Mocha

Four parts, one of them optional

Typical range

Cocoa, sauce or real chocolate

Tendency, not a guarantee

Chocolate sauce or syrup

What most cafés use, because it mixes instantly. It is usually very sweet, so use less than you think and taste before adding more.

Cocoa powder with sugar

Gives the most control, since chocolate intensity and sweetness are adjusted separately. It must be mixed to a paste with the hot espresso first or it will clump.

Melted dark chocolate

The richest result, with a thicker texture from the cocoa butter. Chop it finely and stir it into the espresso until fully melted before adding milk.

White chocolate

Contains cocoa butter but no cocoa solids, so it adds sweetness and creaminess rather than chocolate flavour. The coffee is easier to taste and the drink is sweeter still.

Building it in the right order

CoffeeHQ explanation

1. Chocolate into the cup first. Put the sauce, cocoa paste or chopped chocolate in the bottom of the cup before anything else.
2. Espresso onto the chocolate, then stir. Brew the shot directly onto it and stir until smooth. The hot, concentrated espresso dissolves the chocolate far better than milk does.
3. Add steamed milk. Steam as for a latte and pour it in. The drink is already mixed at the base, so there is no need to stir again unless you want to.

When the balance is off

Tendency, not a guarantee

It tastes only of sweet chocolate

Usually because: Too much sauce, or too little coffee for the size of the cup. Sugar masks coffee flavour very effectively.

Change first: Halve the chocolate before touching the coffee. If it is still lost, use a double shot.

Work through weak coffee

Powdery or gritty at the bottom

Usually because: Cocoa powder was added dry to milk, where it does not dissolve and forms clumps.

Change first: Mix the cocoa and sugar to a smooth paste with the espresso before any milk goes in.

Bitter and harsh despite the chocolate

Usually because: A dark chocolate and an over-extracted espresso are adding their bitterness together.

Change first: Fix the shot first by grinding slightly coarser. Sweetening it is covering the problem, not solving it.

Work through bitter coffee

Close relatives

Tendency, not a guarantee

• Latte — The same drink without the chocolate. Lighter, less sweet, and with the coffee far easier to taste.
• Cappuccino — Sometimes dusted with cocoa on top, which scents the foam but does not flavour the drink the way a mocha's chocolate does.

The port and the drink

Accounts differ

Mocha is the English name of al-Makha, a port on the Red Sea coast of Yemen that was a major centre of the coffee trade for some two centuries. Coffee shipped from it was known as Mocha, and the word came to be used for coffee in general.

How the name attached itself to a chocolate drink is less clear. One common explanation is that Yemeni coffee was thought to have a chocolate-like character and the name transferred by association; that is a reasonable account rather than an established fact.

What to do next

• Latte — a mocha is a latte with one extra ingredient, so the milk method is the same.
• Steaming milk — a properly textured milk is what keeps a mocha from being heavy as well as sweet.
• Milk drink builder — works out the milk for your cup once you have decided how much chocolate is going in.
• Become a barista — A structured programme from dose and grind through milk, drinks and maintenance.