Home Cappuccino Recipe Tutorial - How to Make Cappuccino? Milk Frother & French Press Methods

Cappuccino, which originated in the 1930s, is a blend of espresso, milk, and milk foam. Its exotic name is eye-catching, and its rich aroma and delicate, smooth texture have captured many hearts. While commonly found in various coffee shops today, FrontStreet Coffee will now share a method for easily making cappuccino coffee at home!

What Are the Characteristics of Cappuccino?

Traditional cappuccino coffee is made by mixing 1 part espresso with 2 parts steamed milk, where the steamed milk consists of both milk and milk foam. The ratio described on paper is 1:1, but in many current situations, the amount of milk is slightly more than the amount of foam. In "Latte Art," cappuccino is described as: [The foam of cappuccino has a cream-like effect, at a comfortable temperature between 60-65°C, with its full and comfortable texture caressing the taste buds.]

From this, we can identify several characteristics of cappuccino coffee: ① The coffee flavor should be rich and not masked by the milk flavor; ② The foam should be delicate and thick, providing a full texture; ③ The temperature should be between 60-65°C for a comfortable drinking experience.

Tips for Making Cappuccino at Home

Most households are rarely equipped with specialized coffee machines like those in coffee shops. Therefore, we need to find alternative ways to make cappuccino coffee using other easily accessible tools. FrontStreet Coffee's approach is to break down the espresso and steamed milk components, tackling them step by step.

Espresso

You can make rich black coffee with crema without an espresso machine, and the Moka pot is undoubtedly the best choice. The Moka pot also originates from Italy. If the espresso machine is the standard equipment for Italian coffee shops, then the Moka pot is the standard for Italian households. Making coffee with a Moka pot is very simple. For details, you can refer to the previous article "Barista Training Guide | How to Use a Moka Pot to Brew Coffee."

For coffee users in China, the popularity of Moka pots is not very high. For this part, we can also use pour-over methods. There are several points to note when choosing coffee beans: try to use some medium-dark roast coffee beans, as they won't be easily overpowered when mixed with milk, and coffee brewed from medium-dark roast beans will have a fuller texture. Here, FrontStreet Coffee uses the Sunflower Warm Sun Blend (Sherry and Yirgacheffe) coffee beans.

In brewing, we borrowed principles from the Matsuya style, aiming to extract a relatively complete high-concentration coffee liquid. If possible, you can use flannel as a filtering tool, which will result in higher coffee concentration. If not available, you can use a filter cup with filter paper. Choose a filter cup with a slower water flow rate. FrontStreet Coffee used a KONO filter cup this time.

Use 20g of coffee powder, with a grind size of 80% passing through a #20 standard sieve (finer than normal pour-over for medium-dark roast coffee). The powder-to-liquid ratio is 1:4, meaning we ultimately extract 80ml of coffee liquid, with water temperature at 90°C.

For brewing, first pour 30ml of hot water for blooming for 3 minutes. Medium-dark roast coffee powder absorbs water well, and pouring 1.5 times the amount of water minimizes coffee liquid loss during the blooming process. Since we're only extracting the first part of the coffee, we don't need to worry about the bitterness that might come from extended blooming. Keep the water kettle insulated during blooming to maintain the water temperature at 90°C. After the time is up, directly pour water from the center outward in a circular motion. Remove the filter cup when 80ml of coffee liquid is collected, and then our required espresso is ready.

Steamed Milk Foam

Without the steam wand that comes with an espresso machine for heating and frothing, making milk foam is indeed less convenient. However, there are always many solutions. For example, electric milk frothers or milk frothing pots. The former creates a vortex to inject air into the milk for frothing, while the latter uses repeated pulling of a metal mesh to generate gas inside the milk, creating delicate milk foam.

Electric milk frother (left), manual milk frothing pot (right)
Image from enthusiastic netizens

Of course, the versatile French press can also be used to froth milk, with the same principle as the milk frothing pot. First, heat the milk to 65°C. You can use a microwave, a flat-bottomed pan, or even steam it over water. Then pour the milk into the French press and pump the plunger up and down for about 30 seconds. When the milk volume has expanded by 1/2, it's done. If there are larger bubbles on the surface, you can use a spoon to scrape them off.

Then you can fully mix the coffee with steamed milk and even create simple latte art patterns. First, add a small amount of milk to mix with the coffee, and then proceed with the usual method to create patterns. This way, a homemade cappuccino coffee is complete!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473