a third, a third, a third

1/3 espresso
1/3 steamed milk
1/3 steamed milk foam

This is considered the "correct" way to make a Cappuccino.


But I'd just like to take a second and explore this concept from my previous experiences with milk and foam and espresso....

"correct" according to who?  and why?

Coffee snobbery is fun and all, as is the culture of foods and beverages in any and every culture and what each culture values as traditional and carries on to their next generation, which is beautiful!....example...

Gnocchi.....flour, potatoes, egg, salt.
It feeds a freaking load of people for very, very cheap.
It takes a really freaking long time to make.
It was a depression era food that remained popular in Buenos Aires because of the fact that it was very cheap to make for a great big family dinner, ergo, making it remains a staple in Argentinian culture passed on from generation to generation!  Cool!

Of course the art of coffee making is a beautiful thing...but where and with who?!?  
Making the assumption that their is only one correct way to make a certain beverage...for real?

A great example of this...a Starbucks Macchiato...yep....this is supposed to be a little splash of espresso with a baby dallop of milk foam....

photo found at www.starbucks.com

Personally...I'd drink that over a real macchiato any day!  Nom nom nom!  Talk about dessert!

No one needs a cappuccino to survive in this world....it is a decadence to extremes...which makes it a bit of a joke to me...spending extra money on milk foam....air that's been power blasted into a liquid to create this little fluffy stuff that will only exist for a few minutes before it's consumed...it's just kind of cute!  At this point, who cares how much foam there is to milk and espresso...really?  This being said, you can tell I'm a latte type girl, can't you?!?  Perhaps there's some magic in glugging down foam that I don't know about?  Good for the digestion or something?!? 

Let me give you a an idea of where I'm coming from...the exact adverse amigo to my friend the cappuccino?  Senor Nescafe.

A year ago, I wrote this blog about my love/hate relationship with nescafe in Santiago, Chile.



For most of the world, a coffee is this!  Powdered crystalized flakes stirred into hot/hottish/tepid water to create brownish black liquid known throughout the second and third, heck, even first worlds as the only kind of "coffee" some people will ever want/have to drink.

In most of the countries where beans are grown, the majority of people can't afford those beans and drink this instead.  I became pretty fond of it most of the time and get cravings for it once in a while now....although I had dreams of our American sized mugs of joe...mmm.....

So...all that being said, I have no freaking problem with Americans defining our own style of "cappucinno" being a big ass cup with some shots of espresso and filled to the brim with with high calcium levels of locally produced high quality milk and a ton of magic foam.  If we are going to do something, we might as well do it all out!  It's the American way!  Take something fun or interesting from another culture and make it bigger!

Sure....the rest of the world ...meaning...a few select cities with great wealth and 1,000's of years of traditions and cultures did/do/will do it a certain way....guess what!  We aren't them!  It aint gonna happen!  And I love that!

stump town coffee on our trip to Seattle, 2009

In Chile, the closest I got to an American style latte was a cortado.  A little measly bit o' espresso with a little teeny sip of milk....for the same price as our American giganto calcium fortified satisfying cardboard 20 ounce cup that we HAVE to carry around with us after purchasing, because there's no possible way we could finish it in one gulp full within the cafe.  Now THAT'S satisfaction!

So yeah.  American pride and what not...our style of coffee consumption, however impossible it really is to mimic in any other country in the world besides here, is a culture in itself, over indulgence to an extreme and I in my moment of self love admit that I absolutely love it!!!!
a third, a third, a third,....go $%^# yourself!
(meant in the nicest way possible of course)