So you want to make café au lait. It’s understandable: many of those who try café au lait for the first time fall in love with it immediately. Once you go to café au lait, you can’t go back!
The drink itself is a very good alternative to the classic latte. It is similar in that coffee and milk are the main ingredients, but a café au lait is in general a bigger beverage—almost twice as big as a regular latte and thrice as big as a cappuccino.
Let’s get to know more about the café au lait.
What is Café au Lait?
The tradition of café au lait predates our current coffee culture by more than a hundred years. This was the way that most people had their coffee way before anything like espresso and foamed milk existed.
The whole point of café au lait is to make it with brewed coffee instead of espresso, which is why it is such a big beverage compared to others. While most—if not all—espresso-based drinks have around 2 ounces of coffee. A café au lait has 6 or more ounces of coffee, with an additional six more ounces of milk.
So, the main difference between this beverage and the latte is their size. Then there’s the taste and texture.
In terms of texture, café au lait is rarely made with frothed milk. It is meant to be a very liquid drink that feels smooth in your mouth, so most people don’t ask for it to be frothed or steamed, but it isn’t a strange sight. The one thing that you can’t do is add foam to a café au lait; that’d turn it into another drink.
When it comes to taste, the café au lait is a much more balanced, well-rounded drink. Because the bitterness of the coffee is very diluted, there is almost none to be spoken of. The coffee flavor is actually very subtle and not really strong like it can be in other drinks.
Café au lait is also served in very big coffee cups. Just how there are coffee cups that are the right size for just espresso, or a cappuccino, or a latte, there is also a bigger cup used for café au lait. But your best bet is to use a big coffee mug that you already have at home.
How to Make Starbucks Café Au Lait at Home?
We mentioned how, depending on the place, the milk for the café au lait could be left untouched or it could be frothed. The guys at Starbucks give it a light steaming so that it feels creamier and heavier but it’s still not as steamed as latte milk; there’s a clear distinction between the two.
So have that in mind when making this drink. If you prefer, you can leave the milk unfrothed altogether.
Ingredients
- 6 ounces (170ml) milk of your choice
- 6 ounces (170ml) brewed coffee
- Sweetener of choice
Instructions
- First step is to brew the coffee. Traditionally, café au lait is brewed using a French press, but you can also use a Hario V60 or a similar method.
- To brew the coffee in a French press, pour 14 grams of ground coffee.
- Heat up 170ml of water until boiling. Turn heat off and let rest for one minute.
- Pour the water, place the lid on, and press the plunger down.
- After 3 minutes, pour coffee into a cup.
- For the milk, you’re gonna have to heat it up until it is steamy.
- Take an empty mason jar or water bottle and pour the milk into it, then close the jar/bottle.
- Shake for about twenty seconds.
- Get rid of the foam.
- Pour the milk in your coffee.
- Sweeten and enjoy!
FAQ
Can I use condensed milk instead of regular milk to make Café Au Lait?
You can use a little bit of it, but using all condensed milk instead of regular milk is not advised as it will create a very dense beverage that would not accurately represent what a café au lait is.
Instead, you should use condensed milk as a sweetener that also thickens the drink. That way you don’t use a lot of it and you use it in conjunction with milk.
What type of milk should I use?
It depends on the person. Traditionally, café au lait has been made using cow’s milk and to this day it is the main way that it is prepared around the world, as both the taste and the texture of the drink are largely dependent on cow’s milk.
However, you can make a café au lait using different milk if you don’t mind getting a different flavor and/or texture.
There is also vegetable milk out there that mimics the taste and texture of cow’s milk, so that would be an ideal option for those looking for an authentic flavor.
What type of sweetener should I use?
You have a lot of room to play here. There isn’t one definite, traditional way of sweetening café au lait as all sorts of sweeteners have been used throughout history for it—honey, raw cane sugar, condensed milk—so you really don’t have to stick to one particular flavor.
Luckily for us, we have a myriad of different sweeteners nowadays, each of which provides a different flavor profile and many of which are calorie-free.
You can literally do whatever you want here as long as it tastes good. You can even use different sweeteners at once!
Can I Use spices?
Yes! Café au lait is very receptive to spices and other added flavors, like syrups and so on.
One of the most popular ways to spice café au lait is by sprinkling ground cinnamon or cocoa on top of it. It is also very good with ground clove and pumpkin spice.
You can, of course, add whatever spices fit your taste buds better, although it is always good not to overdo it. Try to use two spices, tops.