Latte, Mocha and Cappuccino

What happens when you are tired with work? And not in mood to eat you mid-day meal? Add to the fact that it's a Friday, and it is raining heavily.

That's the time when Coffee becomes your lunch.

That was the case yesterday. 

With a Cafe Coffee Day outlet in office offering its fare at prices much cheaper than those at regular outlets, coffee has become a regular lunch for quite a few people.

I like coffee - rather, I should say, I like sweet coffee. 

Now that is something which is quite contradictory to the inherent bitter taste of coffee itself. But that is the way I like my coffee. :-)

Latte is my favorite. 

Frankly, I don't know the difference between a Latte, or a Mocha, or a Cappuccino. But after years of having attempted each of these at-least once, I have come to the conclusion that Latte best suits my taste buds. Needless to say, it has to be spiced up with generous quantities of sugar.

I had requested for a Latte yesterday.  My friend was going for a Mocha. But the outlet operator, under pressure for serving the queue of people thronging his outlet, prepared a Cappuccino for me.

I insisted on a Latte. But then he gave me a look - a look which said that he cannot do anything with the Cappuccino and it will go waste. He said, "It's the same. Latte just has additional froth".

The accommodating person in my inside raised a voice and said,"It's OK" and I took that cup of cappuccino. And at the same time, I made a note in my mind to find out what exactly is the difference between these three types of coffee.

Now before going to the three types of coffee, it's better to understand about Espresso.

What is Espresso? Espresso is a concentrated coffee beverage prepared by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee.

There are said to be several techniques of brewing coffee. However, Espresso is said to offer thicker consistency, better cream(foam) and and thicker concentration of the dissolved solids.

Next comes Latte.

Latte is a type of coffee made with Espresso and steamed milk. It is also topped with a layer of foamed milk. And as per some standards, the layer of foamed milk is supposed to be approximately half an inch.

And if you are interested in how to make a Latte, then you can check out this website. 

Moving on to Cappuccino.

Cappuccino is quite similar to Latte, prepared with espresso, hot milk and steamed milk-froth.

Slightly different from the Latte, it has a froth layer of 3/4 of an inch.

And last come Mocha.

Once again, its quite similar to Latte - consisting of one third espresso and two thirds of steamed milk. However, it is spiced with with chocolate - usually in the form of chocolate syrup or chocolate cocoa powder.

All these types of coffees are best served at commercial establishments. They require a special Espresso brewer which would definitely be costly. And preparing them would require special techniques and talent too.

As for the humble souls - who dont have the material or the talent to prepare these exquisite drinks, we have the eternal favorite.

Needless to say, it's Nescafe.

This is instant coffee at it's best. So go ahead, and enjoy your cup of coffee!!