What Can Be Added to Caramel Macchiato? How to Order a Delicious Starbucks Caramel Macchiato?

Freshly extracted espresso blended with caramel sauce, then topped with hot milk—that is a heartwarming caramel macchiato. Ever since I picked up an espresso machine, the Huijia KD-270S, during last year's Double 11 shopping festival, a whole world of fancy coffee drinks has opened up, and caramel macchiato is one of my favorite flavors. People often ask me which machine FrontStreet Coffee uses, so today, through this one fancy drink, I'll walk you through the machine I'm currently using.

Ingredients

150g milk

Approximately 15-17g coffee beans

35g caramel sauce

1 small spoon of caramel sauce for decoration

Caramel Macchiato - Huijia Coffee Machine Method

The machine is the Huijia KD270-S—I chose the white model at the time. With an average coffee habit of 1-2 cups a day, it is very suitable for home use. The steam wand is on the left, the brew head in the middle, and the hot water wand on the right. The ear-shaped button on the left side of the machine is the steam wand control, while the right ear controls the hot water wand, which can dispense hot water on its own. In the upper left corner there's a temperature display for milk and a pressure display for brewing. Behind the right hot water wand sits a water level window. The top row holds the brew head control panel, which can automatically extract single or double shots—or be run manually. At the bottom is the drip tray.

Start the machine and place the cup upside down on it to preheat.

First, prepare the ingredients. The caramel sauce can be store-bought or homemade.

The portafilter has a separate removable filter basket at the top; fill it with coffee grounds before extraction.

Before using the portafilter, run a single shot to rinse and preheat it. Then remove the portafilter and wipe the residual moisture from the basket with kitchen paper.

Warm the caramel sauce in a water bath and pour it into the coffee cup.

Fill the portafilter basket with ground coffee.

Once filled, use your index finger to level the grounds: scrape top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right, then right to left. Excess grounds can be scraped straight off.

Tamp the grounds vertically with a tamper. The photo is just a demonstration—since I was shooting alone, the brew head isn't level. Normally one hand holds the portafilter handle while the other presses the tamper perpendicular to the counter. How hard to press depends on the coffee you're using; proper tamping is what makes the espresso extract correctly.

Lock the portafilter into the brew head and select single shot. The stream starts dark brown and gradually turns reddish-brown.

Toward the end, the coffee lightens to a pale brown. The whole extraction generally takes 25-35 seconds. If it runs too short, you likely used too little coffee or too coarse a grind—less crema and a paler color. Too much coffee or too fine a grind stretches the extraction, and the cup turns darker and more bitter.

Judge the shot by its crema: a perfect espresso has a relatively thick layer of golden crema—dense, rich-tasting, neither bitter nor astringent. If the crema is watery, disperses quickly, and the cup tastes thin and sour, the extraction was off.

Before frothing milk, bleed some residual water from the steam wand.

Both the pitcher and the milk should be cold going in. At the start, position the steam tip at the milk's surface so air is drawn in, letting the milk expand 1.3-1.5 times in volume. Since we're making a caramel macchiato, we want thicker foam that floats over a wide area of the drink, so stretch the foaming phase a little longer. Once the milk reaches about 38°C, stop adding air, submerge the wand deeper, and let the whirlpool texture the milk—large bubbles vanish as the milk spins, leaving only dense microfoam, much like whipping whole eggs for a sponge cake.

Pour the milk over the coffee, let the foam float on the surface, and finish with a drizzle of caramel sauce.

Tips

1. The bean weight is approximate—15-17g generally extracts one shot. Experienced baristas can work by feel, but beginners should weigh the dose and adjust by bean and roast: extraction running long means too much coffee; running fast means too little.

2. The milk foam can be made slightly thicker.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A caramel macchiato is only as good as the espresso under it, so the beans matter. For classic-style Americanos and lattes, FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend or Commercial Blend is the way to go: both build on a traditional Italian recipe with a small amount of Robusta added, yielding butter, nut, spice, dark chocolate, and toast aromas, a wild, thick body, and that bursting golden crema that makes latte art effortless.

If nut-driven espresso is more your taste, choose FrontStreet Coffee's Premium Blend or Black Cocoa Blend. Both carry a large proportion of Brazilian beans, giving a comfortable sweet-bitter balance and a creamy peanut aroma that goes down remarkably smooth. FrontStreet Coffee's Premium Blend adds Colombian nut, chocolate, and caramel notes with pleasant acidity, while FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend folds in the ripe-plum acidity of Yunnan arabica and smells of creamy chocolate when ground—balanced and versatile enough for signature coffee drinks, and a favorite base for cafés.

For a solo single-origin shot, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate SOE is hard to beat: its rare Yellow Bourbon variety is quietly sweet, and after a medium-dark roast it pulls shots of butter cookie, macadamia, and toasted bread—perfect under the caramel and milk of a homemade macchiato.