Café Style Kahlúa Latte

Are we loving this machine? Well…yeah!

When we joined forces with Breville Canada for some sponsored posts, I immediately knew that I wanted to make at least one cold and one hot espresso-based drink recipe to showcase this amazing espresso machine. I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am with our Barista Express. There’s a slight chance I might be caffeinating a little too much lately. Can I blame it on educating myself as an at-home barista and doing a wee bit of taste-testing? 😉

First…the cold one.

I started out with a cold espresso-based drink recipe. Why cold? Well, because I wanted the hot drink to include latte art, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that just yet.

Our “Great Canadian Frozpresso” was a hit at home and on the blog! This drink resembles many of the blended espresso drinks at popular coffee shops. Our twist was that we sweetened it with maple syrup during the blending process. In case you’re wondering, the cold temperature doesn’t hide the coffee flavour, so be sure to use quality fresh beans and grind them just before using them. Not all beans are created equally. As the saying goes, “you get what you pay for”.

Latte Art.

After lots and lots of research, I came to the conclusion that there’s a lot more to the “art” part than just the  final design on the top of the drink. All the conditions and technique need to be spot-on to make a great latte. It starts with perfectly pulled espresso with just the right amount of crema. The second step is to steam your milk without creating large bubbles until it resembles wet paint when you swirl it in the stainless steel milk jug. The last step is to carefully pour the milk into the expresso base. The height and pour speed matter a lot!

Now for the hot one…

For our hot espresso-based beverage recipe, I decided to go with a grown-up drink. Hello Kahlúa! I know that sweetening coffee with Kahlúa is nothing new….and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I wanted to add a different element to how we used the Kahlúa in our coffee. I wanted to texture the micro-foam with the Kahlúa instead of adding it later to the finished coffee. Would it work?

The answer is yes, but it was a bit of a fail before getting there. I couldn’t seem to texture the milk properly (not getting the wet paint consistency). Then I had the ah-ha moment! I know that it’s important to use very cold milk to get the right micro-foam, and here I was adding room temperature Kahlúa to the cold milk. So for my next attempt, I poured the Kahlúa into the milk jug first and placed it in the freezer for 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can keep the bottle in the fridge. I then added the milk to the jug and proceeded to texture the milk. This was perfect!

My design? Well… 🙂

As you can see in our picture, my design is still far from perfect, so I won’t try to teach our readers how to make beautiful designs. I’m getting the gist of it, but I have a lot of practicing to do still. I’m ok with that.

I can confidently say that I have the right tools to for the job. Our Barista Express makes an amazing coffee and perfect micro foam–which is what a latte is all about. So the design work on top…that’s in my hands, and that’s secondary to me.

But I’m stubborn and persistent. I’ll keep practicing my design work and I’m sure I’ll be making trees, flowers and hearts in no time.

Now get out there and learn a new skill! As always, don’t forget to eat drink (responsibly) well, friends!