No Reservations: The Coffee Posse
When I was growing up, espresso and cappuccino were exotic drinks, something you got at the Cafe Remo in the West Village. Later, in Cambridge, I discovered an espresso machine the height of cool, as far as I was concerned in the cafeteria in the Harvard Science Center. And the espresso machine we got as a wedding gift was, for me, the best present in the bunch.
For the last five years or so, it’s been all lattes all the time. Still, you can get tired of so much milk, so last year I went back to cappuccinos. After the 10th cappuccino that was indistinguishable from a latte, I started drinking macchiatos. But it got me thinking: What’s the difference among the three drinks? And where do you go to get a good one?
According to a Culinary Institute of America handout, a macchiato is “espresso ’stained’ with foam,” a cappuccino is “equal parts of espresso, steamed milk, and foam,” and a latte is “espresso and more milk than a cappuccino, generally without foam.” Where does a tall macchiato from Starbucks fit into that classification scheme? What about the leaf pattern a good barista can draw in the steamed-milk foam?
So I put together a Coffee Posse and set out to sample some of the Valley’s offerings. We planned to order a macchiato, a cappuccino and a latte at each place. No sugar. We’d line them up, and work our way from the macchiato to the latte, evaluating the drinks on the basis of taste and adherence to the Platonic ideal, or at least our definition of it. We were looking for a good espresso taste in the macchiato, only a little milk in the cappuccino, and the taste of hot milk in the latte.
We started in Amherst, at RAO’S (17 Kellogg St.; www.raoscoffee.com) and AMHERST COFFEE (28 Amity St.; www.amherstcoffee.com). Rao’s espresso was slightly bitter in the macchiato, and it worked best in the latte. The cappuccino was right on the money and had the tallest foam of any we tasted. In the macchiato, Amherst Coffee’s espresso was less bitter than Rao’s, but lacked a strong coffee finish. The cappuccino was low foam and the latte, which was the best of the three, lacked a hot milk taste.
Our third stop of the day was ESSELON CAFE, where we ran into Scott Rao. Scott had a hand in both Rao’s and Esselon, but is now a private citizen with ties to neither. Esselon offers something called a Flat White, which is between a macchiato and a cappuccino. We included it in our tasting for the sake of completeness. We decided that the macchiato was the best yet, with a slight bitterness and a good finish. The Flat White was steamed froth and a little milk and the best of the three milk-based drinks. There wasn’t much difference between the cappuccino and the latte.
After a not-so-brief discussion with Rao which amounted to a graduate seminar in barista science, we were stuffed with details the amount of suspended material in the various drinks (up to 30 percent in Italian espresso), the length of a pull (between 5 and 10 seconds of steam through the grounds), and the source of most espresso (Brazilian beans). I already knew that espresso contains less caffeine than regular coffee due to the roasting process, but that steaming is a more efficient way of extracting caffeine, which is why espresso has such a kick.
We suspended our investigations while I spent a week in Seattle, for reasons unrelated to the survey. My first macchiato at PEET’S, a San Francisco-based chain, was startling. The espresso was as dark as possible without being burnt, with chocolate-like overtones, absolutely no oil or bitterness, and an intensity that required additional sugar. A lot of suspended solids in that one.
The espresso in Seattle is generally a dark and chocolaty roast. I noticed that the baristas fill the filter head, then pack it down and add additional grounds, which accounts for some of the richness. The cost is about the same as in western Massachusetts, with espresso and macchiato hovering between $1.50 and $2.50 and the cappuccino and latte ranging between $2 and $3.
When I got back to town the Posse resumed its tastings. Our first stop was WOODSTAR CAF (60 Masonic St., Northampton). The macchiato was not as strong as the Seattle blends, and a little oily. The cappuccino was high foam with no milk, with one last little sip of foam to wash down the espresso. Not standard, but good.
At Florence Center’s CUP AND TOP CAFE (1 North Main St.; www.cupandtop.com), each drink was nicely done, despite the noon lunch rush. When I ordered the macchiato, my counter person looked troubled. “Do you want a Starbucks macchiato or a regular one?” She explained that many people were disappointed that Cup and Top’s macchiato is “only” a small cup of espresso with a topping of foam instead of the giant Starbucks’ drink. The cappuccino was a dead-on combination of milk and foam and the latte was mostly milk. The coffee was a little oily, but overall, the espresso stood on its own.
HAYMARKET CAFE (185 Main St., Northampton) doesn’t have macchiato so I compared the cappuccino and latte. The cap was high-foam and the espresso was dark and the most like Seattle’s. The espresso taste came through nicely with the cappuccino, a little less so with the milkier latte.
LA FIORENTINA PASTRY SHOP’s Northampton branch (19 Armory St.) was our last stop. The macchiato was done right, but the espresso was the most bitter of those I tasted. The latte had a good hot milk taste.
There are dozens of other places we didn’t get to. Your experiences will probably vary based on barista and time of day. Unless you’re planning to move to Seattle, your best bet is to find a place that has espresso to your taste and work with your barista to get as much milk and/or foam as you need. And, as far as pastries go, you’re on your own. For now.
Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Friday, September 07, 2007.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:23 am
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