The Coffee Connection

Gone are the times when you could walk into your neighborhood cafe and wave for a cup of coffee. Because in today's obscenely popular coffee culture, all you get is a cup of confusio-ccino. You will be bombarded by not less than 20 to 30 varieties and sub varieties of coffee, making you spend more time actually deciding on what you would drink. You came in for coffee right!?

So does a Cappuccino differ from an Americano? Is a Latte Macchiato any different from a Cafe Macchiato? Let's place our orders

Espresso [ehs-PREHS-oh]
This is the mother of all confusio-ccinos. Often misspelled and mispronounced as expresso, this strong coffee is brewed by forcing steam under pressure through darkly roasted, powdered coffee beans. As a result of the pressurized brewing process, all of the flavors and chemicals in a typical cup of espresso (usually a small 30ml cup, also called a shot of espresso) are very concentrated. For this reason, espresso is the base for other drinks, such as lattes, cappuccino, macchiato and mochas.
Trivia: Espresso has more caffeine per unit volume of most beverages. A shot of espresso, i.e 30ml has three times more caffeine than a standard cup (180ml) of coffee.

Caffè Americano [ka-FAY ah-mer-ih-KAH-noh]
This is essentially a diluted Espresso, made by diluting a shot of espresso with with three parts hot water. The dilution gives it a distinctive flavor.
Trivia: The name came about after American soldiers started adding water to the Italian Espresso coffee, that satisfies the American preference for more sips in every cup.

Caffè Latte [ka-FAY LAH-tay]
A caffè latte is simply a shot or two of bold, tasty espresso with fresh, sweet steamed milk over it. If you are skeptic about the coffee to order, Caffè Latte is a safe bet.

 Trivia: Latte is Italian for milk. And so Caffè Latte is coffee and milk.

Latte Macchiato [LAH-tay mah-kee-YAH-toh]
Consists of hot frothed milk into which a shot of espresso is dribbled over. The coffee colors, or stains the milk in faint, graduated layers, darker at the top shading to light at the bottom, all contrasting with the layer of pure white foam at the top

Caffè Macchiato [ka-FAY mah-kee-YAH-toh]
Essentially an Espresso topped with just about  half an inch of milk foam.
Trivia: The word Macchiato means stained. Here it implies espresso stained with a little milk. In Latte Macchiato(above), it implies milk or latte stained with espresso.

Caffè Mocha [ka-fay MOH-kah]
A blend of two of the worlds most romantic flavors of coffee and chocolate. A cup of Caffè Mocha consists of  espresso (1/3rd) combined with chocolate syrup and a liberal amount (2/3rd) of foamy steamed milk. The chocolate used is either milk chocolate or dark chocolate depending on preparations. It is often served with fresh whipped cream as topping.
Trivia: A few centuries ago, Mocha was actually a port in Yemen that was a major center for the coffee trade and its name became associated with the chocolatey-tasting coffee bean that was its hottest export.

Cappuccino [kap-poo-CHEE-noh]
Possibly the only variety of coffee the average Indian has frequently come across. Cappuccino is essentially a Caffe Latte, with comparatively lesser steamed milk and topped with milk foam. Arguably the most important part of a Cappuccino is the velvety foam atop the cup that gives you the milky moustache that clings to your upper lip. The foam's surface may be dusted with sweetened cocoa powder or cinnamon
Trivia: The name Cappuccino comes from Cappuchin priests who have the center of their heads shaved (white milk foam), surrounded by a ring of brown hair (the ring of coffee).

These are the basic varieties of hot coffee. Every other item on the menu are more or less derivatives of these.

Cafè Frappè or Frappe
These basically refer to varieties of cold coffee, usually made from instant coffee that may be topped with whipped cream. The types of cold coffee vary from coffee shop to coffee shop. 

You may not find the following trio in your neighborhood store, but I felt it is essential to write about these two. You will find them interesting

Irish Coffee [Coffee + Whiskey]
Beware - This is essentially coffee 'spiked' with whiskey! Irish Coffee is a cocktail of hot coffee and Irish Whiskey topped with thick cream.
Trivia: Sugar is added to Irish coffee to enable the thick cream to float atop the cocktail.

Kopi Luwak [The world's most expensive coffee]
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling as high as Rs. 27,500(600 US$) for as little as 450grams!  
Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee and Luwak is a local name of the Asian palm Civet (a small cat like mammal). If you were wondering why there is a cat connection in this coffee, here's why. These fussy foragers feed on the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system break down the flesh of the fruit, read on, before the animals expel the bean along with their stools.Workers now collect the faeces and the beans are washed away from the dung, and roasted to produce a unique drink that devotees might say is good to the last dropping. Very very interesting!!!

Kahlua [The coffee liqueur]
Kahlua is a liqueur made from coffee and is originally from Mexico. The alcohol content of Kahlúa varies between 20.0% and 35% depending on individual markets. Kahlua is used to prepare well known cocktails like Baby Guinness, Mudslide, Black Russian etc.