What are the types and characteristics of espresso coffee? What kinds of espresso coffee exist? How do you make less common espresso milk coffee? What is red eye coffee?

Rare Espresso Drinks You'll Never Find in a Coffee Shop

Espresso is an enormous "coffee family." A single small shot can become a completely different drink with the addition of any number of ingredients, and when it comes to milk coffee, changing the amount of milk and the thickness of the foam creates entirely new drinks with personalities of their own.

Because the range is so vast, though, besides the well-known drinks on café menus, some coffees are rarely offered or simply never catch on. There are many reasons a shop skips them, but most come down to a fairly limited audience. We usually call these little-known drinks "niche" coffees.

Today FrontStreet Coffee will explore several niche espresso drinks you'll rarely, if ever, run into in a coffee shop. See how many you've tried.

I. Caffè Shakerato

In a recent article, FrontStreet Coffee shared how to make an iced salted mocha with a shaker, a method actually inspired by the Caffè Shakerato. Its history goes back to the 1990s, when baristas looking for something new combined cocktail technique with coffee preparation, and Caffè Shakerato was born.

The method and the ingredients are extremely simple: add a double shot of espresso and a suitable amount of ice to a shaker, shake vigorously until a rich foam forms, then pour into a glass and serve.

Because the melting ice dilutes the coffee's bitterness, it lacks the sharp intensity of a straight espresso (isn't that just a diluted iced Americano?). At the same time the thick foam gives the coffee a smooth texture. It is wonderfully refreshing and easy to drink. Some places even add sugar or spirits by default for a more distinctive, more palatable result.

II. Piccolo

Piccolo is a milk coffee. In Italian the word has two meanings: it literally means "small," and it also refers to the piccolo, a smaller member of the flute family. So this milk coffee can be called either a piccolo or a small latte.

As the name suggests, the cup isn't large. A traditional piccolo uses a 3-4 ounce cup made with 15-20ml of single espresso combined with 60-80ml of steamed milk topped with a thin layer of foam. The cup size and the ingredients are only about half those of a latte, so calling it a small latte fits. It's rarely seen on menus in China, but in Australia it is as popular as the flat white.

III. Coffee Cortado

Piccolo might be small, but there's another niche milk coffee just as small: the Cortado.

Cortado comes from Spain, and the name is derived from the Spanish "cortar," meaning "to cut." Compared with a piccolo, the coffee flavor is stronger, because it uses a 1:1 ratio of espresso to milk rather than the traditional latte approach. So even at the same cup size, a cortado tastes more like espresso tempered with a small amount of milk to cut the bitterness.

IV. Red Eye Coffee

Red eye coffee is a drink with explosive caffeine content. Why? Because it is built on a 1:4 ratio. That ratio doesn't refer to coffee and milk or coffee and water, but to the ratio of espresso to pour-over coffee. Sounds intimidating, doesn't it? Yet some people genuinely need a heavy dose of caffeine at once to fight off sleep, flight crews on red-eye flights among them.

Red-eye flights mean long overnight journeys, so crews need coffee this concentrated to stay alert and land safely. Because the flavor is extremely intense and the caffeine far beyond what ordinary life requires, this coffee is almost never found in cafés (and also because it doesn't taste good). You really have to make it at home. Beyond red eye coffee there are even more potent versions, but those are genuinely extreme.

V. Caffè Corretto

Caffè Corretto translates literally as "corrected coffee": an espresso with spirits added. It is very popular in Italy but rarely seen beyond its borders. The way it is served is a little unusual, because the barista doesn't prepare it and hand it over ready to drink. Instead, the ingredients are separated so customers can decide how much spirit to add themselves.

"Corretto" means "corrected" or "fixed" in Italian. In 20th-century Italy, when coffee prices climbed beyond what ordinary people could afford, they looked for coffee "alternatives" to satisfy their craving, such as roasting grains until nearly charcoal, grinding them and adding hot water. The idea was fine, but these "alternative coffees" didn't taste good. They were rather unpleasant. So people thought of adding strong, stimulating ingredients to adjust the flavor, and high-proof spirits were the perfect choice. The practice spread widely, and once coffee became affordable again, the same idea was applied to real coffee and named "Corretto."

VI. Flat Red

Flat White is one of the well-known stars of any coffee shop. But have you heard of another "colored coffee" called Flat Red?

FrontStreet Coffee has often noted that Flat Red is a Ukrainian "limited edition," rarely found anywhere else. Ukrainians love wine, so local coffee shops wanted to create an espresso drink that resembled wine in color and flavor yet contained no alcohol. Flat Red was born from that idea.

By adding fresh pomegranate and orange juice to espresso, it replicates the color and something close to the taste of wine. Flat Red's inventor, Vadym Granovskiy, said that at first he used juice from Sicilian blood oranges, but because blood orange juice has a certain astringency after extraction, he replaced it with a mix of orange juice and pomegranate juice.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Almost every drink on this list starts with a concentrated espresso base, and a milk-friendly blend makes all the difference. FrontStreet Classic Blend and FrontStreet Dark Cocoa Blend are the two essentials: the Classic is a Mamba-style recipe built for espresso and moka pots, delivering outstanding, fine crema that even a beginner can achieve on a basic home machine, while the Dark Cocoa uses 100% Arabica for generous crema and a full body at a friendly price.

For nutty latte-style drinks, FrontStreet Premium Blend and FrontStreet Dark Cocoa Blend are ideal, since Brazil dominates their recipes and brings out almond, walnut and creamy peanut notes with a smooth, silky entry. If you prefer a fruity milk coffee, FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Espresso Blend is a strong match, with an extremely low bitterness and a bright grape and blueberry profile that turns a latte or cappuccino into something closer to a strawberry milkshake.