Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical.

Coffee has been a love interest of mine for many, many years, but it wasn’t until my first trip to Italy that I truly discovered how rich and divine a beverage these beans can yield.

Upon waking for breakfast my first day in Venice, I was served a steaming pitcher filled with espresso and a second with steamed milk. My own fault, really, because I wanted coffee, asked for caffè and then, fearing that it wouldn’t come with milk, followed it up with an “uh… latte“. Little did I know that what I was getting was actually what they always serve and so not out of the ordinary at all.

Asking how one typically mixes and drinks the combination, I was instructed by my Italian host to simply mix them half-and-half in my cup and enjoy. What a round, full and smooth combination that made! And every day during my entire time in Italy that year I started my morning with that same combination - as do many Italians.

Of course, after returning to the States I was consistently let-down and disappointed in every coffee experience following my Italian renaissance. It wasn’t until I found a regular cafe with quality espresso, quality milk and a friendly owner that I was able to roughly duplicate the beverage – and bless his soul, I was even able to keep my own ceramic mug behind the counter to use every day.

My days of having a regular schedule and a regular cafe have long since passed, and the constant travel that is now my life requires me to carefully instruct at each cafe. Cities that sport good baristas at good cafe’s are easy of course – and the drink is usually fantastic – but many times I find myself up against a “barista” who is really just a “server” at a “cafe” that is really just a “coffee shop”, and even if my instructions are perfectly followed, the drink is second-rate.

But what, really, is it that I’m after? About a month ago, Lokesh Dhakar published a fantastic and fun little diagram on his blog titled Coffee Drinks Illustrated. It proved to be quite popular, receiving many comments and coverage from other big blogs such as Boing Boing, and it even spawned a Cafe Press line of shirts, mugs, posters and more. Unfortunately, what has come to be my favorite coffee beverage was not represented.

No fault of anyone’s of course. As it turns out, the name of the beverage in question is, as with many coffee concoctions, in dispute.

The closest that the diagram gets is a flat white – which is an Aussie term, and actually proves quite useful in describing some attributes of this ideal caffè e latte. The “flat” in a flat white comes from the fact that there is no foam – it’s flat on top. And that’s part of the point. A cappuccino would be great if it weren’t for all the damn foam. It’s one third espresso, one third steamed milk and one third milk foam. Eliminate the foam and you have the perfect 50/50 ratio. And what’s the point of all the foam, anyway? It merely provides an obstacle to push past in order to get to the creamy reward below! A barrier in the way of extreme sipping pleasure. A flat white eliminates this problem.

The flat white goes one step further though. If we are to believe the comment left by “elissaf” on the diagram’s page, the milk in a flat white is steamed at (or to) a lower temperature than in a cappuccino, allowing it to retain a more creamy quality than you’d find with a cappuccino. So while the ideal drink in question could be similar to a cappuccino senza schiuma - cappuccino with no foam - it would be significantly more creamy – exactly as I got in Italy, as the milk had not been frothed, only steamed.

Due to regional differences, I’ve been unable to pinpoint a name for my choice of drink. It’s a flat white with a bit more espresso. Or perhaps it’s just a standard Spanish cafe con leche or Italian caffè e latte, mixed to my own proportional preferences. But the key points are this:

–Good espresso (a given)
–Quality milk and water (another given)
–Steamed - not frothed - milk. Must stop shy of frothing temperature.
–No foam.
–A mixture that is almost half espresso and half steamed milk. The balance is delicate and left up to the “art” of preparation, hence the ambiguity in my own diagram at the top of the page.

While I have never equaled the magic of the Italian version while in the States – I think that Italians are simply born knowing how to make perfect espresso – I’ve certainly had some very good approximations. Still though, being on the road and often in strange places that don’t know what good coffee is, I’ve had to come up with some solutions. Thankfully I’ve found two things that make a very good coffee on the road possible.

Bialetti “Mukka Express” Moka Pot

This moka pot is brilliant. It works just as a normal moka pot does, but has the added advantage of being able to simultaneously steam or froth milk. Simply prepare the moka pot as usual, then put your milk in the upper chamber prior to heating. This little piece of beautifully simplistic though inspired engineering makes the espresso, steams the milk and combines the two in one deft action.

Of course you will need some sort of burner unit, but many hotels have small stoves and, if you’re simply unable to find any burner unit, there are a wide variety of extremely small, extremely lightweight portable burner units available that you can take with you.

trivia: Bialetti is the inventor of the moka pot, now a standard item in every Italian household.

Illy Coffee

Introduced to me years ago by my dear friend Chehalis, Illy coffee is simply the best coffee that one can purchase pre-ground (easier while on the road). Not only do they manage to procure, roast and blend their coffees into a remarkably consistent product, the fears associated with purchasing, storing and traveling with pre-ground coffee are virtually eliminated. Why you ask? Because Illy, almost since the beginning, has been using a specialized method to package and preserve coffee that cuts down on many of the chemical processes that lead to the terrible taste of anything but the most freshly ground coffee. I’m not saying that it’s as good as great coffee roasted well and ground fresh, but it’s damn close. Besides, their cans are oh so very attractive!

trivia: Francesco Illy is the inventor – in 1935 - of the first automatic espresso machine.

special note: I’ve just learned that Illy now makes a special coffee specifically for moka pots. I have never tried it and haven’t any idea what’s different – the grind perhaps – but if it’s anything like the rest of their products, it’s worth finding out.

Combine these two and voilà, a coffee drinker’s dream come true - and while on the road, no less!

Now if I can just figure out what to call my favorite drink…

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tags: francesco illy, barista, bialetti, cafe, coffee, coffee drinks, espresso, flat white,lokesh dhakar,caffè e latte,cappuccino,cappuccino senza schiuma,cafe con leche, gourmet coffee, illy, moka pot, specialty coffee

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at Sep 14, 07 | 1:11 am and is filed under Coffee, Featured Articles, Just Noumenon Posts, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.