Easy, impressive looking, layered Caffe Latte

You have managed to get the latest flirt of yours over for a dinner that you prepared. He/she is generally impressed with the food but you feel that something more is needed to finish the meal off perfectly. "Would you like a coffee?", you ask and your flirt happily accepts your offer. Great! If only you could pull off a really impressive coffee... Well, you can! This Instructable shows you how to make a very impressive looking caffe latte, and it's dead easy too!

Feel free to ask questions, comment and critizise. This is my first Instructable, so please be gentle...

EDIT: I just bumped into this similar Instructable. I had not seen it before, and I do think the two instructables are different enough to warrant co-existing.

Step 1: What you need...

You need:
1.Some way of making espresso coffee
Personally I prefer a stove top Moka. I'm sure any other way of making an espresso will be equally fine though.

2. A good strong espresso roast coffee
Which one is a matter of taste. I favor a local coffee roaster here in London as I generally like supporting small local businesses, and their coffee is amazing!

3. A pot and a good whisk
The best way in my opinion to get nice milk froth. I have not tried to make this coffee with steamed milk, but I expect it will be the same.

4. Skimmed milk
Now this is important!! I figured out how to make this specific caffe latte by accident once when I had ran out of my regular milk and used my flatmate's skimmed milk. You must use skimmed milk!! I have not managed to get the same result using semi skimmed or regular milk! (Please let me know if you do somehow though :) )

5. A heat proof drinking glass
The impressive part of this caffe latte is it's looks, so we need to see the coffee and thus we pour it into a glass. Make sure you use a glass that is heat proof, and won't shatter from the heat of the milk and coffee. I will not take responsibility for you failing to do so when following this Instructable!

Optional:
Ground cinnamon
Paper
A pair of scissors

Comments

[Kubuntu]

Hey! I made something like this with 2% and it worked out great.

My usual method for making a cheap latte is to shake up some milk in a tupperware container and pour it over some coffee with dissolved sugar. This time I just switched the order around because, hey, why not, and I got the same layered effect.

I'm not sure what the tupperware container I've got is actually called, but it's a liquid container with a pour-spout and a 'wheel' held in place by the lid. When I bought it, it was labeled 'salad dressing mixer' or something to that effect.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that because you asked.

Great instructable. Thanks for sharing!

[shurtado1]

too cool!! Thanks!

[matroska]

Oh hey! I just remembered... A friend of mine toyed with our espresso machine (it belongs to my parents, it's some kind of Cube from Nespresso, back to topic) he was able to make 5 (!) stories espresso! Again in a tall glasse the result looks amazing! He said, basically, for each step, try to mix the milk and coffee at different rate. What I conclude in the end, after reading your instructable, is well you can do it as in this guide for the 3 basic stage (milk, coffee and froth) and if you want to add another story, pour some coffee and milk at the same time. The pouring rate of each layer will determine where it's going (eg. a layer with 60% milk and 40% coffee will go under a layer with say 50% of each; that is if you decide to make more than 4 layers). For a 4 layer, I would just do as in the ible, then slowly pour a mix in equal part of milk and coffee! I'll try this and give news if it's successfull, if all else fails, I'll just go ask him..!

[matroska]

Haha very nice instructable! I love it! I also love the geek joke!

[mojobo1]

Very cool. If I hadn't had two expressos today I'd go try it now. Might try it tomorrow though. Just a thought.. But couldn't you use 2% for the froth, and just use skim for the bottom part?

[vieji]

 Amazing, I surprise my wife and friends with this magic.
Thanks so much and waiting more !!!

[chrissyhepp]

Just wanted to let you know that I used Vanilla Soy milk when making mine and the foam was surprisingly close to the result of the skim. Plus, I love the taste of vanilla soy milk and you really do not need to sweeten it because of the vanilla.

[carebare47]

Just bought an espresso machine today, and this was the frst drink i prepared with it. M famil did not know the research i did before buing the machine on different drinks, and were very shocked when i brought these in to them. Thank You =)

[fetmats]

Nice one! Very glad to hear it! You made my day!

[junglegeo]

You can try to ad some condensed milk, it will probably sink into the bottom, causing the same visual effect, and you can still use the hole fat milk to the foam.

[mrtentaclenun]

I happen to work at Starbucks, and just wanted to point out that when milk starts rising like that, it usually has hit 190 degrees (F) and this is too hot! passing 180 usually burns the milk. if you have a thermometer that you can use while making your milk take it off when its 150-170, any higher will burn the milk and you will change the taste

[fetmats]

Hi! Thanks for your input! The Instructable is completely based on my own experience and experimenting, and I was not aware of the change in taste. The constant whisking keeps the milk from burning to the pot, and I suppose I figured this indicated that the milk hadn't burned. I'll see if I can find a suitable thermometer and try if I can taste the difference. I must say I think it tastes fine when prepared according to my instructions though. I'll amend my instructable to tell people to have a look at your insightful comment. Cheers!

[mrtentaclenun]

Glad I could help, I personally don't drink my drinks that hot so I cannot vouch for if the taste difference is anything huge, just going off of my training.

[Gaark]

trying is part of training my friend ;) chefs always taste what they make, i think it should be the same for us coffee creators eh?

[foobaz utne]

You can't fool me. That's really soap suds isn't it? Real milk foam would melt under the lights. ;)

[javajunkie]

Love the instructable!!! I'm on my way to the store to grab some heat-proof glasses!!! Keep experimenting! Looking forward to your next work of genious!

[fetmats]

Thanks ever so much for the kind words! Did you find any glasses?

[Astrozz]

Just made this and it turned out great :D and made lots of froth which I love,thanks! looks really cool

[fetmats]

Happy to hear it! I'm glad that someone finally said they made it, not only read about how to make it!

[whatsisface]

That looks awesome. I'm a big supporter of my local coffee shops, so getting something similar at home would be cool. 5 stars.

[fetmats]

Great stuff! It's so easy that it is really hard to fail! Good luck!