Java Juice
Despite the similarities in ingredients, there are a variety of different styles of coffee drinks to try. Experiment to see which you prefer.
Macchiato
Italian word for ‘Marked’
2-3oz (60-90ml) cup or glass
1 single espresso
2 teaspoons textured milk
Texture the minimum amount of milk you can (enough to cover the end of the steam wand) and set aside. Extract a single espresso into a suitable espresso glass or cup. Swirl textured milk in the jug to reintegrate the texture. Spoon 2 teaspoons of milk into the center of the espresso.
Mocha
6-7.5oz (180-220ml) glass
1 single espresso
5oz (150ml) cold milk
Drinking chocolate
Begin texturing milk to desired temperature. At the same time extract single espresso. Stir 1 teaspoon of drinking chocolate into espresso shot. Swirl textured milk in the jug to reintegrate the texture. Pour milk directly into the center of the espresso with the milk jug tip close to the espresso surface. Steady consistent pour is the secret. Garnish with drinking chocolate.
The Deconstructed Cup
by Harold McGee Culinary Science Writer author of On Food and Cooking
A well-made cup of coffee is one of life’s good things, a happily affordable, everyday pleasure. And as foods and drinks go, it’s pretty simple to make. All it takes is roasted coffee beans, water to extract their deliciousness, a pot, and some heat. Yet coffee lovers over the centuries have come up with dozens of different brewing devices. Home coffee machines have been evolving especially rapidly in recent years, some of them costing as much as a thousand visits to a café.
Why? Well, as simple as coffee making may be, the quality of the result is exquisitely sensitive to details of the process: such things as how the beans are ground, the relative proportions of coffee and water, the temperature of the water, and the duration of the extraction. The appeal of the new generations of coffee makers is the control they offer over these critical aspects of brewing, the consistency in quality that results, and the convenience of leaving it to the machine to get it right without our vigilance.
Whether you’re making campfire coffee, dripping a cup by hand or in a machine, or pulling espresso shots, a general understanding of what you’re doing can help you do it better, and enjoy the process as well as the results.
