How to Make the Perfect Cappuccino

One of the most important things you need to get a nice layer of froth is a good steam source. We've all seen how those fancy qualified baristas do it in cafe's, with their big professional coffee machines. Those machines come equipped with steam wands. You can usually find them towards the left or the right, next to the E61 group heads (those would be the things where you see the coffee come out of). Often the steam is taken directly from the machines copper boiler. This is a HX (heat exchange) process.

So what else do we need? That's right - milk! Believe it or not; the kind of milk you use will not only have a direct impact on the taste (or lack of) of the froth, but it also affects the froth texture. For example, skimmed milk will not taste as good as full cream milk, and it will also produce a lot less froth. Ok, so it might be healthier for you, but if healthy is what you want, go have a nice cold glass of water.

The coffee you use for the cappuccino is not as a big factor as you might think. Because you're adding so much milk to it, the taste gets heavily diluted. People that drink cappuccino are not considered 'real' coffee drinkers. For example, in Italy, people only drink milk based coffee in the morning, because it contains some additional nutrients and energy, to start off the day. After 12 noon, all you'll see people drink are espressos. If you go to a cafe and order a coffee, an espresso is what you get. When most of us go to our local cafe and order a coffee, we tend to get a long black served. This has the same amount of coffee, but more water.

So, rule of thumb for a perfect cappuccino is this; 1/3 coffee, 1/3 milk, 1/3 froth. In order to get a good froth, you simply need to use a metal milk jug, and heat it up with the steam wand. You hold the bottom of the jug in the palm of your hand - as soon as it gets too hot to hold, stop the steam. You then 'bang' the bottom of the jug on a solid surface once. The milk is ready to get poured now.

You can grab a teaspoon if you want, this helps with making sure you get enough froth out of the jug. Some baristas will tell you that you don't need a spoon, but hey, whatever gets the job done. Carefully pour 1/3 of milk in the coffee. Now gently start scraping out the froth, until you have a nice, thick layer of creamy froth. Personally I stop just at the edge of the cup, just to make sure I can still stir my sugar without making a big mess. You can top it of with a little sprinkle of chocolate powder.