Café au lait

Half and half, more or less

Typical range

Why the coffee has to be brewed strong

CoffeeHQ explanation

A latte starts from espresso, which is several times more concentrated than filter coffee, so a little of it can flavour a great deal of milk. Café au lait starts from brewed coffee, which is already mostly water. Cut it with an equal amount of milk and the coffee is half as strong again. Coffee brewed at ordinary drinking strength gives a pale, milky cup.

So the coffee is made stronger than you would drink it black: more coffee for the same water, not a longer brew. A French press or a moka pot suits it well, because both give a heavy-bodied coffee that stands up to milk. A darker roast is traditional for the same reason.

Making it at home

Widely documented

1. Brew the coffee strong. Use about 20 g of coffee for 120 to 150 ml of finished coffee, roughly twice the strength of an everyday filter brew. Any brewer will do.
2. Heat the milk gently. Warm it in a small pan or a microwave until it steams and small bubbles form at the edge, well short of boiling. Boiled milk tastes cooked and forms a skin.
3. Pour the two together. The traditional gesture is to pour coffee and milk into the cup at the same time, one from each hand. Pouring one after the other tastes the same.
4. Taste and shift the proportion. If it is too mild, use less milk next time before you brew stronger again; the coffee should already be at the top of its range.

Foam is optional and untraditional. If you want some, whisk the hot milk briefly or plunge it in a French press.

The drinks it is confused with

Widely documented

• Latte — Built on espresso with steamed, lightly foamed milk. More intense coffee flavour for the same cup, and it needs an espresso machine. Many cafés outside France serve a latte when asked for a café au lait.
• Flat white — Espresso again, in a smaller cup with a thin layer of microfoam. A stronger, shorter drink with a different texture altogether.
• Cortado — Also about half coffee and half milk, which is why the two are muddled, but the coffee is espresso, so it is small and concentrated.

The same idea under other names

Widely documented

France, at breakfast

Traditionally served at home in a wide bowl, large enough to dip bread into. In a French café the drink ordered at the counter is more often a café crème, made with espresso.

New Orleans

Coffee blended with roasted chicory and served with hot milk. The chicory adds bitterness and body, which is why the proportion of milk is generous.

Café con leche and Milchkaffee

The Spanish and German names for coffee with hot milk. What arrives depends on the café; in Spain it is usually espresso-based.

Caffè misto

A coffee-chain name for brewed coffee topped up with steamed milk: a café au lait made with the equipment a café has to hand.

What to do next

• French press brewing — The brewer that makes a heavy, strong coffee most easily, which is what this drink needs.
• Cappuccino versus latte — The espresso-based milk drinks, for when you want to see what the machine changes.
• Frothing milk without a steam wand — If you want foam on a café au lait made in an ordinary kitchen.
• Coffee ratio and strength calculator — Works out the dose for a brew strong enough to be cut with milk.
• Become a barista — A structured programme from dose and grind through milk, drinks and maintenance.