Barista course · Episode 9

The drinks — from espresso to flat white

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Cold open

Look at this row, from the tiny cup to the large one. They all begin with the same thing. Your espresso.

Ristretto, cappuccino, flat white, americano — these are not ten different coffees. This is one espresso in ten different outfits. Today you learn to tell them apart and to build them yourself.

Where this sits in the five Ms

Once more the fifth M, in its most enjoyable form. Application. You now have all the building blocks.

Espresso, water, milk, foam. Today you combine them. And the secret is simple.

Almost every drink is just a different ratio of those four things.

Chart: the espresso family

Let us go through the family. In the middle stands the espresso. Neat.

The core of everything. Take the same amount of coffee but let less run through, and you get a ristretto. Shorter.

Denser. More intense. Let more water run through, and you get a lungo.

Longer. Milder. Now the hot water joins in.

Espresso plus plenty of hot water makes an americano. The gentler, longer version, if neat espresso is too strong for you. And then the milk family.

And here the whole difference lies in the foam. An espresso. An espresso with just a dab of milk foam on top is a macchiato.

Stained. Espresso with a little warm milk and hardly any foam is a cortado. Roughly half and half.

The flat white is plenty of milk with only a thin layer of foam. Milky. Velvety.

And the cappuccino, the classic, is the rule of thirds. One third espresso. One third milk.

And one third fine foam. A thick-walled, pre-warmed cup belongs to it.

Teaching: cappuccino versus flat white

The most common mix-up. Cappuccino and flat white. Both are espresso with milk.

Where is the difference? In the foam. The cappuccino has a thick, airy crown of foam.

About a third of the cup. It is lighter, foamier. The flat white has far more liquid milk.

And only a thin, glossy crown. And only a thin, glossy layer of foam on top. Flat.

As the name says. That makes the flat white taste milkier, and the coffee comes through more directly. While the cappuccino arrives airier, with more of a foam feel.

Know this one difference and you understand half the menu.

Hands-on

Now you. A direct comparison. Pull two identical espressos and foam one portion of milk.

For the cappuccino you pour milk into a smaller cup. And leave more of the fine foam on top. A proper crown.

For the flat white you take a similar amount of espresso. But more liquid milk and only a thin lid of foam. Drink both one after the other and feel the difference.

One airy, the other velvety and milky. The same espresso, the same milk. Two drinks.

Common mistakes

Three stumbling blocks. Throwing latte, flat white and cappuccino into one pot. The difference is the amount of foam.

And you can taste it. The wrong cup size. A cappuccino drowns in a giant cup.

Too much foam in the flat white. It lives on the liquid milk.

Recap and your task

Let us hold on to this. All drinks are one espresso in different ratios. More or less water, milk and foam.

Ristretto short, lungo long, americano with water, cortado mild, cappuccino with a crown of foam, flat white milky and flat. Your assignment. Build your three favourite drinks once, deliberately, by ratio.

In the last episode we round it all off. Care, routine, and your way to mastery. omaneo — and YOU can do espresso.