Basics
How to Make a Café Latte
A double espresso with plenty of steamed milk and a soft layer of foam — the gentlest espresso drink, and the easiest to make at home.
Ingredients
- 1 double espresso (about 36 g)
- About 180–200 ml cold whole milk
- Optional: 1 teaspoon vanilla, caramel or hazelnut syrup
Steps
- Pull a double espresso into a warmed 250 ml cup or glass. If you are using syrup, stir it into the espresso now.
- Steam the milk to about 60–65 °C, letting air in for 3–5 seconds at the start so the foam is a little thicker than for a flat white.
- Swirl the jug, then pour steadily from about 10 cm above the cup until it is two-thirds full.
- Bring the jug close to the surface and finish the pour so a layer of foam about 1 cm thick floats on top.
- Serve at once. A light dusting of cocoa is optional.
Tips
- A latte is mostly milk, so fresh, cold, whole milk makes a bigger difference than the coffee.
- Do not overheat: past 70 °C milk loses its natural sweetness and tastes scalded.
- No espresso machine? Use strong moka-pot coffee and froth warm milk with a hand whisk or a French press.
The latte is the friendliest drink on the espresso menu. A double shot, a lot of steamed milk, a soft blanket of foam: it is warm, mild and sweet without sugar, and it is the drink most people start with before they wander towards flat whites and cortados. Its full name is caffè latte — “coffee with milk” in Italian — and in Italy it is strictly a breakfast drink; here we make it all day, hot in winter and over ice in summer.
What you are aiming for
A good latte is not just milky coffee. The milk should be steamed so that it is sweet and silky, with a layer of foam about a centimetre thick that stays on top rather than collapsing into froth. The espresso underneath should be a proper double shot, fresh enough to have crema, because it has to carry its flavour through nearly 200 ml of milk. The result should taste balanced: you notice the coffee, then the sweetness of the milk, then a little bitterness at the end that makes you want another sip.
Size matters. A latte is usually served in a 240 to 300 ml cup or a tall glass; make it much bigger and the coffee disappears, unless you add a third shot.
Steaming milk for a latte
Fill a cold jug to just below the spout with cold whole milk. Put the steam tip just under the surface and let it hiss for three to five seconds — a little longer than for a flat white, because you want more foam. Then sink the tip deeper and let the milk spin until the jug is just too hot to hold, around 60 to 65 °C. Tap the jug, swirl it until it is glossy, and pour. Milk heated past 70 °C loses its sweetness; that is the reason so many chain-café lattes taste flat.
If you have no steam wand, do not give up. Heat milk in a pan or microwave to hand-hot, then whisk it hard with a small battery frother, or pump it a dozen times in a French press. The foam will be a little coarser, but the drink will still be good. For the coffee, a moka pot makes a strong, espresso-like brew that works well here.
Flavours
The latte is the drink that takes flavour best, because the milk softens everything. A teaspoon of vanilla, caramel or hazelnut syrup stirred into the espresso before the milk goes in is the classic route. Keep it to one flavour and a small amount; the coffee should still be the main event. Cocoa on top is traditional and harmless.
Ours is a double shot of Calibre Coffee with whole milk, and oat or almond milk if you prefer. It is on our menu every day on Sultanahmet Square — see the menu.