An Article to Help You Understand the Origins of Espresso on the Coffee Shop Menu! What Are the Differences Between the Origins of Latte, Cappuccino, and Flat White?

The Origins of Popular Espresso Drinks

Coffee shop menus offer an incredibly rich variety of options. Just within the espresso category alone, there are dozens of different named products. Many of you may have already tasted these drinks and understand their flavor profiles. However, most people are unfamiliar with their origins! Today, FrontStreet Coffee will share how these frequently appearing espresso drinks on the menu were born and how they got their names.

Espresso

Espresso is the primary Italian coffee we should know, as it serves as the base for all Italian coffee beverages. Without it, popular drinks like lattes, americanos, and flat whites would be impossible to make.

In Italian, "Espresso" means "fast." Before the 20th century, coffee preparation was extremely time-consuming. To get a caffeine boost from coffee, one had to endure the lengthy preparation process. Clearly, some people couldn't tolerate this wait. Thus, in the early 20th century, driven by the European Industrial Revolution, the espresso machine was invented. For the first time, people experienced how quickly coffee could be prepared. Of course, at that time, neither the precision of coffee machines nor the pressure used during extraction could match modern machines, but for that era, it was as fast as a cheetah. Therefore, people named this quickly prepared coffee "Espresso," meaning "very fast." After the invention of the coffee machine, espresso consumption quickly became popular, and cafés opened throughout Italy where people could enjoy the delicious taste of espresso.

Americano

Fast forward to World War II, when American soldiers visited an Italian café for coffee. Unexpectedly, the espresso served was too strong and concentrated, completely different from the instant coffee they usually drank. This made it impossible for them to accept such strong, bitter coffee.

So, they asked the café to pour the espresso into water to dilute its concentration. The diluted coffee became popular among the American soldiers—it was much better tasting than instant coffee! Gradually, more and more American soldiers requested espresso with water, and to make ordering more convenient, cafés began calling this water-diluted espresso "Americano."

Cappuccino

Cappuccino and latte both belong to the category of milk coffee (espresso with milk), but because latte is so famous, people often mistakenly think that lattes came before cappuccinos. In reality, cappuccino was born first.

Cappuccino is a direct translation from the Italian word "Cappuccino," which means "hood" or "cap." When people first tried adding steamed milk to coffee, they discovered that the mixed color was very similar to the robes of the Capuchin friars. The way the milk foam stood on the coffee resembled the hoods on their robes. Therefore, people named this espresso drink with steamed milk "Cappuccino," after the hood-like appearance.

Latte

Latte is arguably the most popular milk coffee, without question. In Italian, "Latte" means milk. Since it contains a very large amount of milk, Italians called this coffee with lots of milk "Coffee Latte"! However, people outside Italy, for convenience, began abbreviating it to "Latte," and the name has stuck to this day! But be aware—if you visit an Italian café and want to order a latte by simply saying "Latte," you're very likely to receive a glass of milk instead!

Mocha Café

Initially, Mocha referred to the port city of "Mocha" in Yemen. For over 300 years since the 17th century, the Port of Mocha served as an important hub for coffee trade. Almost all coffee worldwide passed through the Port of Mocha for trade. To prove that the coffee beans came legitimately from the Port of Mocha, each bag transported from here was stamped with "Mocha" to certify its origin! However, as coffee cultivation began around the world, the Port of Mocha gradually lost its dominance in coffee trade. Coupled with the rule of the Ottoman Empire, coffee beans produced in Mocha became scarce, and people could no longer easily enjoy Mocha coffee. So, to taste the remembered deliciousness again, people used chocolate to imitate the chocolate notes of Mocha coffee, and thus "Mocha Café" was born.

Macchiato

"Macchiato" means "marked" or "stained" in Italian. Before the concept of specialty coffee emerged, coffee didn't taste as good as what we're familiar with today, which left many people feeling bitter after drinking it! So, people started adding a little milk to balance out the bitterness. However, adding a small amount of milk didn't create a significant visual change, making it difficult for baristas to determine whether milk had been added to the espresso. To prevent confusion, baristas would add a small dollop of milk foam on top of this espresso with a little milk, using the foam as a mark. That's how Macchiato got its name!

But as coffee gradually became more specialized, its flavor was no longer "just bitter." High-quality coffee covered the bitterness with aroma, sweetness, and richness. Therefore, people gradually no longer needed to add milk to balance the bitterness, and Macchiato faded from people's view!

Caramel Macchiato

Years later, a coffee called "Caramel Macchiato" appeared on the market! However, it wasn't a derivative of Macchiato but a completely new fancy coffee. It's made by adding caramel, vanilla syrup, and other ingredients to a latte base! So we can see that it only borrowed the meaning of Macchiato, not the preparation method! After adding various syrups, the entire coffee became very sweet, thus transforming its meaning into "sweet mark" (Caramel Macchiato)!

Flat White

Australians generally prefer stronger-tasting coffee, but traditional Italian coffee dilutes the concentration too much, obviously unable to satisfy their "heavy" preferences. So they developed their own concentrated coffee products to meet their needs. For example, the "Long Black" that FrontStreet Coffee often shares is a stronger version of Americano. And "Flat White" is the concentrated version of milk coffee.

Although traditional Italian coffee already had strong milk coffee like cappuccino, for Australians, the overly thick, dense milk foam wasn't the texture they wanted to experience. So, after increasing the concentration and flattening the milk foam, "Flat White" was born!

Dirty

Dirty can be said to be the only coffee in this article that was an iced drink from its inception. It was created by Mr. Katsuyuki Tanaka from Japan. According to Mr. Tanaka's description in his book, the core of Dirty coffee lies in the combination of iced milk and hot espresso. Iced milk has a very noticeable sweet sensation, which pairs with the extremely rich texture and intense coffee flavor of hot espresso. Although the contrast between the two is significant, it's not jarring!

When the iced milk completely catches the hot espresso, the gradual descent of the espresso resembles the trail of tears shed by an angel. So, Mr. Tanaka named it "Angel Stain," and when it was introduced to China, it gradually evolved into "Dirty"!

Conclusion

These are some of the more common Italian coffees you'll find on coffee shop menus! When we understand their origins, we can better appreciate their wonderful qualities while enjoying them!

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