For more knowledge about specialty coffee, please pay attention to: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee）
"Latte" is the transliteration of the Italian "Latte". In Italy, "Latte" means hot milk, and latte coffee is called "CoffeeLatte", which is a type of fancy coffee. Latte is a classic mixture of Italian espresso and milk. Italians also like to drink latte as a breakfast drink. In Italian kitchens in the morning, coffee and milk are usually brewed at the same time on the stove that is exposed to sunlight. Italians who drink latte do not so much like Italian espresso as they like milk, and only espresso can bring an unforgettable taste to ordinary milk.
"A cup of espresso with a lot of milk" is our common understanding of the word "latte". But many friends have discovered that not all products named "latte" contain coffee.
For example, we often see products in coffee shops: matcha latte, hojicha latte, red velvet latte, Ovaltine latte and other products. Although they are all called latte, many stores produce versions without coffee. So this caused a lot of problems and also caused a lot of problems.
For example, Front Street often receives questions such as: “It’s called a latte, so why doesn’t it contain coffee?” and, “Since there’s no coffee, how come it doesn’t contain coffee?”
Why call it a latte? "
Why do some "lattes" contain no coffee?
First of all, we need to know that the word "latte" is transliterated from Latte, which is a word derived from Italian. Front Street has shared before that there is a popular joke on the Internet: "If you go to an Italian cafe and want to order a latte, but when you order, you tell the clerk that it is Latte instead of Caffè latte, the clerk will bring you a glass of milk."
In the mid-19th century, "Caffè" and "Latte" were included in Italian dictionaries and began to be used uniformly. Although the practice of mixing milk and coffee had already appeared at that time, the two words were not used together at that time. It was not until 30 years later, in 1867, that the American writer William Dean Howells first used "Caffe e latte" to describe a drink mixed with milk and coffee in his book "A Journey to Italy".
However, because the espresso machine had not been invented yet, the "Caffe e latte" at that time was just adding milk to the brewed espresso, and its name was not well known to the world. It was not until the advent of espresso machines that "latte coffee" in the broad sense had an "official debut" and the opportunity to be recognized by everyone. And starting from here is also a story often mentioned in Front Street Club~
In the 1950s and 1960s, many Italians immigrated to the United States with coffee machines and opened stores there to make a living. However, because Americans were not used to the high-concentration coffee made by espresso machines, store owners had to make local improvements to their products, which is the so-called do as the Romans do.
The latte was born in a "Mediterranean Cafe" (Caffe Mediterraneum) in California. The shop added more milk to the traditional cappuccino so that the bitterness of the coffee could be diluted by the sweetness of the milk, making the whole cup of coffee more acceptable. Then this cappuccino with more milk was put on the menu. In order to distinguish it from the traditional cappuccino, the store named it "Caffè e latte" because it has more milk, which translates to milk coffee.
Subsequently, this Italian coffee with a large amount of milk was widely praised locally, and then spread from the United States to the world due to the rise of chain brands and the spread of latte art. As coffee gradually integrated into people's daily lives, people began to habitually shorten the name "Caffè latte" to "Latte".
So since the 1980s, Latte has been regarded as the "abbreviation" of Caffè latte by default. When we talk about latte outside of Italy, the first thing most people think of is Italian coffee with a lot of milk added. In fact, Italy has also been affected to a certain extent. When foreign tourists order "Latte" in an Italian cafe, they no longer receive a cup of milk, but a cup of milk coffee.
According to Front Street, if you want to make a cup of latte delicious, in addition to the equipment requirements, you also need to select the right raw materials, control the proportions, and one essential factor, which is rich coffee oil.
First of all, the choice of milk is very important. Just full-fat fresh milk alone, there are more than 10 types commonly available in the market. Some of these milks have a strong milky taste and a thick texture, while others are light and watery. The standard for choosing milk is not to pursue thick and obvious milk flavor, but to choose one that is suitable for pairing with coffee. A strong milk flavor will mask the taste of the coffee, and a watery milk will also make the latte watery.
In order to perfectly blend coffee and milk and balance each other, Qian Street's iced latte coffee uses Sunflower Warm Sun blend and Weiji fresh milk. The ratio is 35g of espresso liquid, 250ml of fresh milk and 75g of ice cubes. This ratio is for everyone's reference, not the golden ratio of latte coffee. Front Street is a parameter obtained through multiple ratio adjustments using the above-mentioned materials, mainly based on real tasting feedback.
If you want to have a dense and fluid crema, Front Street believes that a supercharged espresso machine is indispensable, followed by high-quality coffee beans. For customers who like fat and texture, Front Street has formulated a Front Street Italian blend of coffee beans, named "Front Street Commercial Blend Coffee Beans", which is a blend of Arabica coffee beans from Brazil and Colombia and 10% Robusta coffee beans.
This blend tastes rich in oil and texture, with the sweetness of caramel, and also has the caramel flavor of nuts, cocoa, and dark chocolate. It is rich and balanced, slightly sweet and bitter, and has a long-lasting aftertaste. Adding a small amount of Robusta coffee beans adds richness of oil and golden color. Due to the small amount, it does not change the flavor too much.
The reason why Front Street named this blended coffee bean "Front Street Commercial Blend Coffee Bean" is because it performs well in making American-style or milk coffee. With its price advantage, it is very suitable for use in coffee shops.
To make perfect latte art, we first need to extract Espresso with rich and moderate oil, so that the foam layer and milk can be better integrated, and the latte art pattern will be more stable. According to the experience of Front Street Coffee, choosing medium-dark roasted espresso beans is very beneficial for this.
In addition to choosing the right coffee, we also need to pay attention to the freshness of the beans. Overly fresh Italian coffee beans contain a large amount of carbon dioxide in the body, and the coffee oil that comes out is relatively thick, which is not conducive to latte art, and the beans need to be cultivated for 5 to 7 days; stale Italian coffee beans do not have enough carbon dioxide in the body, so they cannot produce enough oil and appear thin and cannot be integrated with the milk foam. Front Street recommends using coffee beans roasted within 7 to 45 days to make espresso. Because we know the importance of freshness to the flavor of coffee, Front Street has insisted on shipping beans roasted within 5 days for many years, ensuring that everyone can enjoy the full flavor of the coffee after receiving it.
Espresso is also the base for making latte coffee, and hot latte is often accompanied by exquisite latte patterns. The delicate and rich coffee oil makes it easier to draw flowers. Espresso coffee with oil can better integrate with milk foam and maintain a stable state, which has a great influence on the detail and shape of latte art. Although espresso coffee without oil can also be latte art, the drawn pattern will be slightly stiff and rough in appearance.
In addition, because oil is produced by the oil in coffee wrapping the carbon dioxide in coffee, you can also judge whether the coffee beans are fresh by the amount of oil. The more oil, the fresher the coffee beans are. Precisely because we know that for latte art, freshly roasted coffee beans are the first requirement, so the coffee beans delivered by Front Street are guaranteed5The coffee is freshly roasted within a day and is within the best tasting period when received from the logistics department. In this way, we hope that every customer can drink good coffee with the most complete flavor.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
