How To Make a Latte at Home

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious.

We love our iced coffee in the summer, but fall and winter belong to the latte. We love to sit inside on a chilly day with a hot, frothy latte or cappuccino. But a latte shouldn’t just be a coffee shop treat. Even without an espresso machine, a milk frother, or other toys of the trade, you can make a pretty decent latte at home — and yes, it will have a beautiful cap of foam.

Here’s how we do it when we want a latte at home, to sip in the morning, or with a visiting friend.

• You don’t need an espresso machine. All you need is an espresso or strongly brewed coffee and a frothy milk, which is easy to make it in the microwave.
• We’ve perfected the foam. The key is to heat the milk before frothing for the most stable foam.

A latte is a coffee drink that is normally made with espresso, steamed milk, and milk foam.

Here are the differences, plus other coffee drinks.

• Cappuccino: A cappuccino is very similar to a latte, but it has a greater percentage of foamed milk to steamed milk. It’s three equal parts steamed milk, milk foam, and espresso. 
• Macchiato: A macchiato has no steamed milk added to the espresso, but a little cap of milk foam.
• Cafe au lait: A cafe au lait only has warm steamed milk added to coffee (sometimes espresso) and no foam.

All of these coffee shop drinks are actually on a continuum. A very “wet” cappuccino with a lot of steamed milk is sliding into latte territory, and what one coffee bar calls a cappuccino might actually be a macchiato elsewhere.

The point is, the ratio of espresso, warm milk, and milk foam can all be adjusted to your precise liking when you make a drink at home, and you can call it whatever you like in the privacy of your own kitchen.

The thing common to all the drinks above is espresso, which is coffee brewed under steam pressure that forces the water through coffee grounds. It’s intense, oily, and rich, and these qualities balance out the quantity of milk used in these drinks. Adding steamed milk to weaker American-style coffee doesn’t quite give you the real flavor and experience of a latte or cappuccino.

Of course, if you have an espresso setup at home, great! And if you have a one-touch espresso machine, like a Nespresso, you can use that to create drinks like this too. But personally, I use extra-strong coffee from an Aeropress, which for me presents a good balance between cost and quality. It makes coffee strong enough to almost (not quite!) be called espresso, but it doesn’t cost very much or require technical skill to use.

If you don’t have an espresso maker, Nespresso, or Aeropress, then try this with strongly brewed coffee.

It’s true — you don’t need a fancy foamer to make frothy milk at home! It’s actually really easy to make it in the microwave. All you do is microwave 2% or nonfat milk in a jar for about 30 seconds, close the lid, then shake the jar as hard as you can until the milk is frothy and has roughly doubled in volume. You get spoonfuls of foam, plus warm milk to pour in your latte.

1. Make espresso or strongly brewed coffee. Any strongly brewed espresso from a home espresso maker or a capsule machine like a Nespresso will do. Or use strongly brewed coffee from an Aeropress, not diluted with any water. I usually start with about 1/3 cup espresso, but this is up to you.
2. Heat the milk. Pour milk into the jar, filling it no more than halfway (the bigger the jar, the better). Microwave uncovered until warm, about 30 seconds.
3. Froth the milk. If using a jar, screw the lid on tightly, then shake the jar as hard as you can until the milk is frothy and has roughly doubled in volume, 30 to 60 seconds.
4. Pour warm milk into the espresso. Pour the espresso or coffee into a wide, shallow coffee cup. Use a large spoon to hold back the milk foam, and pour as much warm milk as you would like into the espresso.
5. Add foam. Spoon as much milk foam as you would like onto your latte (or perhaps it’s a cappuccino at this point!). Garnish, if desired, with a sprinkle of cocoa powder or ground cinnamon on top of the foam. Sip immediately!

If you want a sweetened or flavored latte, you can add a teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, or a sweetened flavored syrup. Stir it into the coffee or espresso before adding the foam. Here are some flavored syrups to try.

• Homemade Vanilla Syrup
• Brown Sugar Syrup
• Homemade Caramel Coffee Syrup
• Pumpkin Spice Syrup
• Homemade Butterscotch Syrup

• Cappuccino
• Coffee Frappé
• Classic Irish Coffee
• Pumpkin Spice Latte
• Vietnamese Iced Coffee