Macchiato means "imprint, branding" in Italian. As the name suggests, its name, the Caramel Macchiato symbolizes the mark of sweetness.

Macchiato coffee is also a type of fancy coffee, which belongs to a classification of milk coffee, which is a mixture of milk and vanilla syrup, then milk foam, then coffee is poured, and finally a grid of caramel is drizzled on top of the milk foam.

When it comes to caramel macchiato, we have to mention its predecessor, which is another famous milk coffee, cappuccino.

Cappuccino is an Italian coffee blended with an equal amount of Italian espresso and steam frothy milk. The color of the coffee at this time, like that of the monks of the cappuccino church who covered a turban over a dark brown tunic gave the coffee its name. A traditional cappuccino is one-third espresso, one-third steamed milk, and one-third frothed milk, and sprinkled with small particles of cinnamon powder on top.

Cappuccinos are also divided into dry and wet types.

The so-called dry cappuccino refers to the conditioning method of more milk foam and less milk, and the coffee flavor is stronger than the milky aroma, which is suitable for people with heavy tastes. As for the wet cappuccino, it refers to the practice of less milk foam and more milk, and the milky aroma overshadows the strong coffee flavor, which is suitable for those with light taste. The flavor of a wet cappuccino is similar to that of a latte that is trending nowadays.

Generally speaking, cappuccinos have a heavier flavor than lattes, and if you are a lover of heavy flavors, dry cappuccinos are the best choice, but if you are not used to the strong coffee flavor, you can wet cappuccinos.

But the question of whether the cappuccino is dry or wet has been debated, and the question of how much milk should be added has always been a topic of great concern, and in the end, for those who want to enjoy the delicate and smooth milk foam of the cappuccino without giving up the pure aroma of espresso coffee, the Caramel Macchiato is probably the best choice.

Macchiato means a little bit in Italian, and a scoop or two of milk foam is added directly to a small shot of espresso. A cup of macchiato is done.

Many people love macchiato because of its sweetness, which is different from the heaviness of mocha coffee, which is light. If mocha is like dark chocolate, then macchiato is toffee, giving a soft and gentle feeling, and the delicate milk foam combined with caramel is as delicate and smooth as a floating cloud. So macchiato is usually a favorite of girls.

And macchiato also has ice. However, iced macchiatos are not foamed and are more popular in the summer, so you can add a serving of milk foam to the iced macchiato, so that you can pour caramel on top of the milk foam and give the light milk foam a different flavor.

The taste is icy and sweet, smooth and refreshing, and the macchiato with wine has also become popular in Asia in recent years, and is the most popular among young people.

And caramel macchiato, is actually an original drink from Starbucks, which is the name of a chain of coffee companies in the United States. Founded in 1971, it is the world's largest coffee chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA. Starbucks' retail products include more than 30 of the world's finest coffee beans, handcrafted espresso and a variety of hot and cold coffee beverages, fresh and delicious pastries, and a wide variety of coffee machines, coffee cups and more. Starbucks has nearly 21,300 stores in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific.

In the food service industry, the cost of building differentiation is very high, so it is difficult to attract customers through products and prices, and customers often agree with a service, but will not change for a long time, and will use this service stably for a long time, which is especially obvious among white-collar workers, who always have a psychological tendency to pursue stability. Therefore. Starbucks uses the "Heart-Attacking Strategy" to move customers and cultivate customer loyalty.

Starbucks' price positioning is "a luxury that most people can afford", and consumers are positioned as "white-collar workers". Most of these customers are high-class intellectuals, with a passion for boutiques, food and art. And it is a consumer class with a higher income and high loyalty.

So a coffee that is suitable for office girls, and has a gentle taste that evokes memories of youth, is developed by adding espresso and vanilla syrup to steamed milk, and then covering it with a unique caramel, sweet caramel macchiato.

Caramel Macchiato is made with vanilla syrup and creamy hot fresh milk, with a creamy milk foam. Blended with a mellow espresso and topped with a little soft caramel sauce, the sweet and mellow caramel macchiato is a great choice for coffee lovers to enjoy an espresso.

The caramel macchiato is not difficult to make, heat the fresh milk to 65 degrees Celsius, pour the appropriate amount of hot milk into the milk froth pot and whip it into milk foam.

The milk foam used for fancy coffee is different from the milk foam used for desserts, and the hand-beaten milk foam used to make desserts is obviously coarser, and the taste is hard, and the fluidity is slightly inferior, which is called dry milk foam, which is more suitable for plasticity.

The milk foam made by the machine is more suitable for making latte art than cotton, and the milk foam whipped by the machine is obviously more suitable for making latte art.

The milk frother is not like an electric egg blender through high speed to beat the ingredients, its special feature is that it is a tea brewer and a French press, in addition to milk foam, it can also be used to brew coffee, and the glass part can still enter the microwave oven, eliminating the cumbersome heating of milk, in fact, the milk frother was originally evolved from the siphon pot.

Of course, there is also a requirement to use a milk froth, first of all, the milk needs to be full, and it is best to have fresh milk with a shelf life of 7-10 days.

It was the first time for Sikong Yao to use this kind of utensil, so he also humbly consulted Lute, after all, in the field of desserts, this kind of equipment is not widely used.

Lute was also kind enough to explain to Sikong Yao: "The amount of milk, be careful not to exceed 1/2 of the body of the pot, and leave enough space for the milk to foam." Then heat the milk to 40 to 60 degrees Celsius, and be sure not to exceed 65 degrees, otherwise the protein structure in the milk will be destroyed, and the milk foam will be more difficult to beat. ”

Sikong Yao nodded, Lute is also an all-round chef, and he added: "If you need to make ice milk, the milk needs to be cooled to below 5 degrees, and of course, don't ice into ice slag." ”

Iced milk light is a liquid texture that is somewhat similar to smoothie but has a smoother taste, and is widely used in the field of beverages.

Sikong Yao nodded, she doesn't need to use ice milk light for the time being, ordinary milk foam is enough, pour fresh whole milk into the milk foamer pot and cover the lid, quickly pump the filter to press the air into the milk, the air begins to form pressure under the action of heat, and transpires the liquid into milk foam, and then as long as you take off the lid and strainer, you can use a spoon to scrape off the coarse milk foam on the surface, and get the delicate milk foam you want, I have to say that the use of tools is an excellent embodiment of human wisdom.

The International Association for the Study of Gastronomy has a variety of very accurate instruments that are also very easy to use, and can quickly measure the exact amount of ingredients, which can greatly shorten the cooking time, which makes Sikong Yao very satisfied.

French vanilla syrup 1 ounce, in order to avoid conflict with orange caramel, Sikong Yao can reduce the amount of vanilla syrup a little, first add syrup to the mug, pour milk to the middle of the cup, cover with milk foam, then pour in shot, so as to leave a mark on the milk foam, and finally pour and then drizzle with caramel sauce.

Caramel is generally boiled with white sugar, and the sugar will caramelize when it encounters heat to produce a special flavor, so as the name suggests, it is burnt caramel, but white sugar has almost no nutrition, so brown sugar is also another good material for making caramel, brown sugar refers to sucrose that has not been highly refined and decolorized, although it looks bad and has more particle impurities, but the nutrients are better retained, because they have to go through the process of cooking and coking, but there is no so-called good or not good-looking problem.

And the taste of brown sugar is obviously softer than white sugar, so Sikong Yao chose brown sugar, put the sifted brown sugar in the pot, pour 25 grams of cold water, and heat the pot over low heat. As the heat rises, the sugar will gradually dissolve and begin to bubble up. There is no need to stir during the heating process.

Gradually, the foam becomes more and more, and at this time, you need to wait patiently, stop stirring, and wait for the color of the powdered sugar to change, if you can't help but stir it, you won't be able to get a satisfactory caramel, and it will paste directly.

After heating for a while, the color of the brown sugar begins to change, and a slightly charred yellow color appears, at this time, you can only gently shake the small pot to make the color of the sugar even, while keeping the heat on low until the color of the sugar is getting darker and darker.

Then came the most critical moment, Sikong Yao kept an eye on the color of the sugar, and when it turned burnt red, before it reached a deep amber color, he immediately turned off the heat and poured in the freshly warm orange juice and boiling whipped cream.

The moment it was poured in, the syrup boiled violently in an instant, Sikong Yao used a wooden spoon to fully stir the sugar sauce, and sat the pot in a basin of cold water, and continued to stir, so that the syrup could cool down quickly.

When the syrup becomes "calm" and even, you can put it aside and wait for it to cool completely, Sikong Yao is finally relieved, cooking caramel is a very time-consuming time, if there is a slight mistake, it will be burned directly, and the whole process is much more difficult than it seems.

The freshly boiled hot syrup looks relatively thin, and when it cools, it will turn into a thick caramel sauce, if you put the caramel sauce in a glass bottle and store it in the refrigerator, you can use it as you go, of course, Sikong Yao needs to pour it on the surface of the macchiato as soon as possible. (To be continued.) )