What's the Difference Between Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato? Should You Use Vanilla or Caramel Syrup to Make a Caramel Macchiato?

Because Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato differ by only two words, many people imagine Macchiato as simply a version of Caramel Macchiato. They believe Macchiato is just a sweet milk coffee without caramel!

Although almost no coffee shops offer Macchiato on their menus anymore, when you have the chance to order one, you'll discover that what the shop serves isn't the large, sweet milk coffee you imagined, but rather a small cup of coffee with an extremely rich flavor.

What the heck!!! Isn't this blatant deception?

Not really! Although Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato both share the name Macchiato, in a certain sense, they don't belong to the same category of coffee. So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share the differences between Macchiato and Caramel Macchiato!

Macchiato vs. Caramel Macchiato

Below are two espresso shots - one is normal, and one has a small amount of milk added. So, which one is the espresso with milk added?

The answer is the one on the left - it's hard to tell without looking closely! This is completely reasonable, as this is precisely why Macchiato was invented! In earlier times, due to poor quality coffee beans and the use of extremely dark roasting, the extracted coffee had an extremely intense bitter taste. This bitterness was strong and irritating - something many people couldn't accept! Therefore, some ingredients needed to be added to dilute the bitterness. And milk was the undeniable choice! The addition of a small amount of milk not only diluted the bitterness and softened the irritation, but most importantly, made the overall espresso smoother and easier to drink. So at that time, most people would ask the barista to add a little milk to their coffee to reduce the negative experience caused by bitterness.

But like the problem at the beginning, just adding a small amount of milk wouldn't significantly change the appearance of the coffee. In situations with extremely high order volumes, baristas simply didn't have time to carefully distinguish between them. Therefore, they came up with a solution - garnishing the surface of the espresso with a little milk foam to make the distinction.

This practice gradually became popular. To make it easier for customers to order, this espresso with a small amount of milk and a touch of milk foam was named "Macchiato"! Macchiato means "stain/mark" in Italian, making it a well-deserved name for a coffee marked with milk foam!

However, as the quality of beans improved, espresso no longer had that intense, stimulating bitterness, so the demand for Macchiato decreased day by day, and it was eventually removed from menus in major coffee shops, phased out of use.

The Rise of Caramel Macchiato

In the 1990s, a coffee called Caramel Macchiato appeared on the scene. You could say it's a sweet latte, made by adding vanilla syrup and caramel syrup to a latte base! Because caramel syrup is thick yet light, many coffee shops would use it with an art needle to create beautiful patterns, which made Caramel Macchiato popular worldwide for a time, becoming a renowned coffee product.

In reality, it has no relation to Macchiato at all. Macchiato is an espresso with a small amount of milk added, while Caramel Macchiato is a sweet latte with large amounts of syrup added. They're simply different coffees that use names with the same meaning! The "Macchiato" in Caramel Macchiato also means "mark," but due to the presence of caramel, its meaning was upgraded to "sweet mark."

How sweet is it? FrontStreet Coffee will use an analogy that will surely help everyone imagine directly:

As sweet as FrontStreet Coffee!! - END -

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473