Milk drinks and what actually separates them
What separates a cappuccino, latte, flat white and cortado is the ratio of espresso to milk to foam. Every ratio, plus how to steam each kind of milk.
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.
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.
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.
Caffè mocha
Real chocolate, not syrup
Melting dark chocolate into the espresso instead of squeezing syrup on top is a completely different drink.
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.
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.