The menu board at an Australian coffee shop lists more types of coffee than many coffee lovers could name. To anyone who isn’t a regular, the board can read like another language. Learn the few building blocks behind them and the whole menu becomes easy to read.
The Espresso Shot Behind Every Australian Coffee
Nearly all the types of coffee at an Australian café are built on a shot of espresso. Espresso is made by forcing hot water through finely ground coffee beans. Most popular coffee types use either a single shot or a double shot. This concentrated shot of coffee is the base for the rest of the menu, where nearly every other drink adds water, milk, or both to it.
Short Black and Long Black Coffee Drinks
The simplest types of coffee are the short black and the long black, both served without milk. A short black is a straight shot of espresso on its own. It has the full, bold taste of the coffee with nothing added.
A long black is made by pouring a shot of espresso over hot water. With water added, a long black is milder than a short black but still has a strong coffee flavour. The espresso goes in last, which keeps the crema on top.
Macchiato and Piccolo
The macchiato and the piccolo are two small types of coffee that add only a little milk to espresso. The word macchiato means stained in Italian, with the name referring to the small dash of steamed milk or milk foam.
A piccolo, sometimes called a piccolo latte, uses a single shot of espresso topped with a small amount of steamed milk. With more milk than a macchiato, a piccolo tastes smooth and sweet while the coffee still comes through.
Flat White, Latte, and Cappuccino: Milk Coffees
Milk coffees are the most popular types of coffee in Australia and the core of its coffee culture.
A flat white is the smallest of the three. Because there is less milk, the coffee taste stays strong. A latte is the largest and mildest, and with more milk, the taste is softer and creamier, which makes the latte a good choice for coffee drinkers who find straight espresso too sharp. A cappuccino is close in size to a flat white but carries a thick, airy layer of milk foam on top. With that extra foam, it has a lighter feel in your coffee cup, and many Australian cafés finish it with a light dusting of cocoa powder.
Mocha: Coffee and Chocolate in the One Cup
Some types of coffee bring chocolate into the cup. A mocha is made from a shot of espresso, chocolate added as syrup or chocolate powder, and steamed milk on top. The drink is sweeter and richer for the chocolate, so a mocha suits anyone who wants a milky coffee with a dessert-like taste while still getting the coffee underneath.
Affogato: Espresso Poured Over Ice Cream
A few types of coffee double as dessert. An affogato is a scoop of vanilla ice cream or gelato with a hot shot of espresso poured over the top. The word affogato means drowned in Italian, which fits the way the hot coffee meets the cold ice cream and melts it. The result is a dessert coffee, with the bitter espresso balancing the sweet, cold ice cream.
Cold Brews and Iced Coffee Brews
Some types of coffee are built to be served cold, and there are two main ways to make them. The quickest is iced coffee, where hot coffee is brewed as normal, chilled, and poured over ice.
Cold brews are made of coarsely ground coffee beans steeped in cold water for 12 to 24 hours, whoch are then strained. Because cold brew coffee is steeped slowly in cold water, it is smoother and less bitter than coffee brewed with heat, and can taste naturally sweeter.
Decaf and Instant Coffee Beans
The last two types of coffee come down to the beans themselves: decaf and instant. Decaf, short for decaffeinated, is made from coffee beans that have had most of their caffeine removed before roasting. It tastes close to regular coffee.
Instant coffee is brewed coffee that has been dried into powdered coffee grounds, which is then dissolved in hot water in your coffee cup. The trade is speed and ease against a lighter, less fresh taste than coffee made from freshly ground beans.
Learn to Make Every Coffee on This List
The names on a café board are one thing, but making those types of coffee yourself is another. Once you can name what goes into each cup, even a drink you have never ordered makes sense at a glance. Coffee making training is where you can learn that craft. Your own morning coffee is reason enough to enrol in coffee making training.
FAQs
What Is an Irish Coffee?
An Irish coffee is a warm cocktail made from hot coffee, Irish whiskey, and sugar, topped with a layer of lightly whipped cream. The cream is poured gently over the back of a spoon so it floats on top instead of mixing in, and you drink the hot coffee through the cool cream.
How Does Grind Size Affect Your Coffee?
Grind size controls how fast water pulls flavour from the coffee, so each method needs its own grind. Finely ground coffee beans suit espresso, a medium grind suits drip coffee, and coarsely ground coffee suits a plunger or cold brew.
What Is a Babycino?
A babycino is a small cup of frothed, steamed milk with no coffee in it, usually dusted with chocolate powder on top. Australian cafés serve it mainly to young children so they can have a drink alongside their parents.
