21st Street Coffee and Tea

So if you haven’t noticed yet we no longer offer an “American-Style Cappuccino” and our “Traditional Cappuccino” is now simply known as… wait for it… waaaaiiiiit…

Why so picky? Are we getting snobby here? What is a cappuccino anyway? Isn’t that the stuff I get at the gas station that comes out of the machine and tastes like french vanilla?

To answer the above- we like to be specific/that’s your opinion/I’ll get into that in a sec/OH HELL NO!

According to Wikipedia (and we know the wikiweb is always right)…

Cappuccino is an Italian coffee-based drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and milk foam. A cappuccino differs from a caffé latte in that it is prepared with much less steamed or textured milk than the caffé latte with the total of espresso and milk/foam making up between approximately 150 ml and 180 ml (5 and 6 ounces). A cappuccino is traditionally served in a porcelain cup, which has far better heat retention characteristics than glass or paper. The foam on top of the cappuccino acts as an insulator and helps retain the heat of the liquid, allowing it to stay hotter longer..

On drink size- I pretty much agree with that description. In other words, it’s approximately a 6oz drink (half the size of our “small”) and contains equal parts espresso, steamed milk and dense foam. It is best enjoyed in a ceramic cup… what isn’t? We have to-go cups, but they’re 8oz so there will be a little room at the top. We recently abandoned the concept of the “American-style” cappuccino as it was confusing to some customers that really wanted the traditional drink I described above. If you want a 12/16/20oz drink with lots of densely textured milk we’re now calling that drink a dry latte.

On “milk and foam”- When we make a cappuccino, we do not differentiate between the steamed milk and foam, but we incorporate enough air into the milk while steaming it to essentially double the volume of the milk from it’s cold state. We then free pour the densely textured steamed milk over the espresso quickly to mix it all together. Regarding latte art… we don’t pour art with our capp’s. I usually try to pour a nice little heart on top, as that’s about the only think you can do given the thickness of the milk. The goal is to mix the coffee and milk together. If latte art in a small drink is what you’re after… order a cortado (basically a 5oz latte) as it has much “wetter” milk that is suitable for the detail of a rosetta or what have you. I’ve noticed in barista competitions that many folks are now pouring latte art in traditional-sized capp’s. I’m not going to say that it’s wrong, it’s just not the way we choose to do it. In this case we feel that it is best to uphold the integrity of the drink and prepare it the way it has been enjoyed for decades.

Anything else straying from these loose guidelines in my opinion is not a true cappuccino. If you want a flavored drink or something with dense creamy foam and you want a large we’ll do it, and it’ll probably be the best “one of those things flavored dry lattes” you’ve ever had. In my opinion, that isn’t being snobby. We’re just trying to use the correct language to describe a specific drink and hopefully one day most coffee drinkers will be using the same lingo. We’re still flexible, but we need to start calling a capp a capp.