What is a latte?

A latte — short for 'caffè latte' in Italian, literally coffee with milk — is a drink built on an espresso (30 to 40 ml) lengthened with textured steamed milk, for a total volume of 220 to 300 ml. The milk-to-coffee ratio is much higher than in a cappuccino, which makes the latte softer, creamier and less coffee-forward in flavour.

The caffè latte is originally an Italian home drink, served at breakfast in a big bowl and unknown in espresso bars. The 'latte' you order at a café is a different beast, popularised from 1982 onwards by Lino Meiorin at Caffè Mediterraneum in Berkeley and then scaled worldwide in the 1990s by American chains like Starbucks. It is today the best-selling milk-based espresso drink globally, with hundreds of millions of cups a year from that one Seattle chain alone.

Technically, a latte is one or two espresso shots (30-40 g) poured into a 220-300 ml cup and lengthened with steamed milk at 60-65 °C, finished with a thin layer of microfoam (0.5 to 1 cm). The coffee-to-milk ratio by weight runs 1:6 to 1:8, against 1:3 for a cappuccino. That dilution explains why a latte often showcases fruity, light-roast coffees better than a cappuccino: the milk is the vehicle, not the adversary.

The latte family branched widely: latte macchiato (milk first, espresso poured through it, visible layers), iced latte (espresso over cold milk and ice), dirty chai latte (chai plus espresso), matcha latte without coffee at all. In specialty bars you also meet the Australian/New Zealand 'magic' — an intermediate ratio — and the North-American 'gibraltar', a regional term for something close to a cortado.

In Belgium as elsewhere in Northern Europe, the latte has settled in as an afternoon coffee-dessert, often paired with a cuberdon, a speculoos or a Liège-style waffle. A linguistic warning: asking for 'a latte' in an old-school Italian bar in Brussels can land you a plain glass of hot milk. The correct order is 'caffè latte' or 'latte macchiato' depending on the preparation expected.

Anatomy of a 300 ml latte