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I don’t shy away from the fact I’m a purist coffee drinker at heart as I believe a great black coffee has enough natural flavour and sweetness to not need milk nor sugar.
However, I do on occasion dabble in the milk coffee variety and a question that I commonly wonder is: do people actually know the difference between a Flat White, Latte and Cappuccino? By the way just so you’re aware, I do.
To the untrained eye and even taste bud I can see where the confusion lies for those new to drinking coffee, it’s just milk and coffee right?…Wrong! The term Latte is already a confusing one that translates into milk in Italian. So already we know they can differ from country to country, but I’ve found London can be no exception.
I have been to many a coffee shop and all day breakfast cafe (when in desperate need of a hangover cure) to find they fail to know the difference between a flat white, cappuccino and latte…so I’m taking it upon myself to explain once and for all.
As with most coffee based drinks a double shot of Espresso is a base ingredient for each of these coffee derivatives, but whilst milk fills the rest of the cup the key difference is how the milk is applied. Mastery of this milk is one of the core skills needed as a barista. Not all customers are aware that milk can be used in 3 ways (4 if you want to questionably include latte art), which includes as a liquid, micro foam and froth, or in simplistic terms…….no bubbles, small bubbles and large bubbles….and here is where the coffees differ in structure. A flat white uses milk as a velvety foam, a cappuccino uses a third milk liquid and a third foam, and a Latte being the milkiest of the group uses predominately milk liquid but with a foam top. For the more eye candy readers check out the visual explanation of this conundrum below and let us never speak of this again!
