Spanish Latte Recipe and Its Differences from Regular Latte Coffee - Preparation Method, Ratios, and Flavor Characteristics

Today's café menus offer a rich variety of beverages, and it's quite common to add various dairy products and flavored syrups to coffee to cater to more tastes. But have you ever heard of coffee with condensed milk?

Adding Condensed Milk to Cover Coffee's Bitter Taste

In Vietnam, the aroma of coffee wafts through streets and alleys everywhere. Their coffee is primarily made from Robusta beans, typically roasted to a dark, oily shine. The extracted coffee liquid is rich in crema, with flavors generally presenting notes of hazelnut, grain, caramel, and distinct bitter notes. Compared to fresh milk in European countries, Vietnamese people prefer the lactose sweetness of condensed milk, so they came up with the idea of using condensed milk's sweetness to mask the coffee's intense bitterness. Locally call this beverage "ca phe sua da," which translates to Vietnamese drip coffee.

If we order a Vietnamese drip coffee locally, the shop will first place some creamy condensed milk in the cup, then set up a drip filter on top of the cup, pour in hot water, cover with a lid, and wait for the dark coffee liquid to naturally drip through. The barista will also thoughtfully provide you with a small spoon for stirring before drinking. The intense sweetness of condensed milk perfectly neutralizes the strong bitterness of Robusta black coffee, resulting in a milk coffee with coffee flavor and lactose sweetness.

Besides Vietnam in Southeast Asia, Spain in Europe also has the habit of "coffee + condensed milk" consumption. They like to call this coffee "Café Bombón." It's actually espresso coffee paired with condensed milk, presented in a miniature small cup.

FrontStreet Coffee has also recreated this beverage. Take a 90-120ml glass cup—the glass is for better presentation. Pour condensed milk in a 1:1 ratio to espresso coffee. For example, FrontStreet Coffee uses 40g of espresso liquid, so the added condensed milk would be 40g. Then pour the espresso over the condensed milk. Due to the higher density of condensed milk, without external force, the espresso has difficulty mixing with the condensed milk, forming a very beautiful "black and white combination." The taste is like "guilinggao with condensed milk"—much richer in texture than drinking pure espresso, and no longer bitter.

The "condensed milk addition" drinking method isn't limited to just these two varieties. In recent years, a "Spanish Latte" made with coffee + milk + condensed milk has also become a popular item on café menus. For example, the coffee chain Arabica has launched this popular coffee.

Is There a Difference Between Spanish Latte and Regular Latte?

Spanish Latte is composed of espresso coffee, fresh milk, and condensed milk—in other words, it's a regular latte with condensed milk added. The addition of condensed milk allows those who cannot accept bitterness to taste the rich coffee aroma.

Now that we know the difference between Spanish Latte and regular latte, the preparation becomes very simple. FrontStreet Coffee will first extract a 40ml espresso liquid, add 10g of condensed milk to the base and stir thoroughly, then froth 200ml of fresh milk to a suitable temperature of 55-65 degrees Celsius, and finally incorporate it into the coffee liquid—the Spanish Latte is complete. For making iced Spanish Latte, FrontStreet Coffee first adds 75g of solid ice cubes to the cup, pours in 200ml of cold milk, then adds 10g of condensed milk to the extracted espresso and drizzles it over the liquid surface. Before tasting, stir evenly with a straw.

Since FrontStreet Coffee's espresso coffee production uses their own roasted "Sunflower Warm Sun Blend," which is a combination of Ethiopian natural-processed red cherry coffee beans (30%) + Honduras whiskey barrel-aged coffee beans (70%). The extracted espresso presents flavors of vanilla, cream, whiskey, and berries. Paired with milk, it tastes like vanilla chocolate milk, and the addition of condensed milk highlights the sweetness of lactose and sucrose.

After stirring before drinking, the texture is extremely rich and smooth! And you can't taste any coffee bitterness at all. Essentially, there's not much difference from drip coffee—both use condensed milk to balance coffee's bitterness, only the coffee varieties and extraction methods are different.

However, not everyone can accept the intense sweetness of Café Bombón, so the Spanish Latte was developed, using milk as a buffer to make the condensed milk less overwhelmingly sweet. And because of the condensed milk, the entire latte gains a certain level of complexity—it can be said to be mutually complementary.

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