Jan 23 2009
Gourmet Coffee Drinks
For some, a good cup of coffee is just served up black, or maybe with a shot of milk and sugar. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated.
But for many folks who enjoy gourmet coffee, that’s just not good enough. A coffee is more of a creation than just a drink, and there are many traditional gourmet drinks to choose from.
Most gourmet coffee drinks are actually made with espresso rather than coffee, but for anyone brewing at home without an espresso machine, you can easily use strong brewed coffee instead. Won’t be quite the same, though. Still worth experimenting with if you want something different in the morning.
You’re probably pretty familiar with most drinks even if you haven’t enjoyed them personally. The best known gourmet espresso drinks are the cappuccino, the latte and the macchiato. They sound wonderfully Italian, and actually aren’t all that hard to make yourself.
How to Make Gourmet Coffee Drinks
Macchiato
A macchiato is just a sophisticated way of saying “with a spoon of foamed milk on top”. That’s it. Add some foamed milk on top of your coffee or espresso, and you have yourself a macchiato. Possibly the easiest gourmet coffee drink there is.
Latte
A latte isn’t that much more complicated either. You can make a latte with 1 part coffee, and 2 parts hot or steamed milk. A simple ratio would be a half cup of coffee, with 1 cup of steamed milk added. It’s a very creamy and milk coffee drink.
Cappuccino
And the final gourmet coffee drink would be the cappuccino. This time, you use equal parts hot coffee and steamed milk (so perhaps 1 cup of coffee and 1 cup of steamed milk). On top there is also a layer of foamed milk. A stronger coffee drink than the latte.
The final variation that you usually see in the coffee shop is the addition of some chocolate syrup to either drink, to make a mocha latte or a mochaccino.
