Signature drink
How to Make a Spanish Latte
Espresso stirred into sweetened condensed milk, then topped with silky steamed milk — the sweet, creamy latte from our menu, hot or iced.
Ingredients
- 1 double espresso (about 36 g)
- About 150 ml whole milk
- 1–2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
- Optional: a pinch of ground cinnamon
Steps
- Spoon the condensed milk into a warmed 250 ml cup or glass.
- Pull the double espresso straight onto the condensed milk and stir until it has dissolved completely.
- Steam the milk to about 60–65 °C with a thin, silky microfoam — as you would for a flat white.
- Pour the milk in steadily, finishing with a small layer of foam on top.
- Taste and adjust: a little more condensed milk for sweeter, a little less for stronger. Serve hot, or build the same thing over a glass of ice.
Tips
- Condensed milk is both the sweetener and the cream — you do not need sugar or syrup as well.
- Stir it into the hot espresso first; it is thick, and if you skip this step it stays at the bottom of the cup.
- It is just as good iced: condensed milk and espresso first, then ice, then cold milk.
The Spanish latte is our best-selling signature drink, and the secret is one ingredient: sweetened condensed milk. Where a normal latte relies on the natural sweetness of steamed milk, a Spanish latte stirs a spoonful of thick, sweet condensed milk into the espresso first, then tops it with silky steamed milk. The result is richer and sweeter than a latte, but not sugary in the way a syrup drink is — condensed milk has a cooked, caramel-like depth that rounds the coffee off rather than covering it up.
Where it comes from
The drink has a Spanish grandparent: the café bombón of Valencia, a small glass of espresso poured over an equal layer of condensed milk and served in two neat stripes. The “Spanish latte” as most cafés serve it today is a bigger, milkier evolution of that idea that spread through the Middle East and then everywhere else in the 2010s. Ours sits in between: a double shot, one to two spoons of condensed milk, and about 150 ml of steamed milk, so that the coffee is still clearly there.
Getting the sweetness right
The whole recipe is about proportion. One tablespoon of condensed milk gives a gently sweet, balanced cup that lets the espresso through; two makes a proper dessert coffee. Start with one, taste, and add more if you want it — it is much easier to sweeten than to un-sweeten. Because the condensed milk is thick, it has to dissolve in the hot espresso before any milk goes in; poured on top of the finished drink, it sinks to the bottom in a lump and the first half of the cup tastes of nothing while the last sip is syrup.
Steam the milk with a fine, thin microfoam, closer to a flat white than a cappuccino. Heavy foam sits awkwardly on such a sweet base; you want the milk to blend in, not float.
Iced
The Spanish latte may be even better cold. Build it the same way: condensed milk in the glass, hot espresso stirred through until it dissolves, then a full glass of ice and cold milk on top. Because the sweetness is already dissolved in the coffee, it mixes properly — one of the reasons the iced version works so much better than an iced latte with syrup added at the end.
Beans
Sweet, creamy drinks like this suit a coffee with some body and a chocolate or nutty character; a very light, acidic roast can fight with the condensed milk. We use our house Calibre Coffee espresso, which has enough weight to stand up to it, and a pinch of cinnamon on top for anyone who asks.
It has been on our menu since the day we opened, and on a busy afternoon on Sultanahmet Square it outsells everything else with milk in it. If you would like to taste it the way we make it, hot or over ice — see the menu.