Confused by all those fancy foreign sounding names of coffee drinks in your neighborhood coffee shop?

Aloha kakahiaka!  (Good morning in Hawai’ian)  Here in Ruidoso, New Mexico we just say “howdy.”  Happy Tuesday morning and greetings to all you coffee fiends.   That’s fiends not friends.  I know how you really feel about coffee!  The purpose of this blog is to unite coffee lovers, especially lovers of Kona coffee, and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  Both the American Revolution and the French Revolution were born in coffeehouses. The American Revolution grew from roots planted in the Green Dragon Public House in the Lloyd’s District of London. In July 1789, Camille Desmoulins, a French journalist and politician, jumped onto a table at the Palais Royal Café and motivated the mob to rebel against the French aristocracy. Two days later, the Bastille fell, marking the upswing of the French Revolution. It makes sense that king of England in 1675, Charles II, forbade his subjects to congregate at any place where coffee was sold.

Confused by all those fancy foreign sounding names of coffee drinks in your neighborhood coffee shop?  Maybe this will help:

Espresso is a beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee; hence the name espresso. It is typically made by using a special espresso machine. Espresso is a relatively thick and concentrated coffee drink and very often used as the base for other drinks. Usually brewed into and served in a small ceramic cup — demitasse (30 mL – single shot of espresso; 60 mL – double shot).

Caffè latte is typically prepared in a 240 mL glass or cup with a standard shot of espresso and filled with steamed milk with about 1 cm layer of wet milk foam on the top. Wet foam, or microfoam, is steamed milk (result of frothing and mixing) with thick, shiny and runny texture and lots of very small, uniform bubbles; often used in latte art.

Cappuccino is made of espresso poured into the bottom third of the cup, followed by a similar amount of hot milk, and the top third is about 2 cm layer of thick dry milk foam; usually served in 150–180 mL cups. Dry foam, or macrofoam, has visibly large bubbles; it comes from more extensive frothing than wet foam, and, instead of being a runny uniformed mix of foam and milk, dry foam is lighter and at the end of frothing there is a layer of liquid milk underneath.

Latte macchiato is prepared by extensive milk frothing with significant amount of light dry foam, pouring it into a glass, and adding a bit of espresso. It features a lot of foam, rather than simply hot milk, and is a layered drink, with espresso poured on the top of liquid milk through the dry foam. Unlike caffè latte, where the emphasis is on coffee, in latte macchiato the emphasis is on the milk.

Caffè macchiato, or espresso macchiato, is espresso stained with a small amount of milk added on top. The milk may be microfoamed. “Macchiato” means “spotted” or “stained” in Italian.

Caffè mocha is one third espresso and two thirds steamed milk with a portion of chocolate added, typically in the form of sweet cocoa powder or chocolate syrup, with a layer of milk froth on top, or, sometimes with with whipped cream instead. It may be topped with a dusting of cinnamon or cocoa powder.

Caffè americano is created by adding 30–470 mL of hot water to a single or double shot of espresso.

Long black is an espresso shot added over hot water. It is a relatively popular drink in Australia and New Zealand. Unlike caffè americano, in long black espresso is added last and therefore the crema (espresso coffee foam) is preserved. Long black is served in smaller cups that americano, which makes it more flavored.

Flat white is prepared by pouring microfoam over a single or double shot of espresso. It is very similar to caffè latte, and the belief is that the only difference between the two drinks is the vessel in which they are served: flat white is served in a ceramic cup, while caffè latte traditionally comes in a glass.

Cortado (“cortar” means “cut” in Spanish) is an espresso “cut” with the same or a half amount of warm milk to reduce the acidity; usually served in a special glass and metal glass holder.

Caffè breve is an American variation of a caffè latte where a steamed half-and-half (a 50:50 mixture of milk and cream) is added to espresso, served in large cups about 350 mL.

Espresso con panna, which means “espresso with cream” in Italian, is made of a single or double shot of espresso topped with whipped cream.

Did that help?

Do you want FREE coffee?  The first reader of these blogs who comes to the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s Cowboy Coffee Saloon at upcoming events will get a free, that’s FREE bag of CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico…our newest fusion coffee made with a proprietary blend of central American coffees and real New Mexico pine nuts!

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at @jackshuster. 

You know you’re a coffee fiend when your T-shirt says, "Decaffeinated coffee is the devil's blend."  So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!