What's the difference between Caramel Macchiato and Latte? Is Caramel Macchiato coffee? How to make Caramel Macchiato?

What is a Caramel Macchiato?

First mix vanilla syrup with espresso, then add steamed milk with frothed foam, and finally drizzle caramel sauce on the surface of the white, dense milk foam, creating a pattern. This is the distinctive milk coffee—Caramel Macchiato—launched by a globally renowned coffee chain in the 1990s. (Essentially, it's a latte with syrup and no latte art)

With its sweet taste and exquisite caramel sauce patterns (the above image is for reference only), the Caramel Macchiato once became a globally popular coffee beverage alongside lattes, mochas, and cappuccinos. Whether in offline coffee shops or online movies and TV shows, we could frequently see it. However, as times have changed, we rarely see this product in coffee shops nowadays. Just yesterday, a friend was complaining about this situation at FrontStreet Coffee's storefront. But don't worry, making a Caramel Macchiato is still very simple! As long as you have all the ingredients ready, we can easily recreate the delicious taste at home. So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share with everyone how to make a standard Caramel Macchiato!

The Difference Between Caramel Macchiato and Traditional Macchiato

However, we need to know that because the name "Caramel Macchiato" is the same as another Italian coffee Macchiato, many people often mistakenly believe that Caramel Macchiato (abbreviated as "Caramel Mac") is a variation of Macchiato. But for friends who often follow FrontStreet Coffee's posts, they know that the similarity between the two is only in name. Whether in terms of texture or taste, the "inner character" of these two coffees can be said to be completely different.

Macchiato was born in Italian coffee houses in the 1980s. FrontStreet Coffee shared in the article "Why Italians Don't Drink Pour-Over Coffee" that since the invention of pressure-driven coffee machines, espresso has become Italians' favorite. As we all know, because espresso has a very high concentration, its taste is concentrated and intense, not a beverage that most people can accept.

And Italians' preference for espresso goes beyond this; they have higher requirements for espresso, which FrontStreet Coffee refers to in terms of taste. Therefore, in Italy, coffee beans used for making espresso are often blended with Robusta and roasted darker, which allows the extracted coffee to have a more intense flavor. But not everyone can accept such strong coffee from the beginning, so some people will ask the barista to add a small amount of milk to the espresso to balance the bitterness of the coffee. However, because the amount of milk added is not much, it doesn't look much different from regular espresso in appearance. To prevent confusion in service, baristas use milk foam to make a mark on the espresso with added milk.

Through this mark, baristas could distinguish it from regular espresso. And this is the origin of the name Macchiato—in Italian, Macchiato means "mark, imprint."

And what happened afterward is just as FrontStreet Coffee shared at the beginning—in the 1990s, a product called "Caramel Macchiato" emerged. Just looking at the introductions of the two, it's not hard to discover that one is espresso with a small amount of milk, while the other is a "latte" with various syrups added—completely different concepts. Therefore, except for the similarity in name, Caramel Macchiato and Macchiato have almost no other similarities. But it's undeniable that Caramel Macchiato is still very delicious. Because it's drizzled with a layer of caramel sauce on the surface, when you first taste it, what you often encounter is the sweetness of the caramel sauce, followed by the creaminess of the milk foam, and finally the vanilla-flavored milk coffee—the layers can be said to be very rich. Caramel Macchiato is therefore often called "coffee in a sugar coat." Alright, without further ado, let FrontStreet Coffee share how to make the classic version of Caramel Macchiato~

How to Make a Caramel Macchiato?

The main ingredients for making Caramel Macchiato are four types: espresso, milk, vanilla syrup, and caramel sauce. It should be noted here that the caramel sauce cannot be too viscous; it needs to have some fluidity, but of course, it's not completely liquid syrup either.

First, we need to extract the espresso! For this extraction, FrontStreet Coffee used the coffee beans from "Frontsteet Classic Blend" in the bean list, with parameters of 20g of coffee grounds, extracting 40ml of coffee liquid in 30 seconds.

After the coffee liquid is extracted, we set it aside, and then start frothing the milk foam. Here FrontStreet Coffee will use 200ml of milk. Because the milk foam will later need to hold the caramel sauce, when frothing, we can create slightly more foam, with a thickness that can be a little thicker than regular latte foam.

After frothing is complete, we can begin the "assembly" of the Caramel Macchiato! Step one: First pour 12ml of vanilla syrup and the frothed milk into the prepared cup. Here, the milk can be filled directly to the brim of the cup.

Then, we pour the espresso from the middle! This method of pouring espresso afterward makes the overall appearance more aesthetically pleasing, but it has a drawback—when tasting, it's best to stir evenly with a spoon before drinking.

After pouring the espresso, we can immediately start drizzling the caramel sauce! The caramel sauce can be properly refrigerated before use, which reduces its fluidity and makes it easier to create patterns!

Here FrontStreet Coffee drew a simple pattern. When the pattern is complete, the making of the Caramel Macchiato can be declared successfully finished.

The taste and texture are exactly as FrontStreet Coffee introduced earlier, so I won't elaborate further here. Besides these simple patterns, there are also many very complex and beautiful fancy patterns. Not only that, but Caramel Macchiato also has other versions, which FrontStreet Coffee has shared in previous articles, so I won't introduce them too much here~

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