Café au Lait: How to prepare a first-class coffee with milk
Café au Lait is a classic coffee speciality from France that is also very popular in Germany. The combination of coffee and hot milk creates a mild taste that many people love. If you, as a coffee lover, prepare your own Café au Lait, you can enjoy an even more aromatic taste.
To help you achieve this, we have summarized the most important preparation tips for you in this article. You will learn what a Café au Lait is, how it differs from other coffee specialties and what you should bear in mind when preparing it. We will also introduce you to the aromatic coffee beans and the right accessories from Coffee Annan.
How is a café au lait prepared?
Café au Lait is made from equal parts coffee and hot milk.
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What is the difference between Café au Lait and Caffè Latte?
Café au Lait is a French coffee with milk, whereas Caffè Latte is the Italian version with a double espresso.
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What should you keep in mind when preparing Café au Lait?
You should use coffee beans with low acidity to prepare a café au lait.
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Coffee beans from Coffee Annan for your Café au Lait:
Coffee Annan’s coffee beans are of particularly high quality and have an intense flavour.
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How is a café au lait prepared?
Café au Lait comes from France and means “coffee with milk”. The coffee specialty is made from equal parts coffee and milk. Its high milk content makes Café au Lait a particularly mild and popular coffee specialty.
Usually, a strong filter coffee is brewed - but depending on your taste, a double espresso can also be used. This is then poured over hot milk.
In France, Café au Lait is traditionally drunk for breakfast. It is served in a bol, a large bowl without a handle. Café au Lait is often served with a piece of baguette or croissant. In France, the croissant is usually dipped in the coffee.
Risk of confusion between Café au Lait and Café Crème
There are various terms used around Café au Lait that can lead to confusion. Café au Lait is made with milk, as its name suggests. In Paris, however, it is often sold as Café crème. In other French cities, however, a Café crème is coffee with cream. So if you want to enjoy a coffee specialty in France, it can't hurt to ask for more details.
What is the difference between Café au Lait and Caffè Latte?
Café au Lait, café au lait, caffè latte – the terms surrounding coffee with milk can be quite confusing. Do you know the difference between café au lait and caffè latte?
A typical French Café au Lait is made from equal parts coffee and milk. The Caffè Latte, on the other hand, comes from Italy. It is made from a double espresso and hot milk. A Caffè Latte is often served with a thin layer of milk foam.
In Germany, people often talk about a café au lait. There is usually no difference between a café au lait and a café au lait: it is a coffee specialty made from the same amount of coffee and hot milk.
You may have heard the term café con leche. This is the Spanish version of a latte. In Spain, it is common to make café con leche with espresso. This makes it much stronger and darker. Spanish baristas sometimes add sugar to the café con leche to make it taste less bitter.
What should you keep in mind when preparing Café au Lait?
If you want to prepare a Café au Lait, there are a few things to consider. The choice of coffee beans is crucial: darker roasts are traditionally used for a Café au Lait. These have less acid, which goes particularly well with the high milk content of the coffee specialty.
Traditionally, whole milk is used to make Café au Lait. Nowadays, however, plant-based milk alternatives can also be used. Oat drinks in particular can be easily frothed for a wide variety of coffee specialties.
It is crucial that coffee and milk are used in equal parts to obtain the authentic taste of a café au lait.
Coffee beans from Coffee Annan for your Café au Lait
You should use high-quality coffee beans for your Café au Lait. These should match the high milk content as well as possible and impress with their natural flavors.
We recommend our Kenya Specialty Coffee Filter Roast . It grows in Kenya at 1,800 to 2,100 meters above sea level. The coffee beans have less acidity, which makes their taste ideal for a café au lait. They impress with flavors of cherry tomato, blackberry and plum.
Coffee Annan's coffee beans are roasted directly in the country where they are grown: this ensures a fairer distribution of money along the entire value chain. Normally, coffee leaves its country of origin as raw material and is then roasted abroad. This means that profits are distributed unfairly.
At Coffee Annan, we have a mission: We roast our coffee beans directly in the country where they are grown, thereby promoting fair wages and local economic development. If you choose our Kenya Specialty Coffee Filter Roast, you will become an important part of our movement.
What equipment do I need to prepare a Café au Lait?
To make your Café au Lait a success, you not only need the right coffee beans. Your other equipment is also important to ensure that you make the coffee speciality a success.
The name Café au Lait already indicates how important milk is for the drink. Do you want to froth milk? Then we recommend our Fellow Eddy Milk Pitchers . Depending on the model, the milk jug has a capacity of 354 to 532 ml. It is ideal for elegantly pouring milk foam, but can also help you create latte art.
For your Café au Lait you will also need a coffee maker . We recommend our Fellow Clara French Press . The French Press is particularly robust and easy to use and clean. It has a capacity of 700 ml and is therefore ideal for preparing Café au Lait for the whole family.
If you want to grind your coffee beans yourself, you will also need a coffee grinder . You can choose between manual and electric models. They allow you to grind your coffee beans to the perfect degree of fineness in order to prepare the most delicious coffee specialties.
Frequently asked questions about coffee with milk & its calories
How many calories a café au lait has depends on the milk you choose. As a rule, a café au lait has 64 kcal per 100 ml. If it is made with low-fat milk, it only has 47 kcal. If you drink your café au lait with sugar, the calorie content increases significantly.
A café au lait usually has between 80 and 120 mg of caffeine. The caffeine content is relatively low because the café au lait is half milk. If you choose an Italian caffè latte, however, it has significantly more caffeine because it is made with espresso.
If you want to drink a café au lait from a bowl, the so-called bol, you should hold the bowl with both hands. In France, the bol, which has no handles, is traditionally always lifted with two hands.
Conclusion: Latte is more than just a drink made from coffee and milk
Are you in the mood for a café au lait? Can't wait to make a café au lait in your kitchen? You can buy the right coffee beans and accessories at Coffee Annan. We offer a wide range of equipment for coffee lovers, with which you can prepare the most delicious coffee specialties. Our coffee is grown under fair conditions and roasted directly in the country where it is grown - this means that around 50% of the value of the coffee remains in the country where it is grown. Our coffee not only tastes good, it has a big impact in the country where it is grown.