When I first started getting into coffee, I felt like I understood nothing. What is the difference between a latte and a cappuccino? Why are Starbucks' Macchiatos so different from the ones I see on Instagram? Arabica and Robusta? Ristretto? It's a whirlpool of terms and contradicting information that makes the learning journey very daunting.
Here are the 101s of coffee that I have gleaned from reading books and forums, studying and attending numerous SCA courses, watching so many days worth of coffee-related content on youtube, listening to podcasts and talking to people in the industry. These are the things I wished someone would have told me when I first got into coffee.
To make the information easily digestible yet not too obnoxiously long, I have curated a list of 5 things that I feel are a good primer to knowing more about the drink you are ordering daily. Also, do note that the list is meant to be understood by someone who is new to coffee and hence, technical terms may be omitted where possible without detracting from the information I am trying to give.
- Arabica and Robusta are two different species of coffee. Arabicas are generally higher in quality than Robustas. That being said, there are low quality Arabica and fine grade Robustas as well. Most (not all, as some use a mixture of both) cafes that serve espresso-based drinks use Arabica to make their drinks. However, places such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore use Robusta for their traditional coffees. Regardless, both coffees can taste delicious so do give them a try when you get the chance to.
- Espresso is a concentrated coffee drink made by an espresso machine. It is finely ground coffee packed and compressed tightly and then extracted by pushing water through with very high pressure. The result is a very small yet extremely intense cup of coffee. Beware! For people who have not tried a double shot espresso, it will taste like a punch in the mouth!
- Because espressos are small yet intense, people typically add milk or water to espressos to make it more enjoyable. To make it easy to understand, here are some common espresso drinks you can find in a typical cafe. For milk-based espresso drinks, you can typically find cortado, flat white, cafe latte, and cappuccino on the menu. On the other hand, when water is added to espresso, it is an Americano. When espresso is added to water, it is a Long Black (take note of the order of when the water is added). This is also where the confusion starts to kick in which will be explained in point 4.
- There are no hard and fast rules to coffee drinks. Different cafes have different interpretation of drinks. You'll see that different sources explain each drink differently as well - whether it's higher coffee to milk ratio, foam levels, etc. If you can't remember anything from this blog post, remember this: HOW A DRINK IS MADE DEPENDS ON HOW THE CAFE INTERPRET THE DRINK. For milk-based drinks (without going into the specifics), Cortado is espresso mixed with equal parts milk, generally still a very small and intense cup of coffee. The next part is controversial - Cafe latte, Flat white and Cappuccinos are interpreted in many ways but they involve single or double shots of espresso mixed with 3,4 or 5 parts milk (ratio generally 1:3 - 1:5). There are also cafes that use double shot espresso for all three drinks but where it differs is how foamy the milk is (with flat white being tiny amounts of foam - in this case, micro bubbles, cafe latte having slightly more foam and then cappuccino with the most, giving you the milk moustache.) There are even cappuccinos that have chocolate powder added to them (different from and definitely not a mocha). To truly find out what you're ordering, talk to the barista making your drink!
- I think Macchiato deserves a point on its own. Macchiato means 'marked'. Traditionally, it's a tiny cup of coffee - a single or double shot of espresso marked with a dollop of milk foam. However, Starbucks' Macchiato is a huge cup of coffee drink drizzled with some kind of sweetened sauce (caramel, chocolate, etc). I'd describe the traditional macchiato as a super intense and sharp drink but the Starbucks' one as a super sweet and friendly-to-the-general-population kind of drink. Regardless, this highlights how wildly different coffee drinks can be.
Probably the most important takeaway is that there are no strict rules on how to make a cafe latte or a cappuccino. Some people may argue that there are but at the end of the day, you'll realize that one cafe's cappuccino may be worlds apart from another's. The world of coffee is so vast and there's so much to learn about. My advice? Explore and enjoy!