what is the difference between coffee, espresso, latte, etc?

[Coffee Guy]

Hey what happened? I'm not a guest...Oops! I forgot to log in Let's reenter my comment...

Well you know, where's there's smoke, there's fire...Hopefully not in the roaster :twisted:

Okay I feel better now :shock:

 

[~Velvet Darkness~]

Coffee, latte, or espresso? It is all about how much time you have and how jolted you want to become. :lol:

...but of course, as we all probably know and have said...

"The lighter the bean, the more caffeine."

 

[RichBrew]

Re: what is the difference between coffee, espresso, latte,

HI i want to know the difference between coffee, espresso, latte, mocha, etc. Can anyone explain me the difference?
Thanks

Thank you Coffeeee :grin: This is a question I wanted to ask someone for a long time. This has really helped me. I am just trying to learn about coffee, beans, blends, brewing etc. Sort of a coffee newbie(not to drinkin coffee though )

 

[CoffeeGod]

I'm not sure if this matters, but I read that when making a latte, that the steamed milk should be first poured into the cup, then the expresso poured over the milk without stirring the two togeather. Is that right?

 

[susmand]

MikeTheBike: If I remember my chemistry right, a cup of drip contains more caffeine because it sits in water as it brews, extracting more caffeine than espresso which has water forced thru it.

 

[sanantonio]

Excellent explanation Topher ! I was wondering if there´s a name for expresso and cream ( not whipped )? Thanks

 

[topher]

Its ESpresso :wink:
Macchiato:
An Espresso with a dollop of steamed milk foam on top

 

[ralphshade]

Re: Espresso, drip, mocha, latte

One thing the coffee guy left out about the difference between espresso and drip is the roasting process. :shock:

Well, no-not really. None of my espresso blends are made with coffees that are roasted any differently than my other blends. In fact, they all work well as drip coffee, as well as espresso.

 

[CJ Paul]

OK guys. As a total newbie, I am still having a few quesitions. Is the ONLY difference between a Latte and a Cappucino, whether you put foamed milk on top? Do you guys have any other resources for actually making a Latte or Cappucino? It seems like we have the basic ingrediants, but not the recipe. I could say that Beef stew is beef, carrots, potatoes, tomatos, salt, pepper, etc. but you just dont throw them all in a bowl together and get stew. Can us newbs get some more detail?

Thanks,
CJ

 

[ralphshade]

OK guys. As a total newbie, I am still having a few quesitions. Is the ONLY difference between a Latte and a Cappucino, whether you put foamed milk on top? Do you guys have any other resources for actually making a Latte or Cappucino? It seems like we have the basic ingrediants, but not the recipe. I could say that Beef stew is beef, carrots, potatoes, tomatos, salt, pepper, etc. but you just dont throw them all in a bowl together and get stew. Can us newbs get some more detail?

Thanks,
CJ

You're right, there is definitely more to it than the ingredients. What you're looking for is method. There is more to it than can be easily be put into a simple message, though. There are numerous books out there that can tell you about technique and methodology. "Coffee" by Ken Davids is the first that comes to mind. There's probably a an entire shlef of books on the subject at your local bookstore. The best way to learn, however, is practice. If you have the time, you could even try taking a job at your local cafe. you can also check out this forums sister site, espressoforums.com. A word of warning, though-discussion can get a little heated.

 

[nzroaster]

I cant believe as coffee funatics you are drinking drip coffee.

Personally I believe that the french press produces the best cup, and most jolt!!! Hey, its only 5 minutes.

Either way, as long as its good coffee you cant go wrong


DONT SEND ME MORE HATE MAIL !!!

 

[ralphshade]

French Press vs. Drip vs. Espresso vs. ?

I cant believe as coffee funatics you are drinking drip coffee.

Personally I believe that the french press produces the best cup, and most jolt!!! Hey, its only 5 minutes.

Either way, as long as its good coffee you cant go wrong


DONT SEND ME MORE HATE MAIL !!!

Each method of preparing coffee produces its own results. As a rule, I prefer brighter, cleaner tasting coffees. A french press preparation muddies these characteristics, so I rarely, if ever use a french press. Probably the closest I come is when I'm doing a formal cupping. Interestingly, this process was developed to emphasize the faults in a cup of coffee, for the purpose of evaluation. Just as you said I could say that I can't believe someone would drink pressed coffee so that they cannot appreciate the full character of a coffee. :-D

It's all about personal preference, right?

 

[nzroaster]

True, I think the reason I enjoy a french pressed coffee is the insanely large amount of formal cupping I do. When I'm after something different it is off to the espresso machine. Great thing about being in charge of the Quality Assurance of my work is that I'm always drinking good coffee, in any form.

A lot of the people I work with said they struggled to find good coffee while visiting the states, Seattle mainly. I find that hard to believe though after browsing the forums here.
What are the generalised taste preferences like in the states? Roast colour, taste profiles etc...

As I said though, good coffee will produce a good cup, regardless of preparation method.

 

[Alun_evans]

This is a good point. Preferences in what the consumer thinks is "great coffee" actually seem to vary a lot. In Indonesia the average consumer thinks arabica is "weak" and "too rich"....the preference is for what I reckon is damn horrible grade 5 robusta, often cut with roasted corn. In NZ the cafe culture has been lead, in my opinion, by the early adopters who started it all in the mid 1980's. I am origally from Wellington and I remember the L'affaire's, Havana coffeeworks etc being the first real places where fresh R&G was available. My tastes and preferences certainly were moulded during this time. Today I roast my coffees along the lines of what I learnt back then. Hard to think now, with the booming cafe culture in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch that only 20 years ago it was really difficult to find a good coffee!

 

[ralphshade]

American coffee preferences

Wow-this can cover a lot of territory, maybe we should start a thread? In the nine years I was in San Francisco I would say that the prefernces there are (overall) for a pretty dark roast. San Francisco has had great coffee for a very long time. When I returned to the Midwest I discovered a blossoming of the specialty coffee industry here, but still, ten years later the coffee in most restaurants is horrible. Even the restaurants that are known for their good food are too cheap to pay the extra two cents a cup that it would cost to dramatically improve their product. The single most common statement I hear from these people is, "My customers wouldn't know the difference and wouldn't care if they did."

Sorry, bit of a tirade there. The general public in the relatively small city (200,000 people) really seem to want good coffee. Most of the roasters here in town (there are 8) roast their coffees to a Full City Roast, or there abouts. I would say the split between air roasters and drum roasters is about even. In general, again, the public is reasonably well educated about their coffee. It seems to be the foodservice industry here that is woefully uneducated. I would also say that the overall preference is for Central and South American coffees, with Indonesian coffees following after that. My personal preference is Africans, but I am a huge fan of Papua New Guinea coffee. It's my favorite as a single origin espresso, and one of my faves for blending purposes as well.

That being said, the U.S. has a pretty lareg population, and I know there are regional differences in taste. We have a lot of Northern Eupropean (Norwegian and German) backgrounds here, so that has influenced the taste profiles. Down south where there is more French influence, they seem to like their coffee darker, often blended with chicory. The East Coast and West Coast seem to have more influence from their Italian backgrounds. Of course, there is variation in all of this.