Coffee and matcha, made properly at home.
Espresso, moka, filter, matcha and cold foam, written for the gear you already own. Every recipe scales and tells you what to change when it goes wrong.
Espresso
18 g in, 36 g out, about 28 seconds
Everything else on this list is espresso plus something. Get this dialled and eleven other drinks fix themselves.
Ristretto
Same dose, half the water, twice the body
Restricted, not just short. You stop the shot before the thin, bitter tail arrives.
Lungo
A long pull, not a watered-down shot
The lungo runs longer through the same puck. That is the whole difference from an americano, and it tastes like it.
Caffè con la moka
The kitchen-stove classic, done without the burnt note
Nearly every Italian home coffee is a moka. Most are ruined by the same two habits: cold water and a roaring flame.
Caffè macchiato
Espresso stained with milk — nothing more
Macchiato means stained. One spoon of foam, in an espresso cup. If it comes in a tall glass with caramel, that is a different drink.
Cappuccino
Thirds: espresso, milk, foam
A 150–180 ml cup, drunk before 11am, and never with a meal. The texture target is wet paint, not bubble bath.
Caffè latte
Milk-led, thin foam, big cup
Order a latte in Italy and you get a glass of milk. Say caffè latte. Roughly 1 cm of foam, the rest is silky milk.
Latte macchiato
Milk stained with coffee — the layered one
The reverse of a caffè macchiato and the reason people confuse the two. Milk goes in first, the espresso falls through it.
Flat white
Double ristretto, 120 ml of microfoam, no foam cap
Not an Italian drink, but the one most home baristas actually want: stronger than a latte, silkier than a cappuccino.
Cortado
Equal parts espresso and warm milk
Cut, not drowned. 1:1 in a small glass, barely any foam. The fastest way to make a hot-tasting shot friendlier.
Marocchino
Cocoa, espresso, foam, cocoa again
A tiny layered glass invented in Piedmont and named after a leather colour. Ten minutes of effort, no chocolate syrup involved.
Caffè shakerato
Shaken espresso with a thick foam head
The Italian answer to iced coffee, and still the most impressive thing you can make in 30 seconds. The head is pure crema whipped into the shake.
Affogato al caffè
Drowned gelato — dessert in 20 seconds
The one recipe where a slightly over-extracted shot is fine, because sugar and fat forgive everything.
Bicerin
Chocolate, espresso and cream in three layers you never stir
Poured in Turin since the 1700s in a small handled glass — bicerin means little glass. The whole point is that it stays layered and you drink down through it.
Espresso romano
Espresso with a strip of lemon peel
Divisive and almost free. The oils in the peel lift the perceived acidity and cut through a dark roast.
Caffè al ginseng
Sweet, creamy, faintly herbal
Everywhere in Italian bars since the 2000s. The commercial mixes are mostly sugar and cream powder — this version is closer to the idea.
Iced latte
The one everyone gets wrong by pouring hot espresso into milk
Two shots, cold milk, full glass of ice, in that order. The order is the recipe.
Espresso tonic
Bitter, citric, absurdly refreshing
Works best with a bright, fruity, light-roast coffee. On a dark chocolatey roast it turns ashy.
Cold brew concentrate
1:8 for 16 hours, then dilute to taste
Never heated, so almost none of the bitter compounds are extracted. Keeps a week and turns into six other drinks.
Japanese iced coffee
Brewed hot directly onto ice — the aromas survive
Cold brew is smooth but flat. Flash brew is bright and floral because you capture the volatile aromatics before they escape.
Crema di caffè
Frozen whipped coffee cream, eaten with a spoon
The thing sold from a chilled tap at every Italian beach bar in August. It is three ingredients and a freezer.
Dalgona whipped coffee
Instant coffee is mandatory here
The foam only works because instant coffee is freeze-dried and dissolves into a supersaturated syrup. Real ground coffee will never do this.
Pour-over (V60)
15 g coffee, 250 g water, five pours
The clearest cup you can make at home and the fastest way to taste what a coffee actually is.
AeroPress
Two minutes, forgiving, travels anywhere
Immersion plus pressure. Almost impossible to make undrinkable, which is why it is the best gift for someone starting out.
French press
Full immersion, full body, no paper
The trick nobody does: skim the crust instead of stirring it in, and let it settle before you plunge.
Turkish coffee
Unfiltered, powder-fine, three rises
The oldest brewing method still in daily use. The grind is finer than espresso — like flour.
Cà phê sữa đá
Phin drip over condensed milk, then ice
Robusta, a heavy dark roast and condensed milk. Bitter, sweet and stronger than it looks.
Caffè mocha
Real chocolate, not syrup
Melting dark chocolate into the espresso instead of squeezing syrup on top is a completely different drink.
Caffè americano
Espresso lengthened with hot water — water in the cup first
Not a weak espresso. It is the same shot sitting in more water, which is why a good americano needs a good shot underneath it.
Cold foam without cream
Skimmed milk and milk powder — protein does the work
Cold foam does not actually need cream. Cream supplies fat and mouthfeel, but what holds the bubbles up is protein. Put the protein back and skimmed milk out-foams cream.
Matcha soda
Matcha, sparkling water, ice — nothing else
Sharp, green and completely dry. Carbonation does the job sugar usually does: it makes the matcha read as brighter rather than heavier.
Unsweetened matcha latte
No syrup, no honey — the matcha has to carry it
Most matcha lattes are sweetened to cover a cheap grade. Take the sugar out and the drink becomes a test of the powder: good matcha is naturally sweet and faintly savoury, poor matcha is just bitter and flat.
Cocoa mocha
Cocoa powder and salt — no chocolate bar, no sugar
A mocha without the cocoa butter or the sugar. Sharper, thinner and far more bitter than the dessert version — closer to old-fashioned drinking chocolate than to a hot chocolate.
Usucha — thin matcha
2 g matcha, 70 ml water at 75 °C
The everyday preparation. If your matcha tastes bitter and grassy, it is almost always water that was too hot.
Koicha — thick matcha
Double the matcha, half the water, kneaded not whisked
Syrupy, intensely sweet and deeply green. Only worth making with high-grade matcha — cheap matcha at this concentration is punishing.
Matcha latte
Paste first, then milk — never powder into milk
Matcha will not disperse in milk. Every gritty matcha latte comes from skipping the water paste stage.
Dirty matcha
Iced matcha latte with an espresso poured over
Three distinct bands and two kinds of caffeine. Visually the best drink in this app, which is why it is everywhere.
Strawberry matcha
Crushed berries at the bottom, matcha on top
Sounds like a novelty and then works because the acidity of the fruit lifts matcha's sweetness.
Sweet cream cold foam
Cream, milk and syrup, aerated to a pourable mousse
The one that cascades down through iced coffee instead of sitting on top like whipped cream. Consistency is the entire skill.
Salted caramel cold foam
Same base, caramel and salt worked in first
Salt does the heavy lifting here — it cuts the sweetness and makes the coffee underneath taste stronger.
Matcha cold foam
Green cap for an iced coffee, or a white cap for iced matcha
Works in both directions and both are good: matcha foam on coffee, or sweet cream foam on a matcha latte.
Made it? Get it scored.
Every milk-based recipe here ends the same way: photograph the pour and let Brew tell you exactly what to change next time.
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