Last week I was on the beach with my family and as it was extremely hot at the moment, for the first time in my life I decided to take a Frappuccino. There are a lot of ways to make a Frappuccino but this one was made with espresso coffee and a lot of ice so I gulped it down and took another one. It was while taking the second one that I realized I actually liked it a lot and that made me think about coffee beverages and more specifically espresso drinks. There are so many coffee drinks, but for now let’s keep it down to espresso drinks.

As we have seen before, espressos are a great way to make concentrated coffee but it is also used to mask some faults when quality requirements are not always met. One thing is sure: espressos are bitter and that explains the popularity of espressos mixed with cream, milk and other sweet tastes and ingredients. For the moment let’s just stay with espresso, milk and water and see what can get.

Let’s start with espressos and water.

Americano
If you go to a coffee or espresso bar with a friend who “just wants a coffee”, your best choice probably would be an Americano. The normal ratio is of 1:1 espresso to water, pulling the espresso directly into a cup with existing water. Americanos are furthermore used for beans that produce very strong espressos, often single origin espressos with a very strong flavors.

As an Americano is hot water topped with espresso, a Long Black is the other way around: pouring espresso on top of the water. Is there a difference? Well, mostly in looks and feel, but not so much in taste of course.

Espresso with carbonated or mineral water

Now this is an interesting one, espresso with sparkling water. If you like experimenting just start with a 1:1 ratio and enjoy. If you like it, you could experiment further with flavored carbonated water! If you like a smooth drink, you could try topping steaming mineral water on your espresso.

The other well-known combination, of course, is espressos and milk.

Let’s take a quick look at the most well-known ones (you can find and download the following chart at canterburycoffee.com).

We have to start with the most obvious one, the Cappuccino: that is a frothed milk and espresso drink with no generally-accepted volume standards. Just do it the way you like it most. Personally I like it with a lot of foam on top in a 1:1:1 espresso, milk, foam relation.

Macchiato: the traditional macchiato is an espresso with a small amount of steamed milk and a bit of foam, although nowadays we see one or two normal espressos with 1:1 milk as well, sometimes called the modern macchiato.

Cortado: same as modern macchiato but with a little foam

Piccolo Latte: one shot with 1:2 milk and a little foam

Latte: no generally-accepted volume standards but generally two or more shots with 1:3–1:9 milk

Galão: one shot with 1:3 milk and a little foam

Flat white: one or two shots, with 1:4 or 2:3 milk, and a small amount of foam.

You can find a very nice chart here.