What Are the Main Types of Coffee Drinks? The Differences Between Americano, Latte, Cappuccino, and Mocha

With international specialty coffee brands like Starbucks and Costa opening direct stores in China, a coffee craze has swept across the country. Numerous merchants are continuously innovating coffee beverages. Besides premium specialty coffee, instant coffee and coffee drinks remain highly popular among consumers. So what are the main categories of coffee beverages today, and how do they taste? FrontStreet Coffee will give you a brief introduction.

Americano

Americano is a type of black coffee made from espresso concentrate + water, without any other additives. During World War II, coffee was extremely popular in the US military. Americans found espresso too bitter, so they diluted it with water to reach a concentration they could accept. Later, Italians who opened cafes in America also "adapted to local customs" by introducing this "watered-down coffee" based on espresso, which became widely popular.

There's no fixed ratio for Americano; each shop has its own standards to showcase the coffee's flavor profile. Following FrontStreet Coffee's multiple experimental tests at a 1:6 ratio, pour 40g of espresso into 240g of 88°C hot water to make hot Americano. For iced Americano, replace hot water with 120g of ice cubes and 120g of room temperature water, best enjoyed before the ice melts completely. FrontStreet Coffee's iced Americano presents rich whiskey aromas, berry sweetness and acidity, with a refreshing clean finish, making it especially popular at the Guangzhou stores during hot weather; hot Americano emphasizes roasted nuts, chocolate richness, tropical fruit fermentation acidity, with a vanilla aftertaste.

Latte

About 60% of coffee beverages on the market are marketed as latte, mainly because latte is more acceptable to Chinese consumers since it uses sweet milk as a base with added espresso, making it approachable even for those not accustomed to coffee.

Latte ingredients are simple, requiring only espresso and milk, with no fixed ratio, typically between 1:5 to 1:8. FrontStreet Coffee uses a 1:6 ratio: 40g espresso with 240g milk. When making hot latte, FrontStreet Coffee adds espresso to a pre-warmed coffee cup, then steams milk using an espresso machine's steam wand, controlling milk temperature between 55-65°C to create fine, appropriately thick foam, then evenly incorporating it with the espresso. The final latte art is the finishing touch. FrontStreet Coffee's hot latte presents liqueur-filled chocolate sweetness, cream-like smoothness. FrontStreet Coffee's iced latte starts with 75g of ice cubes + 25ml of fresh milk, then extracts 40g of espresso poured over the top, reminding customers to stir thoroughly before drinking.

Cappuccino

Like latte, cappuccino consists only of milk and coffee, with a very fine, rich layer of foam on top. Traditional cappuccino typically follows a ratio of espresso, milk, and foam at 1:1:1, but cappuccino made to this standard would have very high concentration with foam so thick that the coffee becomes difficult to drink. The biggest difference between cappuccino and latte is that cappuccino's essence lies in the fine foam providing a full, delicate texture, with foam and espresso blended together until the cup is filled to the brim (11/10 full).

FrontStreet Coffee's cappuccino focuses on ensuring small cup size (180ml), brim-full (11/10), strong coffee flavor, and fine thick foam. That means using double espresso as base, steaming 150ml of milk into thick foam and incorporating it. FrontStreet Coffee's cappuccino tastes like rich chocolate milk, with the fine foam adding significant texture to the coffee.

Flat White

Flat White, also called "Australian White" or "Flat White," is a product created by Australians modifying the proportions of hot latte, mainly with two differences.

Flat White uses a base called Ristretto. Australians wanted to taste milk-based coffee with stronger coffee flavor, believing that the latter part of espresso would "dilute" the coffee taste, so they only take the early to middle part of the espresso, "restricting" the latter part, hence called Ristretto. When drinking Flat White, it's easy to notice that its cup size is smaller than hot latte. With reduced espresso volume, it's difficult to highlight coffee flavor when mixed with the same amount of milk as latte, so the proportion of hot milk is also reduced, creating hot milk with thin foam, evenly incorporated without thick foam layers, with coffee typically level with the cup rim, thus called "Flat White," also translated as "Flat White" - Flat means "flat," White refers to white coffee with added milk.

FrontStreet Coffee's Flat White typically uses 20g of coffee grounds to extract double ristretto (about 30g), poured into a 200ml cup as base, with milk ratio of 1:5, meaning 150ml of hot milk, with foam as thin as possible to highlight the rich coffee flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's Flat White not only carries whiskey aromas, cream, and vanilla flavors but also has berry-like acidity, presenting full coffee aromatics.

Mocha

Besides the above "basic" espresso coffees that only add water and milk, different flavored syrups can be added, such as the very popular mocha coffee named after the coffee origin Mocha. Classic mocha coffee has rich dark cocoa aromas, and Italian mocha coffee adds chocolate sauce/powder/blocks to highlight this characteristic. When making hot mocha coffee, FrontStreet Coffee adds 15g of chocolate sauce to espresso, mixes thoroughly, then incorporates steamed hot milk with latte art, finally sprinkling cocoa powder on top to enhance chocolate aroma and texture. Iced mocha is made by adding 15g of chocolate sauce to the espresso concentrate in iced latte.

Pour-Over Coffee

Pour-over coffee first grinds coffee beans into powder, then evenly pours hot water over the grounds to "dissolve" substances from the coffee. Essentially, it uses a pour-over cone with filter paper or other tools to filter coffee grounds, preventing them from entering the lower pot, resulting in a cup of clear-tasting black coffee. Many types of coffee beans are suitable for pour-over coffee. Different varieties, origins, and processing methods, combined with the brewer's understanding and adjustment of parameters, produce more or less variation in coffee flavor characteristics, allowing tasters to experience coffee's purest aromas. Like the dozens of single-origin coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's menu, all can be extracted using pour-over methods.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473