Latte and cappuccino use exactly the same ingredients. They are espresso, milk, and milk foam. Although the two use the same ingredients, but! Their amounts differ. And it is precisely the different amounts of ingredients used that gives latte and cappuccino completely different expressions. For example, their taste: latte is sweet, cappuccino is bitter, and this is the result caused by more or less milk.

Differences in Taste

As mentioned earlier, the taste of latte is sweeter compared with other milk coffees. The reason is simple: this cup of coffee contains a relatively large proportion of milk.

Qianjie uses Qianjie Specialty Espresso Blend coffee beans to make latte coffee. This is an espresso bean made from a combination of Colombian washed coffee beans + Brazilian semi-washed coffee beans, with flavor notes of nuts, dark chocolate, and caramel, and is a perfect match for milk. In order to make the latte's mouthfeel more balanced, the ratio of espresso to milk is 1:5, 40ml espresso and about 200ml milk.

The presence of a large amount of milk dilutes the bitterness of the coffee, which reduces the burden brought by the coffee's rich bitterness, and the milk can achieve a balance with the taste of the coffee. So the reason people often say latte's taste suits all ages is that it is not that bitter.

Cappuccino is the counterpart to that; it uses relatively less milk, because the aim is to use a small amount of milk to enhance the overall texture and make the coffee flavor stand out more!

The cappuccino coffee and milk ratio produced by Qianjie is 1:4, with 40ml of espresso and 160ml of milk, a full 40ml less than a latte. Therefore, because the milk in a cappuccino cannot compete with the coffee flavor, the coffee flavor stands out more. When you drink it, you will sense more coffee flavor, which is to say it tastes more bitter.

The difference in milk foam

Besides cup volume, the two also have another notable distinguishing feature, and that is the thickness of the milk foam! Cappuccino milk foam is thicker than latte milk foam, and the foam rises above the rim of the cup itself, with a thickness of roughly 2~3cm, while latte milk foam is only in the range of 0.5~1cm.

The milk foam affects coffee mainly in two ways, and the first is mouthfeel! When the milk foam in the cup is thicker, it means that more foam has been created by steaming, and when we drink the coffee we can naturally feel a more dense mouthfeel. Cappuccino is a good example: take a shallow sip and you may not even reach the coffee underneath, enjoying the dense sensation of the milk foam; and when the milk foam in the cup is thinner, it means we can reach the coffee beneath the foam more quickly, so compared with thick foam, a thin-foam latte may not have as dense a mouthfeel, but it is smoother.

The second effect is in latte art! Most of those varied, highly difficult latte art patterns we often see come from latte coffee. Why? Because the thickness of the milk foam affects the fluidity of the whole thing (milk and milk foam)!

The thinner the milk foam, the higher the fluidity, so we can more easily sway out fine lines and make patterns of relatively high complexity; and when the milk foam is thicker, the fluidity is lower. Milk foam as thick as cappuccino foam can hardly be used to draw fine lines by swaying, so most of the time cappuccino is only made with a simple large white heart, because it cannot be pushed, or no pattern is poured at all.

In summary, we can see that the main differences between a latte and a cappuccino lie in the cup volume and the thickness of the milk foam. Because a latte has a larger cup volume and more milk, the flavors of milk and coffee can reach a balance when drinking it, and it is sweeter. At the same time, because the milk foam is thinner, many complex latte art patterns can be made; whereas a cappuccino has a smaller cup volume and less milk, so the coffee flavor stands out more. At the same time, because of the thick milk foam, we can experience a more dense sensation. If you want it even simpler, then... latte sweet, cappuccino bitter! It is that simple~