Making a cup of latte is nothing more than adding milk to espresso. However, this seemingly simple combination has caused troubles for many home baristas. With the same ingredients and steps, why do coffee shop latte always have a mellow taste and long-lasting aroma, while making it by yourself is like a cup of milk mixed with coffee flavor?
Although there are more and more coffee shops opening nowadays, there are actually very few people who can really "endure hardship". The reason why latte is so popular is mainly because it has more milk and less bitterness, which makes the coffee more delicious.
In a broad sense, the only raw materials for latte are espresso and milk. Generally, blended beans and refrigerated milk are preferred. There is no fixed ratio, and most of them are between 1:5 and 1:8. Front Street usually likes to use Front Street black cocoa, extract 38g of coffee liquid with 20g of coffee powder for 25 seconds, and then add 240g of whipped hot fresh milk in a ratio of 1:6.
In this way, the Front Street Dark Cocoa Blend Latte can be drunk with the rich aroma of roasted nuts and maltose. Due to the addition of a large amount of milk, the originally strong and exciting coffee flavor is softened and provides a hint of sweetness. The entire taste is balanced without losing mellowness.
Now that we know the steps of production, it is obvious that the answer to the question can only come from these key factors:
1. Insufficient concentrated aroma substances
First of all, everyone can remember one principle. For a successful cup of espresso, the crema will have a mirror-like shine and a thickness of between 3 and 5 mm, exuding the aroma of the coffee beans themselves. Whether making an American style or a latte, it will not be easily covered up.
Lightly roasted coffee beans extract more acid and less oil. Adding a large proportion of milk will easily lose the coffee flavor and turn it into a light and sour taste. If you want to highlight the mellowness of concentrated Italian beans, you need to increase the richness of fats and enhance the caramelized aroma. Medium-dark roasted Italian beans are baked later, so they have less acidity, more fat, and a higher body. The taste focuses on the aroma of caramel, toasted bread, and cocoa. It is recommended to use multi-functional Italian beans such as Front Street Classic Blend and Front Street Commercial Blend, which can be used in stores, homes, or offices.
In addition to choosing the right coffee beans, freshness is also important. A pack of roasted espresso beans will be in the gas active stage for 4 days, so it requires a 4-7 day bean-raising period. After the end, it will enter the best tasting period of about 40-50 days. After 60 days, the oil and aroma will plummet. Therefore, if you want to make a delicious latte, you must choose fresh coffee beans.
2. Use the “wrong” milk
In a good latte, coffee beans and milk are equally important protagonists. If you want to make a latte as rich as a coffee shop, whole milk is the first choice, because they contain more fat, protein, lactose and other substances, and have a stronger milk flavor. Only when paired with coffee can the effect of 1+1>2 be achieved.
If the quality of the milk is poor, the milk flavor is weak or has a fishy smell, no matter how good the coffee beans are, the resulting latte will be greatly compromised. (For specific milk brands, Front Street did an issue "Milk review!”, I won’t elaborate too much here. If you have drunk other high-quality milk worth recommending, you may wish to share it in the comment area. )
3. Coffee and milk don’t go together.
Many people know that the reason why coffee and milk have become an iconic combination is because they taste great together. When the latte does not reach the ideal state, it cannot be ruled out that the taste of the two does not match.
A customer once used Gesha SOE on Front Street, paired with iced coffee with double the milky flavor. The aroma of the resulting latte was almost completely covered up by the milk, leaving only a little bit of fruit acid. The two parted ways the moment they entered the mouth. This example tells us that when milk with different characteristics is paired with different coffee beans, the impact on the taste of latte is actually very obvious. This is why many coffee shops will buy a lot of milk when they put new beans on the shelves until they adjust to the most satisfactory state.
For example, some milk itself has a higher sweetness, and when paired with medium-dark roasted coffee beans with a nutty flavor, such as Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling + Bright Fresh Ranch, it can simultaneously highlight the mellowness, oily aroma, and sweetness of the latte.sense; Some milks have a prominent milky aroma and are highly compatible with dark roasted Italian blends, such as the Front Street Black Cocoa Basic Blend + Yue Xian. The texture of the latte art is silky, which also makes the whole cup of latte have a longer-lasting fragrance in the mouth.
4. Failed to find the “golden ratio”
For a cup of latte, the extraction ratio of espresso is particularly critical, because it not only determines the final concentration, but also affects the flavor of the coffee.
The formula used to extract espresso from Front Street defaults to a powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:2, the extraction time is controlled at about 25 to 30 seconds, and the coffee liquid flow rate is stable throughout the process. Although many friends also use a powder-to-liquid ratio of 1:2, the taste of the latte they make is bland and even has some unpleasant "sourness". This is mainly because the extraction rate of the coffee is not enough, and there are still many substances in the powder cake that cannot be dissolved. It is necessary to finer the grinding and extend the extraction time. In this way, you can get a cup of espresso with full taste and aroma, which lays a good foundation for making delicious latte.
