
Is That Really a Cappuccino? - zabramow
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/fashion/mens-style/is-that-cappuccino-youre-drinking-really-a-cappuccino.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur
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lisper
I made a brief foray into coffee snobbery about three years ago. I quickly got
lost in all the permutations of espresso machines, grinders, roasters, beans,
etc. and so I decided I should get myself a baseline of what a "proper"
espresso should taste like. Fortunately, at the place I worked at the time we
had a (supposedly) top-of-the-line espresso machine and several resident
coffee geeks, including one who was actually from Italy. I asked their advice
and obtained a bag of what were supposedly the best beans in town, and brought
them in to the office.

To make a long story short, several hours and I don't know how many batches of
espresso later, none of us had managed to make even a single cup that was
remotely close to being drinkable. So I got a $100 Keurig machine, and never
looked back.

Still, when I'm in Italy, I can go to any coffee shop and get an espresso that
is absolutely delicious. So the Italians definitely know something I don't.

~~~
Schwolop
Grind, pressure, volume. Keep two of those constant and you can tune the
third. It's really not as hard as coffee snobs pretend it is.

~~~
archinal
I believe that water temperature is extremely important as well.

~~~
Schwolop
Sure - but the OP said they had a top-of-the-line espresso machine, so I took
that as a given. Similarly, fresh beans are vital, but the OP said he/she had
just bought them.

~~~
lisper
That's right. I went to the particular store and bought the particular
ridiculously expensive beans recommended by the coffee geeks. We did the
experiment the next day.

There are _at least_ six degrees of freedom: grind, pressure, volume, water
temp, beans, and roast. That's a lot of possible combinations. And my whole
point was that despite making my best effort to control all six of them, the
coffee still didn't come out good. Not just not good, but actually terrible.
Undrinkable. No one could figure out what was going wrong.

What I do know is that I can get consistently good coffee out of my Keurig,
and consistently awesomely great coffee in Italy, but nearly nowhere else in
the world (and I've been to a lot of places). So it must be possible to
control the process. The Italians can't just be getting lucky. But I have no
idea what the magic formula is. Maybe it's the water. (Oh no! A seventh degree
of freedom!)

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mc32
Has it gotten that bad that we care about what coffee dispensers and drinkers
believe to be a true cappuccino or not? Not for nothing, but this frothy
fluff. Who cares, serve what you like and drink what you like, but please
don't make it out to be anything more than superficial preference.

~~~
kbatten
My espresso machine was one of the best purchases I have made. I can have
straight espresso or any variation of frothed milk and coffee that I can
imagine. I use store brand coffee and milk and it is delicious. Its worth
investing in if you care about it and I drink coffee almost every day, so
something I think is worth investing in.

~~~
jpittis
Which espresso machine did you purchase? Does anyone know if getting an
inexpensive one is somehow bad?

~~~
mkching
If you're looking to make espresso drinks, going too cheap will be an exercise
in frustration. Cheaper machines have limitations you need to work around and
make it harder to get consistent results. Most people just getting started
will simply give up. If your budget is less than $500, get a Nespresso. It
makes a better drink than the other pod systems and beats most non-specialty
shops (it can't touch a good shop or something you can make with a good
machine and practice).

If you want to go further than this, the following combinations provide a very
good value:

Gaggia Classic + Breville Smart Grinder Pro (~$500 total)

The Gaggia Classic is considered entry level to make good espresso by many
people. I started with this and it can make a good drink, but you cannot make
back to back drinks and foaming milk well is more difficult than on pricier
machines.

Breville Dual Boiler + Barazta Vario (~$2000 total)

After using the above setup for a while, I upgraded to this combination. It is
considered one of the best values if this is your price range. Frothing milk
well is much easier than on the Gaggia Classic, and its larger boiler and
electronic controller provide better temperature stability.

If you want something halfway between a semi-automatic and a fully automatic,
the Breville Oracle has received very positive reviews in the coffee
community, even by people who came in wanting to hate the level of automation
it can bring.

Don't skimp on the grinder, get very fresh beans from a specialty roaster, and
then plan a week or two learning curve. If you're interested,
[http://www.home-barista.com/forums/](http://www.home-barista.com/forums/) has
a lot of information.

~~~
lobster_johnson
Regarding milk, in my opinion no consumer machine will give you enough steam
pressure to create good microfoam.

There are electric milk frothers from Breville and Nespresso that rotate a
metal frother to run air through the milk. The result is sort of microfoamy
(but usually more like soap-foamy), but doesn't have the particular flavour
that you get from steamed milk.

I'm (notoriously, among my friends, and probably obnoxiously too) finicky
about milk froth quality, and the best solution I have found is a stovetop
frother.

You have to heat the milk to the right temperature (the steam wand actually
works great for this), and then use the plunger for 10-15 seconds. Weirdly
enough, the result is almost perfect microfoam. This one is great:

[http://www.amazon.com/HIC-Stainless-Steel-
Frother-14-Ounce/d...](http://www.amazon.com/HIC-Stainless-Steel-
Frother-14-Ounce/dp/B000X7GF40)

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tesseract
A proper cappuccino is 2 parts gin to 1 part vermouth... hang on, that's a
martini.

~~~
dagw
Surely you mean 12:1

2:1 is the ratio for a gin and tonic :)

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switch007
In the UK, a cappucino has cocoa sprinkled on top. Except for "artisan" coffee
shops, that's the biggest difference to a cafe latte. Basically if you want a
small, strong, milky coffee from any of the big chains (e.g. Costa, Starbucks,
Nero) you need to order a flat white; and probably pay more for it.

~~~
tomlock
Same in Australia.

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toolslive
I'm going to get flagged for this, but there are plenty of recipes named
incorrectly in the US. Just ask for a pepperoni pizza in Italy, and see what
you get.

~~~
srean
Or imagine the surprise if ordering a "Latte" gets you a glass of milk.

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tomlock
>>The new enthusiasm for the flat white, a drink made of espresso and milk
that seems to have originated in Australia or New Zealand, is particularly
nettlesome to Mr. Nye. “You put 10 people in a room who claim to be an
authority on the flat white, you’re going to get at least five different
opinions on what it should be,” he said. “People are trying to make the whole
process intimidating to the consumer.”

What the bloody hell is this drongo talking about? Flat whites are the most
average drink in Australia. Flat whites in Australia intimidate no-one. We're
intimidated by single origin long blacks and cold drip.

~~~
amatix
Getting a flat white in the UK is truly painful (as a recently emigrated NZer)

~~~
DanBC
Coffee places in the UK often get the milk wrong, so most drinks are going to
be painful.

If you go to a big chain there's more chance they've had training in steaming
the milk properly. But then you have to put up with their roast (starbucks) or
lack of wifi (costa).

And even then some of them are real branches (had all the training) and others
are franchised branches (use the branding but have different prices and far
less training).

But a bad coffee from a chain is still going to be very much better than the
instant you'll be offered in many places.

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uhwhat
It seems like most coffee shops (..that I've tried along the pacific coast)
have no idea how to pull an espresso shot and will instead just brew a very
bad strong shot of coffee.

Ordering a cappuccino has generally been interpreted as a pile of light milk
bubbles on top of "less milk than the normal latte".

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gaspar
On the one hand food in US is just amazing, because you have so many options
(I miss though my home country's food and ingredients). On the other hand
though, coffee here is just so so bad and I don't understand why.

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jpittis
When going to a coffee shop and ordering an espresso and frothed milk, most
prefer a certain texture and taste. It would be useful to have an agreed upon
language to describe this preference. The current language we use seems to
have very inconsistent results.

