Café au Lait vs Latte: What's the Difference? How to Make French Milk Coffee? What Does "Au Lait" Mean in French?

When we mention "milk coffee," FrontStreet Coffee believes that most people immediately envision various combinations of espresso and milk. After all, espresso-based milk coffee has a long history and has been deeply ingrained in our minds due to its widespread popularity.

However, milk coffee is not limited to just espresso-based varieties. Long before espresso was invented or became popular, a milk coffee made from black coffee and milk had already been风靡 in Europe for a considerable time. Although it's less intense than espresso-based milk coffee in various aspects, it possesses its own unique charm. And that is the protagonist of FrontStreet Coffee's article today—Café Au Lait.

What is Café Au Lait?

Café Au Lait is a phonetic translation from French, where "Lait" means milk, making the literal translation "milk coffee." In 17th-18th century France, Café Au Lait was extremely popular due to its simple preparation method, making it almost an essential part of every household's breakfast table. At that time, convenient coffee brewing methods like pour-over had not yet been invented, so people used very traditional steeping and immersion methods to make coffee. The former involved continuously pouring hot water over coffee grounds to extract coffee liquid, while the latter is the familiar immersion extraction (directly steeping coffee grounds in boiling water or boiling coffee grounds with water, then filtering through flannel cloth). After obtaining the coffee liquid, they would mix it with an equal proportion of milk, and a French milk coffee was complete.

Interestingly, neighboring countries Austria and Hungary also developed similar milk coffee products during the same period. Austria, in particular, has the well-known story of Blue Bottle founder Kolschitzky (who founded Blue Bottle with his military rewards and pioneered adding milk to coffee, earning him the title "father of milk coffee"). FrontStreet Coffee won't elaborate further here, or perhaps we'll explore this story in detail in another article. But the Café Au Lait we know today is more of a Japanese-improved version, as the original was considered too light. When Café Au Lait preparation was brought back to Japan, it was immediately improved. From increasing coffee concentration to adjusting proportions, Café Au Lait became richer and smoother.

FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Japanese Café Au Lait Recipe

FrontStreet Coffee believes that many friends have already tried making Café Au Lait. While unsure about everyone's results, feedback from customers visiting the shop reveals that most homemade Café Au Lait doesn't turn out well! Either the coffee flavor isn't prominent enough, or it tastes too watery and thin, lacking any depth of flavor. Don't worry—today FrontStreet Coffee will share how to make classic Japanese Café Au Lait. This method produces a Café Au Lait with prominent flavor and a full-bodied texture that's delicious and should suit you perfectly! So first, let's understand what makes Café Au Lait delicious.

Prerequisite: Coffee Bean Selection

Since the coffee base used in Café Au Lait isn't as concentrated as espresso, if we choose coffee beans with weak flavor profiles or predominantly fresh and bright characteristics, the coffee taste will easily be masked by milk. Therefore, when selecting coffee beans, we should pick those with strong flavors or darker roasts.

Dark roasted coffee beans will have more caramelized aromas and a fuller mouthfeel that can stand up to milk's flavor. Examples that FrontStreet Coffee often mentions, such as Indonesia's Golden Mandheling and Brazil's Queen Estate Farm, are excellent "candidates" for this case; if you prefer less bitterness, you can choose slightly lighter roasted but flavor-forward coffee beans, typically those with deeper fermentation during processing. For example, Costa Rica's Mozart, with its raisin honey processing, not only has prominent flavors but also high sweetness, making it resistant to being masked by milk while complementing milk's flavor perfectly. These are just examples—feel free to use similar types of coffee beans. Without further ado, let's begin today's sharing!

The entire process of making classic Japanese Café Au Lait is extremely simple, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier—just extract a high-concentration pour-over coffee and mix it with an equal proportion of milk. The coffee beans used this time are the Costa Rica Mozart mentioned above, with parameters as follows:

Coffee amount: 20g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:10 (total water 200ml)
Grind size: 85% pass-through rate on #20 sieve, EK43 setting 9 (slightly finer than regular hot brew)
Water temperature: 92°C
Dripper: V60
Milk: 160ml at 60°C

As usual, we first start with a 30-second bloom using twice the coffee weight in water (40ml);

After the bloom ends, pour 80ml of hot water from center outward in a circular motion, using a small water flow to extend the extraction time as much as possible;

When the hot water has fully penetrated, we continue using a small water flow to pour the remaining 80ml of hot water, this time focusing on circular motion around the center of the coffee bed; once the water has completely penetrated, set the coffee aside (extraction time: 2 minutes 5 seconds).

Next, we heat the milk to around 60°C, just enough to activate the sweetness of lactose.

When heating is complete, following the classic Japanese Café Au Lait method, we proceed to the final step: pour the milk and coffee together from a height, as shown below:

It's claimed that this step makes the coffee taste smoother (like Hong Kong milk tea, "knocking out" the smooth texture) and the resulting foam enhances the coffee's mouthfeel, creating more complex layers. When we finish making it, we can taste and enjoy it.

With the first sip, you first experience the dense foam texture, followed immediately by the coffee itself. Mozart's inherent flavor characteristics are very prominent, and after combining with milk, FrontStreet Coffee detects aromas of: sweet orange, osmanthus, raisins, and a subtle fermented fragrance. The sweetness is abundant and harmonizes perfectly with milk. The mouthfeel isn't thin but not overly rich either—it feels very smooth and silky. It... does indeed resemble Hong Kong milk tea (in terms of mouthfeel). No joke, you should really try this. For friends who don't want to drink plain black coffee but find espresso-based milk coffee too heavy, Café Au Lait is truly an excellent choice!

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