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What?? So That's How These Coffee Names Came to Be!

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Espresso coffee serves as the essential life-giving elixir for office workers every day. Its taste and preparation methods have long been deeply ingrained in people's minds. But have you ever wondered, when ordering your coffee by name, about the origin of that particular coffee's name, or what story led to it earning that specific title?

The Fascinating Origins Behind Your Favorite Italian Coffee Names

Espresso coffee serves as the daily lifeblood for professionals, its flavor and preparation methods deeply ingrained in our culture. But have you ever wondered about the stories behind these coffee names when ordering them? What events led to their creation and naming?

Today, FrontStreet Coffee will share how these famous Italian coffees got their names~

Espresso

In the early 20th century, the first generation of espresso machines was invented during Europe's Industrial Revolution. People experienced for the first time how quickly coffee could be prepared. Although the precision of coffee machines back then couldn't compare to modern ones, whether in extraction speed or pressure, compared to other coffees requiring long steeping times, it truly deserved the title of "cheetah" in the coffee world.

Thus, people named this quickly prepared coffee "Espresso" (meaning "fast" in Italian).

Americano

During World War II, American soldiers visited Italian cafés for coffee. However, accustomed to the lighter concentration of drip (or steeped) coffee, they couldn't adapt to the intense bitterness of Italian espresso.

So they asked baristas to pour espresso into water for dilution. This diluted espresso became the American soldiers' special preference, and Italian cafés specifically named this water-diluted coffee "Americano."

Latte

I'm sure everyone is familiar with latte, but originally in Italian, "Latte" didn't refer to latte coffee but simply meant "milk." Later, Italian cafés in America created a drink mixing espresso with milk to cater to American tastes. Since this coffee contained a large proportion of milk, Italians called it "Coffee latte." However, people outside Italy, for convenience, began calling it simply "Latte."

If you had visited an Italian café in earlier times and ordered just "Latte" instead of "Coffee latte," they would most likely serve you a glass of pure milk, because to them, "Latte" always represents milk, not coffee.

Cappuccino

The name Cappuccino comes directly from the Italian word "Cappuccino." In Italian, it means "hood," while "Capuccin" refers to the Capuchin friars of the Catholic Order of Friars Minor. When these missionaries came to Italy, locals named the dark brown robes and small pointed hats worn by the clergy "Cappuccino." Cappuccino got this name because people discovered that after adding steamed milk to coffee, the resulting color resembled the Capuchin friars' robes, while the foam on top resembled their small pointed hats. Thus, this coffee was given the same name "Cappuccino."

(Fun fact: Cappuccino was actually born before latte appeared.)

Mocha Café

Today's special guest - "Mocha." Its name has three meanings. Originally, Mocha referred to a port city in Yemen - a place name. For several centuries starting from the 15th century, coffee beans from all surrounding countries needed to be exported through Mocha Port, making Mocha the button of the coffee world. To prove that coffee beans were exported from Mocha Port, burlap bags transporting coffee beans were specially marked with "Mocha." Europeans began calling coffee transported from Mocha Port "Mocha coffee." This is the second meaning of Mocha - a place name becoming a synonym for coffee. These coffee beans exported from Mocha were smaller in size, moderately acidic after dark roasting, with obvious sweet aftertaste, and carried a very rich chocolate flavor.

Until the 18th century, as regions around the world began growing their own coffee, Mocha Port lost its monopoly on coffee trade. Coupled with long-term Ottoman rule, Mocha coffee beans became scarce! To recreate the delicious taste from memory, people began using chocolate sauce to "season" espresso, transforming traditional espresso into coffee with "Mocha flavor." Thus, Mocha became widely popular as a special type of Italian coffee.

Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato

Originally, Macchiato meant "stain" or "mark." At that time, coffee bean quality was poor, and extracted espresso was very bitter. People couldn't handle the bitterness of espresso, so they asked baristas to add a little milk to balance the bitterness. When a small amount of milk was added, the color didn't change much and looked similar to pure espresso. To prevent confusion, baristas added a spoonful of foam on the surface as a marker.

However, as coffee bean quality improved, espresso no longer carried intense bitterness, replaced instead by rich, smooth flavor. People naturally no longer needed milk to dilute espresso, and Macchiato gradually declined with the improvement in coffee bean quality. By the 1990s, Caramel Macchiato appeared, carrying the Macchiato name. It wasn't meant to replace the declining Macchiato but rather as a completely new product. It had a new meaning - "sweet mark" or "sweet imprint." Because it uses caramel and vanilla syrup for seasoning, making it sweeter than the original coffee, it was prefixed with "caramel" and named Caramel Macchiato.

Flat White

Last century, Italians brought espresso to regions like Australia and New Zealand. The thick foam of Cappuccino and Latte didn't appeal to locals, so people began frothing milk thinner. When thin foam integrated into coffee, the surface became increasingly flat until forming a thin layer completely level with the cup rim, creating today's Flat White. "Flat" means "level," while "White" refers to milk coffee.

Flat White remained a relatively niche choice until Starbucks introduced it to their product system in 2015, naming it "馥芮白" and bringing it worldwide. Flat White transformed into one of the most popular coffee drinks in the mainstream coffee market. In China, this milk coffee from Oceania is usually called "澳白" (Australian White).

Dirty

"Dirty" means "unclean," which is why this coffee is called Dirty Coffee. The main reason people gave this coffee such a name is that when espresso gradually flows down from the upper surface, the brown color of espresso slowly seeps into the white milk below, like a white canvas being stained. Thus, people named it "Dirty" coffee.