What is a Cafe Latte?

Greg Suekoff: My name is Greg Suekoff and we are here at the Caffe Pronto Coffee Roastery and I am here showing you how to make the perfect latte. Right now, I would like to talk a little bit about the ingredients in a Caffe Latte and what makes a Latte different from other espresso based drinks. The main difference between a latte and say a Cappuccino or a Macchiato is the amount of coffee and milk ratio. In a Macchiato, we have a very small amount of milk, it tends to be a 1:1 ratio of espresso to milk. A Cappucino has a 3:1 ratio of milk to espresso and a Latte has a 4:1 ratio. While these drinks share the same ingredients, which are espresso and milk, the way they are assembled are slightly different. The big difference between a Cappuccino and a Latte in addition to the proportions is the amount of foam that goes into a Cappuccino. A Cappuccino tends to have a a thicker head of foam than a Latte. The Caffe Latte as we serve it has a ten ounces total, two shots of espresso for about 2.5 ounces and the rest is comprised of microfoamed milk. Cafe Latte is a drink that's being made very popular in the United States mainly due to it's high volume of milk to espresso. So now that we know what the two main ingredients in a Cafe Latte are, which is steamed milk and espresso, I would like to show you know how to extract perfect shots of espresso.