The Difference Between Caramel Macchiato and Macchiato - The Origin and Preparation of Caramel Macchiato Coffee

Because Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato differ by only two words, many friends envision Macchiato as a Caramel Macchiato without the caramel. They think Macchiato is just a sweet milk coffee without caramel! Although nowadays almost no coffee shops list Macchiato on their menus, when you have the chance to order a Macchiato, you'll discover that what the shop brings you isn't the large sweet milk coffee you imagined, but rather a small cup of coffee with an extremely rich flavor.

What a shock!!! Isn't this completely deceptive?

Not really! Although Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato both share the name Macchiato, in a sense, they don't belong to the same category of coffee. So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share what exactly the differences are between Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato!

Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato

Below are two espresso shots - one is normal, and one has a small amount of milk added. So, which one is the espresso with milk added?

The answer is the one on the left - it's hard to tell if you don't look carefully! This is completely understandable, and it's precisely why Macchiato was invented! In earlier times, due to poor quality coffee beans and the use of extremely dark roasts, the extracted coffee had an extremely intense bitterness. This bitterness was strong and irritating, something many people couldn't accept! Therefore, some ingredients needed to be added to dilute the bitterness. And milk was the perfect choice! The addition of a small amount of milk not only diluted the bitterness and softened the irritation, but most importantly, made the overall espresso smoother and easier to drink. So at that time, most people would ask the barista to add a little milk to their coffee to reduce the negative experience brought by bitterness.

But like the problem mentioned at the beginning, the addition of just a small amount of milk doesn't significantly change the appearance of the coffee. In situations with high volumes of orders, baristas simply don't have time to carefully distinguish between them. Therefore, they came up with a solution - to garnish the surface of the espresso with a small amount of milk foam to make the distinction.

This practice gradually became popular. To make it easier for customers to order, this espresso with a small amount of milk and some milk foam was named: "Macchiato"! Macchiato means "stain/mark" in Italian, so naming a coffee marked with milk foam is truly fitting!

However, as the quality of beans improved, espresso no longer had that stimulating, intense bitterness, so the demand for Macchiato decreased day by day, and eventually it was removed from the menus of major coffee shops and phased out.

The Rise of Caramel Macchiato

In the 1990s, a coffee called Caramel Macchiato appeared on the scene. You could say it's a sweet latte - made by adding vanilla syrup and caramel syrup to a latte base! Because caramel syrup is viscous yet lightweight, many coffee shops use it with decorating needles to create exquisite patterns. This made Caramel Macchiato popular worldwide for a time, becoming a renowned coffee product.

But in reality, it has no relationship with Macchiato at all. Macchiato is an espresso with a small amount of milk added, while Caramel Macchiato is a sweet latte with large amounts of syrup added. They're simply different coffees using names with the same meaning! And the Macchiato in Caramel Macchiato also means "mark," but because of the presence of caramel, its meaning was upgraded to "sweet mark."

How sweet is it? FrontStreet Coffee will give you an analogy, and everyone will be able to imagine it directly:

As sweet as FrontStreet Coffee!!

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473