Archive for the ‘espresso’ tag
Making Eggnog Lattes From Scratch: My Recipe
They say everything tastes better if you make it yourself. Well if that’s the case, then perhaps this is greatest beverage on earth. This holiday season, I’ve been developing my own eggnog latte recipe. Homemade ‘nog, brewed with own espresso machine, with my home roasted beans.
There are about a million eggnog recipes out there, but mine is probably the only one that is customized for lattes. Here it is:
Andy’s Latte ‘Nog
In my opinion, the key to a good eggnog latte is to keep it light but not thin. If you’re buying eggnog for making a latte, the light ‘nog will steam better and work with the espresso. Most eggnog recipes you’ll find are very heavy (and calorific!), and don’t work well with espresso. This one is a lot lighter while still using real eggs.
Five Reasons to Love the Latte
I’ve been a fan of the latte for a long time. Back in college, I started drinking lattes because I was too lazy to go buy more chocolate for mochas. Today, I’m hooked!
Not convinced? Then you need this list.
1. Lattes are simple!
A latte is essentially steamed milk with espresso. That’s it. You’d think that would be a boring drink, but if you froth the milk just right, it actually comes out to be a smooth, very textured drink.
Espresso: Coffee’s Delicious Cyborg Cousin
Espresso machines brew at enormous pressure – about 13 atmospheres. That means the pressure in your espresso machine is 13 times the pressure of our current atmosphere. To give you a sense of just how much pressure we’re talking about, your car tires are at about 2.4 atmospheres.
Prior to the industrial revolution, it’s was never practical to mass-produce a machine with such high pressure, so the idea of espresso never really occurred to anybody. Once steam powered machines became more prevalent, however, people discovered that brewing coffee under such high pressure extracted more oils from the grounds.
Now coffee itself has been around for thousands of years. So, relative to the whole history of coffee itself, espresso is quite a recent innovation in coffee technology. That’s why I call it “Coffee’s Delicious Cyborg Cousin”.