How to Make Traditional Mocha Coffee? What's the Difference Between Latte and Mokha? Should Hot Mocha Be Latte Art?

Recently, more friends have been visiting FrontStreet Coffee's stores to inquire about Mocha coffee. Unfortunately, this product has been removed from FrontStreet Coffee's menu, so these friends have been disappointed. "Since we can't buy it outside, let's make it ourselves." Most friends have embraced this idea and returned home to make Mocha coffee.

Unexpectedly, the Mocha coffee they made didn't quite meet their expectations - either the chocolate flavor wasn't strong enough, or it had flavor but was overly sweet. So they contacted FrontStreet Coffee through our backend, wanting a secret recipe for Mocha coffee. Today's Mocha coffee refers to an espresso-based milk coffee with added chocolate, mimicking the Mocha coffee from Yemen that has rich chocolate flavor (for details, you can check "What is Mocha Coffee?"). Most Mocha coffee uses chocolate sauce for preparation because it's convenient and quick - no need to wait for chocolate to melt before using! However, what you need to know is that although chocolate sauce is convenient, it's precisely why most friends can't make good Mocha coffee.

Because chocolate itself has a very intense bitterness, most popular chocolate sauce products on the market add a large amount of sugar during production to balance out the bitterness and make it more palatable. But since sugar and chocolate are already fused together, we cannot separate them to adjust the ratio individually. This means that when the chocolate flavor isn't strong enough, if you choose to add more chocolate sauce, although the chocolate flavor will increase, the sweetness will also increase dramatically. Therefore, most coffee shops don't just use chocolate sauce to make Mocha coffee; they also add other "seasonings" to make Mocha coffee palatable (not bitter) while maintaining its essence (chocolate flavor). Many friends, being new to this, haven't recognized the drawbacks of chocolate sauce, so they only use chocolate sauce when making Mocha coffee! That's okay - next, FrontStreet Coffee will share how to make a delicious Mocha coffee!

How to Make Delicious Mocha Coffee?

As mentioned earlier, Mocha coffee is simply a chocolate-flavored espresso milk coffee. So what we need to do is very simple: ensure a milk coffee has enough chocolate concentration (flavor) while keeping the sugar proportion moderate - just enough to balance the bitterness! Similarly, we'll still use chocolate sauce to make Mocha coffee because its sweetness and chocolate will blend more naturally, without too much jarring sensation. But in addition to chocolate sauce, FrontStreet Coffee will also use other ingredients to increase chocolate concentration: unsweetened cocoa powder.

Unsweetened cocoa powder not only brings richer flavor to the coffee but also significantly enhances the body, and because it contains no sugar, it won't increase sweetness. Therefore, it's the best choice for increasing chocolate concentration (melted dark chocolate would also work, but requires more steps and time). Alright, without further ado, let's start making delicious Mocha!

How to Make Hot Mocha Coffee?

Since there are slight differences between making hot and iced Mocha, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce them separately! The items and materials needed for making hot Mocha include: 1 coffee cup, 1 mixing cup/bowl (optional), 1 strainer (optional), 1 portion of milk, 1 portion of espresso, chocolate sauce, and cocoa powder.

Step 1: Make the Chocolate Espresso Base

First, let's make the chocolate espresso base! Add 15ml of chocolate sauce (Da Vinci brand) and 5g of unsweetened cocoa powder (Valrhona brand) to the mixing cup. Because after multiple tests by FrontStreet Coffee, the chocolate paste made with this ratio not only has appropriate sweetness but also extremely rich chocolate flavor! Of course, friends who prefer sweeter drinks can slightly increase the amount of chocolate sauce to 20ml.

Then we extract a shot of espresso into the mixing cup, using the heat from the espresso combined with stirring to melt and blend the chocolate sauce and cocoa powder. (Today's extraction parameters used by FrontStreet Coffee: 19.8g of coffee grounds, extracted for 28 seconds, yielding 38ml of liquid!)

Step 2: Filter Unmelted Cocoa Powder

After stirring, we can pour it into the latte cup! It's best to use a strainer when pouring to filter out any incompletely melted chocolate powder, as they will clump together into larger chunks. Filtering will make the drinking experience smoother! (This is why we need two cups - if you don't plan to strain, you can make it directly in the latte cup)

Step 3: Sprinkle a Small Amount of Cocoa Powder on the Surface

If you have a sieve, you can use it to sprinkle some cocoa powder on the surface of this chocolate espresso base, which will make the finished Mocha coffee emit a more enticing chocolate aroma. (This step is optional)

Step 4: Froth the Milk

Just like making a hot latte, the milk for hot Mocha also needs to be frothed to 65°C to activate the sweetness of lactose. Meanwhile, the milk foam will make the texture creamier. Therefore, the milk frothing steps are completely consistent with making a latte! Froth to 60-68°C with thin microfoam.

The ratio of milk to coffee is 1:4, meaning 50ml of base should be paired with 200ml of milk.

Step 5: Combine

After frothing, we can start combining! Friends who want to do latte art should note that because this base is quite thick, its flowability isn't high initially. We need to use more milk to combine and increase the surface flowability to create beautiful latte art~ (It's worth mentioning that Mocha is actually easier to create latte art on than latte)

At this point, a delicious Mocha coffee is complete! It not only offers a great visual experience but also tastes extremely pleasant. The rich, sweet chocolate combined with the whiskey aroma and butter cookie notes from the Warm Sun blend creates a liquor-filled chocolate flavor. Additionally, the presence of red cherries adds a subtle berry aroma, creating a very rich layering of flavors!!!

How to Make Iced Mocha Coffee?

For iced Mocha, since we need to use ice cubes for cooling, we'll sacrifice some milk to make room for the ice. When the ice melts, it will dilute the overall concentration, resulting in a thinner taste. Therefore, we need to increase the ingredients in the chocolate base - increasing the original 15ml of chocolate sauce to 20ml, and the unsweetened cocoa powder from the original 5g to 8g. By increasing the chocolate concentration, we can correct the texture! The chocolate coffee base preparation process is the same as for hot Mocha, and the rest is just combining the ingredients! Add ice cubes (90g) and milk (160ml) to the prepared cup in sequence, and finally drizzle the chocolate coffee base on top, and you're done! (You can also first coat the glass with chocolate sauce, which looks more beautiful for glass cups)

Remember to stir before drinking to better mix the milk and chocolate coffee! If conditions allow, we can also add cream, milk foam, or other toppings to the surface to make the iced Mocha coffee more layered and even more delicious!

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473