Coffee Types Classroom: 5 Common Specialty Coffee Varieties - Cafe-Style Coffee Types and Characteristics Guide

A Complete Guide to Coffee Varieties: The Classic Espresso Drinks You Should Know

Understanding Popular Coffee Varieties

Every time you walk into a coffee shop and see all those names on the board, latte, cappuccino, con panna, do you wonder how they actually differ? This time, let FrontStreet Coffee unravel the mysteries of five common espresso-based drinks.

§ Espresso

The foundation of most Italian-style coffee. A Solo is generally one shot of espresso, while a Doppio is two.

§ Americano

Essentially espresso diluted with hot water, at a ratio of 2:3.

§ Latte

Espresso combined with a large amount of steamed fresh milk and a small amount of milk foam.

§ Cappuccino

Espresso with steamed fresh milk and milk foam in a 1:1:1 ratio.

§ Mocha

Espresso paired with mocha sauce or chocolate syrup, then topped with steamed fresh milk and finished with a layer of whipped cream.

§ Caramel Macchiato

Espresso blended with steamed fresh milk and vanilla-flavored syrup, topped with milk foam and drizzled with caramel sauce.

These five common espresso-based drinks are latte, cappuccino, mocha, con panna, and macchiato. Want to know the ratios of milk foam, milk, whipped cream, and coffee in each of them?

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Of all these drinks, cappuccino is the one that lives or dies by its foam. It is built from three things, milk, espresso, and a thick, substantial layer of milk foam, and because milk takes up a smaller share than in a latte, the cup is intense and sweet with a light, airy texture. The milk foam replaces the cream you would find in some other drinks and is spooned into a peaked or domed shape.

Start with the espresso. On a home machine, FrontStreet Coffee uses 20g of coffee at a 1:2 coffee-to-liquid ratio over a 30-second extraction, which yields a shot that is both concentrated enough and properly extracted, so flavor and texture land where they should. Because the goal is a thick, airy foam rather than latte art, the beans should come from an espresso blend. The oil-rich FrontStreet Coffee Classic Blend is the usual first choice, and the value-minded FrontStreet Coffee Black Cocoa Blend is the budget pick.

If you want to push the cappuccino toward floral and fruity flavors, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy espresso blend is the one to use; it delivers berry, rose, raisin, and fruit-candy aromas. And if you prefer a fresh, unbitter cup, FrontStreet Coffee's Granja Geisha SOE is processed naturally and given a medium roast, so the coffee carries berry, orange, and persimmon, and with milk it develops a milk-candy sweetness.

For the drink itself, the golden ring is the most comforting signature of a cappuccino, with the outer band colored by the espresso and the inner circle filled with milk foam. In practice, pull the espresso first. A useful reference is 20g of coffee extracted over 32 seconds to yield 40ml of coffee liquid, poured into a warmed cup. While the shot is pulling, steam the milk, and because there is no latte art to worry about, you can work it into a thicker, denser foam than usual. Take a spoon and place a scoop of foam into the very center of the coffee, filling the middle into a circle. Then swirl the pitcher to recombine the foam and the milk and pour straight into the center of the cup. Since the surface is entirely foam, there is no risk of the coffee overflowing, so pour freely until the cup is filled.