked on this road of no return. And later found that really cheated, as easily as he did three leaves, so far can only be done in panic, especially in the Australian glass.

Of course, I learned later that the barista was the 2007 Australian Beresta champion and the 2008 world runner-up, David Makin. Later, I learned some enlightening things from him. D

The reason for using this clip as the beginning is that the latte has a special feeling for me. I believe many people are attracted by pull flowers at first. It has never been as serious as Italian concentration, nor can it be traced back to its roots like a cappuccino. Although, a good flower still has high control over foam and espresso. But it has always been so playful and casual that I didn't want to inquire about the origin of the latte until I was writing this article. But after reading it, I still couldn't help laughing. Because Latte means milk in Italy, and if you say Caffelatte, it naturally means milk coffee. Although the word Latte was actually used in 1919, it was Seattle in the United States that really carried forward the Latte latte (from Wikipedia), and the most interesting thing is that Americans like to add some European shadow to their own inventions, so Latte tends to write latt è (think about the change in pronunciation)

Latte is Italian concentrated, milk, with foam. So is the cappuccino. So what's the difference? It's very simple, it's the difference between milk and foam. But the difference between milk and foam may bring about a bigger difference in taste than we like.

Latte has something to do with milk from the origin of the name. It is true that lattes have less foam than cappuccinos. In fact, there is an overlap between cappuccino and latte. Because when the cappuccino is only 1cm thick according to international standards, we can actually call it a latte. Therefore, lattes and cappuccinos are relative. Therefore, we will have a less layer of foam in exchange for more milk. This more or less reflects the eating habits of Americans, because lattes are also used to drinking in the morning.

At this point, you might as well compare cappuccino, Wet cappuccino and latte side by side to give a brief description of the taste.

In the United States, cappuccino cups are generally smaller than lattes. In Australia, the size of a latte cup is basically the same as that of a cappuccino, but the cup is different. We can assume that the capacity is the same, and temporarily use the Australian glass version, because it is more intuitive and easy to understand.

If they are all 200ml cups, if the latte has less foam, there will be more hot milk. There are several sensory differences here.

1. Visually: if it is very thick foam, pulling flowers is a problem. Because at this time the milk foam poured out will come out in piles, unable to achieve delicacy. When we use traditional cappuccino foam, if we pull flowers and leaves, we often get fish bones. This may explain why cappuccinos tend to be Wet cappuccino, and in WBC competitions, even cappuccinos, few people pull leaves nowadays, often tulips, because tulips focus on symmetry rather than distinct stems and leaves.

two。 Texture: if you draw a line, on the far left is the cappuccino bubble of the American coffee shop chain, and on the right is pure milk. Then whether it is the degree of fusion or smoothness, the left side will feel the roughest, or there will be a sense of graininess, and the rightmost is the smoothest. But it's important to note that having a little graininess is not necessarily a bad thing, just as we describe espresso, or tangy of red wine, as a feature of style. But no matter what, things will go to extremes.

3. Taste: draw another line, the leftmost is coffee, and the rightmost is milk. Because milk foam is the product of the expansion of protein in milk when air enters it. The density of milk is higher than foam. Therefore, the more foam, the taste of coffee will be more obvious, on the contrary, the taste of milk is very strong. In fact, it has something to do with the coffee itself and the proportion of milk foam. I've seen people say that if you want coffee, don't order a latte. There is something wrong with this sentence. Because, relatively speaking, the latte will definitely be more milky, but it is not necessarily just milky. In fact, in WBC's arena, the design of an Italian concentrate that makes a cappuccino delicious is often considered how mellow the Italian concentrate is and how much foam is used in the competition. Before the David Makin08 year competition, the last stop was trained at James Hoffman. James has repeatedly stressed that his cappuccino must be higher in foam because his beans are not very mellow and need to reduce the content of milk to highlight the taste of coffee. (that's why David used 160ml's tulip cup that year. The cup was small, the Italian concentrate was 25ml, and there was less milk.)

Speaking of which, what does this mean for ordinary consumers? Generally speaking, they don't drink a lot of coffee and need me to introduce them. I often suggest that they start with lattes. Because, the taste is softer, and the milk is well beaten, it will be sweeter. As mentioned before, there are differences between Australia and the United States. The cups in the United States are often larger coffee cups, while Australia likes to use glasses. In fact, the glass is more concerned about the control of milk foam. Because the Australian standard is a thick finger called a latte. So you can see at a glance how to control your foam through the glass.

Latte, and you can see that one finger is thick.

The American latte also has its charm, the most direct is that the cup is one size bigger, it is relatively easy to pull flowers. However, it is the consideration in the store whether an extra portion of Italian condensation should be added to the larger cup. (I will add an espresso)

L

Here, you can also introduce another kind of coffee, called Flat White, which is actually a branch of latte. There was almost a thin layer of foam floating on it. It's more like a milk drink. If we follow the picture below, we can clearly see which coffee has a stronger milk flavor.

It looks pretty much the same from the top down

But if you look at the side, you can tell the difference.

Latte Vs Flat White

Finally, I would like to mention that I have never rejected pull flowers. But the pull flower must be based on good Italian concentrated extraction, foam control and fusion. Sometimes, we can see a beautiful cup of flowers, but the taste is extremely bad. This is indeed a kind of helplessness. From the barista's point of view, curiosity starts with pulling flowers, but in the end, giving the customer a good cup of coffee is obviously more important.

Extraction is still the key.

Finish

In the next issue, black coffee triplets (Americano, Long Black, Lungo)