The menus of most coffee shops will always include a host of espresso-based beverages. From latte to Americano, macchiato to cortado, we’re used to expecting the difference between these drinks to stem from how much hot water, steamed milk, or froth they each contain – if any. Their common unifier is always that full-bodied shot of espresso.

But now, all of a sudden, you hear about ristretto. How is a ristretto different from an espresso? In this case, the difference boils down to the process of coffee extraction. Let’s see what each of these beverages is, and how they’re made. In the end, it’s these factors that account for the final difference in flavor.

What’s an Espresso?

An espresso is usually the basis for most coffeeshop drinks, like all the ones we mentioned above. More recently, however, baristas have taken to using ristrettos as the basis for these same, milky beverages – but we’ll get into that a bit later.

So an espresso is a 30 ml shot of coffee made with a (surprise!) espresso machine. High-pressure, piping hot water goes through about 7-9 grams of finely ground coffee beans for anywhere between 25 to 30 seconds. The result is an intense, strong shot of coffee that can be drunk on its own or added onto. A lot of coffee shops that make big drinks use double shots of espresso or doppio.

Some people that drink espresso straight like to add a bit of sugar to soften the strong flavor.

An espresso has three layers: the bottom is the darkest, and also known as the “body.” The middle is lighter, and is referred to as the “heart.” Finally, the top of an espresso is adorned with a thin, light-brown layer referred to as “crema,” which accounts for the almost creamy finish and deep aftertaste of an espresso shot.

What’s a Ristretto?

The main difference between a ristretto and an espresso is in the brewing process. Namely, the time and the amount of water used for each beverage differ, while everything else in the method is the same. So to make a ristretto, you use the same process and the same amount of coffee as you would for an espresso. However, you only use half the amount of water that you’d use for an espresso, so a ristretto is only about 15 ml per shot. Plus, the extraction time is shorter, lasting only about 15 seconds.

The resulting shot is not only different from the espresso in quantity, but also in flavor.

What Are the Differences Between a Ristretto and an Espresso?

So because of the shorter extraction time and smaller amount of water, a ristretto is different from an espresso in overall quantity, caffeine, and flavor.

Quantity-wise, we already covered that a ristretto is half the size of an espresso, about 15 ml. Some coffeeshops which have started using ristrettos to make milky coffee drinks as well, usually use a double shot.

In terms of caffeine, the shorter extraction process yields a shot with a bit less caffeine than an espresso. The variance in caffeine content is quite small, however.

The most important difference, of course, is taste. Due to the shorter extraction time and smaller amount of water used, the taste of a ristretto is stronger, bolder, and more concentrated. However, a ristretto has a sweeter finish than an espresso.

While a ristretto must sound quite beautiful by now, it’s also, unfortunately, easier to mess up than an espresso. As the extraction process is shorter, beans that are not finely ground may result in an under-extracted cup of coffee, which is sometimes unpleasantly bitter.

Ristrettos In Milk-Based Drinks

Some coffee shops prefer using ristrettos in milk-based drinks like lattes and cappuccinos since the milk and cream complement the sweet finish and bold flavor of the ristretto really well. They come together as a flavorful balance between strong and sweet. If you prefer a sweeter finish in your coffee, you may ask your barista to use a double ristretto instead of an espresso, and see what happens!

In fact, some popular coffee shops already use ristretto for certain beverages. Starbucks, for instance, prepare flat whites with ristretto shots rather than espresso shots.

If you want to enjoy good coffee in your home, but aren’t ready to sacrifice money and kitchen counter space for an espresso machine, you can always experiment with flavors and beans using a great pour-over coffee maker.

Most urban coffee shops offer the same array of coffee drinks on their menu. And in this broad, seemingly never-ending list of caffeine-infused deliciousness, it’s always a couple of variables that are dancing around the same, main component of the perfect cup of joe: espresso.

Today, we’ll take a look at two espresso-based beverages that often get confused: the elegant, laconic cortado and the smooth, velvety latte. We will learn what makes them similar, and what sets them apart so that you know exactly what to order on your next trip to the local café. Or, you’ll know exactly what to do if you’re trying to recreate these coffeeshop classics at home.

What Is Cortado?

A cortado gives a Spanish twist to the usually Italian-crafted array of espresso beverages. You see, “cortado” means “cut” in Spanish. The drink is named cortado, or cut, because you cut that wonderfully acidic shot of espresso with some steamed milk. Unlike most Italian milky takes on the espresso, the cortado contains less foam and is generally made without any frothed milk. Any thin layer of foam that adorns a cup of cortado is the result of steamed milk.

The taste of the cortado is a beautiful balance between coffee and milk, combining that flavorful espresso punch with the smooth, silky taste of steamed milk. It’s the ideal choice for coffee lovers that like a strong cup of java, but don’t want to be knocked to the ground by the bold taste of an espresso shot.

How Do You Make a Cortado?

A cortado is made of equal parts espresso and flat steamed milk. This makes the drink quite short – when you add the espresso and steamed milk, the drink averages a total of 3 – 4 ounces.

While frothed milk, or foam, in lattes is often optional, cortados are traditionally made without any foam. The most you’d get is a thin, foamy layer that’s come out of the steamed milk.

What Is a Latte?

The word latte, as you may have suspected, means milk in Italian. The name makes perfect sense, as a latte is one of the milkiest espresso-based beverages you’ll come across. One of the main differences between a cortado and a latte is the amount of milk. A latte uses twice as much steamed milk as a cortado. Another difference is that while frothed milk (foam) isn’t a must in a latte recipe, it’s an optional ingredient that baristas often choose to add. Cortados never really come with additional foam – unless you specifically ask for it.

Lattes are the perfect choice for people who prefer experiencing the intense flavor of the espresso through a veil of silky, velvety-smooth steamed milk. A lot of coffee shops also offer lattes with different flavored syrups, like mint, vanilla, caramel, and so on. (But why would anyone ruin their coffee with a syrup? What am I, twelve?)

How Do You Make a Latte?

A latte is generally made with one part espresso and two parts steamed milk. The steamed milk is also slightly aerated in the process, so it comes with a thin layer of foam on the top (perhaps a bit thicker than a cortado). If you prefer having foam on your latte, you can specify this to your barista, or you can create it at home using an affordable, handy milk frother.

As a latte comes with more milk than a cortado, it’s also a larger cup of coffee. The size of a latte starts at 6 ounces, but can also go all the way up to 20 ounces in coffee shops like Starbucks, where a coffee drink seems to count only if you can barely carry it. Of course, in these cases, baristas also add a second shot of espresso to maintain the balance between espresso flavor and silky-smooth milk.

Recapping the Differences Between Cortado and Latte

So, what are the differences between cortado and latte? Let’s recap:

• A cortado has a 1:1 espresso to milk ratio; a latte has a 1:2 espresso to milk ratio;
• A cortado usually has no foam; a latte may contain anything from a thin to a generous layer of foamy, frothed milk.

Whether you’re trying to prove your friend wrong over what the difference between macchiato and mocha is, or you’re trying to figure out what to order on your next trip to the coffee shop, you’re in the right place.

The truth of the matter is, these two drinks are quite different – their similarity mainly lies in the fact that they’re both espresso-based beverages. However, because their names sound slightly similar, people sometimes confuse them.

So let’s find out what a macchiato is and what a mocha is, so you’ll decide which one is more to your taste.

What Is a Macchiato?

The original Italian macchiato, also known as espresso macchiato, is basically an espresso shot with a spot of foam, or frothed milk, on top. In fact, macchiato in Italian means stained or spotted – which is exactly what this drink is – a spotted shot of espresso. The initial conception of macchiato was to highlight the bold, full-bodied flavor of the espresso shot with a spot of creamy milk froth. Alternatively, a macchiato can be stained with a splash of steamed milk and then completed with a dab of foam.

However, as the macchiato traveled to the United States and other countries worldwide, the way the drink was made started to change. In a lot of American coffee shops, for instance, a macchiato is closer to a latte in that more steamed milk is added. In this version, the milk is the star or the show rather than the espresso. To make an American macchiato, a full amount of milk is steamed and poured into a mug, and then the espresso shot is slowly added into the milk, diffusing it and creating layers as it goes.

In some other European countries a macchiato is prepared like a cappuccino with one part hot water, one part steamed milk with froth on top.

So, what about the taste? The versions of macchiato which are truer to the original and don’t use too much milk, really help accentuate the bold taste of the espresso shot. Of course, this may be too intense for people that prefer milky drinks. You can always try to recreate an original macchiato in your home with a high-quality, affordable milk frother.

What Is a Mocha?

The name mocha doesn’t come from the Italian espresso tradition, nor does it come from the Italian language. Rather, it comes from the Mocha (or Mokha) region in Yemen that’s famous for producing one of the most delicious, flavorful coffee beans in the world. Historically, also, Mocha was a key part of the global coffee trade for centuries. After all, the tradition of coffee drinking that we know today emerged from the Middle East. The first known coffee consumers were the Sufis, a Muslim mystic sect, from the region of present-day Yemen.

In any case, it’s not quite clear how this espresso-based beverage was named mocha, as there’s little relation to what the drink has come to mean. At best, we could draw a parallel between the natural chocolatey flavor of the Mocha bean and chocolate being the key ingredient – next to coffee – in the mocha that’s offered in coffee shops today.

So – what’s a mocha? A mocha unites the two beautiful, complementary tastes of coffee and chocolate, creating a coffee drink that’s ideal for chocolate lovers.

Mochas are made by adding chocolate sauce to an espresso shot and then adding a full amount of steamed milk. Some coffee shops also add foam, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.

So, while a macchiato is much less sweet, and only uses milk to help the espresso flavor pop, a mocha is quite sweet thanks to the chocolate syrup. Plus, it uses a lot more milk than a traditional macchiato, which means that espresso comes second or third in the story. In a nutshell, a mocha is a favorite among people who like espresso, but need some strong backup to diffuse its boldness. Places like Starbucks like to take it a step further into non-coffiness, by offering additional syrup options like peppermint, salted caramel, vanilla, nutmeg, and so on.

A lot of espresso-based beverages you can get at any coffeeshop (or recreate at home!) include warmed milk. But the milk doesn’t always have the same taste or texture. That’s because not all milk is prepared the same way. So, why do some cups of coffee have a rich layer of foam, and others simply a thin layer of lonely bubbles?

The answer to this question lies in the difference between frothed milk and steamed milk. Let’s take a look at the difference between these two forms of milk in terms of how they’re prepared, how they taste, and what espresso-based beverages use one, the other, or both.

What Is Frothed Milk?

Frothed milk is that beautiful, velvety foam that regularly adorns cappuccinos. The way it’s created is by aerating the milk, or injecting air into it, to create tiny bubbles which constitute milky foam, or froth. The perfect foam, or froth, shouldn’t have large bubbles and shouldn’t be dry – it should taste and feel dense, yet creamy.

A cappuccino isn’t a cappuccino without a beautiful, silky finish – froth. Coffee art, for instance, where baristas draw flowers, hearts, and so on, on the top of your coffee requires perfectly made froth.

How Do You Froth Milk?

There are several ways to froth milk, and you can froth both hot and cold milk, depending on the method. Generally, baristas and folks who have espresso machines in their homes use a steam wand to froth the milk. The milk is placed in a frothing pitcher and the steam want is inserted near the surface of the milk, and near the edge of the pitcher. As the top layers begin to froth, you slowly move the wand lower inside the milk to froth the rest. Once you’ve reached the desired fluffiness, and the milk has grown about twice its original size, it’s ready to top off your coffee!

You don’t have to own an espresso machine to get perfect, silky froth. There are a lot of great milk frothers that are intended for home use and easy to operate. Most of them are handheld and work either through manual pumping of the milk or through an electric whisk.

Which Beverages Use Frothed Milk?

Some espresso-based beverages that always come with froth, or foam, are cappuccino, flat white, café breve, and macchiato – although a macchiato uses very little of it.

For a lot of other espresso-based drinks, foam is optional. This includes café au lait and café latte.

What Is Steamed Milk?

Steamed milk is what you get by exposing milk to high-pressure steam. Usually, the steam is introduced to the milk through a steam wand. Steamed milk is less dense than frothed milk, but it’s still quite creamy thanks to the expansion of milk fats that occurs during the steaming process. Steamed milk has a really silky, velvety taste which complements the initial espresso shot perfectly.

Unlike frothed milk, steamed milk isn’t completely turned into foam. Rather, the structure remains liquid yet creamy, containing only a very thin layer of small bubbles at the top.

As you can see from this image of a cortado, which is made with flat steamed milk, the foam that accompanies steamed milk is much, much thinner than the rich foam that comes with frothed milk.

How Do You Steam Milk?

The high-pressure steam is slowly introduced to the milk (usually through a steam wand), which causes the fats in the milk to grow and produce a thin layer of tiny bubbles on the top. You can steam milk by again placing the tip of the steam want just below the milk’s surface, and adjusting it until you find the right angle at which a vortex is created inside the pitcher. To make sure the milk reaches the perfect temperature, which is about 55–65°C (139–149°F), you can use a frothing thermometer.

While usually you’d need a steam wand to steam milk, there are also some home appliances which can No products found..

Which Beverages Use Steamed Milk?

Almost all espresso-based drinks that include milk use steamed milk. This includes latte, cortado, macchiato, café au lait, flat white, and mocha. Some drinks, like cappuccinos and macchiatos, are made with both steamed milk and frothed milk.

Whether it’s to stir up your brain or to stir up your bowels, you drink coffee. And once you start drinking coffee, it’s hard not to end up loving coffee. And once you love coffee, it’s impossible to just leave it at one type of coffee and coffee maker. They say that getting tattoos is addictive – once you get one, you gotta have more. I don’t know about tattoos, but as a coffee lover, that has been my exact experience with coffee makers.

So anyway – as you’re not a brute that drinks instant coffee, or at least you’ve decided to leave your philistine ways behind – you need to pick your first (or next, in my case) coffee maker. This time, we’ll look at percolators and drip coffee makers – what their similarities are, what their differences are, how they work, and what sort of coffee they produce. With all this knowledge under your belt, you’ll know exactly what you want for your next caffeine fix.

Here’s a quick overview of what to expect:

How Do Percolators Work?

The beginnings of the humble percolator were conceived by the Parisian tinsmith Joseph-Henry-Marie Laurens, then moved to Franklin, Massachusetts via James Nason, for it finally to be patented in the modern, stove-top version we know today by Hanson Goodrick from Illinois in 1889.

The percolator had its glory days in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – but its glory was somewhat diminished after the 1950s. Throughout Europe, it was being quickly replaced by the Italian Moka pot. In the States, siphon brewing was becoming increasingly popular. And in the 1970s, the booming success of drip coffee makers pushed percolators further in the background.

Still, percolators maintain their place in the coffee-loving community and remain a favorite among campsites and church gatherings. So how does the modern percolator work?

Percolators rely on gravity to recycle the water through the coffee as many times as needed to achieve the desired strength. They have two chambers – an upper and a lower one. The two chambers are connected through a thin, metal tube and divided with a porous metal tray that contains the coffee grounds.

You start off by putting water in the bottom chamber, coffee beans in the upper chamber, and placing the percolator on a heat source (stovetop or a portable gas burner/stove). As the water heats up and turns into steam, it moves to the upper chamber through the metal tube. In the upper chamber, it turns back into a liquid and drips onto the coffee beans (this is the extraction process), and through the porous tray back into the bottom chamber.

After a single cycle, you basically have a ready cup of coffee waiting for you in the bottom chamber. However, you can allow the coffee to repeat the cycle as many times as you like, depending on how strong you want your coffee. The more concentrated you want your cup of joe, the more cycles it’ll need to go through.

What Size Coffee Grounds Should I Use with a Percolator?

Percolators don’t use paper filters, but only the porous metal tray where the coffee is placed. This means that if you use medium or finely ground coffee, you’ll end up with a lot of unpleasant sediment in the end result. That’s why it’s best to use coarse grounds with percolators. Plus, as coarse grounds are slower to extract, you’re less likely to end up with an over-extracted, bitter cup of coffee even if you let the water repeat the cycle a few times.

Who Do We Recommend Percolators For?

Travelers. You don’t need electricity to make coffee in percolators – all you need is fire. Plus, they’re quite lightweight and easily portable.

Parties. If you’re looking for something big that can fit a lot of coffee for a lot of people, you can also find some pretty large percolators, which are often used for symposiums and weddings.

How Do Drip Coffee Makers Work?

Drip coffee makers are kind of like a cross between pour-over coffee and percolators. Except, unlike these two contraptions, modern drip coffee makers are automated. Drip coffee makers are super easy to use and simple to set up, which is why they’ve been adorning kitchen counters in homes, offices, and hotels in the US since the 1970s. If you remember our short history lesson on percolators from earlier, you’ll remember that drip coffee makers are one of the main new products on the scene that pushed out percolators.

So, how do they work?

Drip coffee makers consist of a water reservoir, a metal tube (similar to the one that percolators use), a shower-head-like valve, a coffee tray, and a carafe. The water is placed in the water reservoir and heated until it turns into steam, which then travels up the thin tube (like in a percolator). At the end of the tube, the steam turns back into liquid, which is dripped over the coffee beans that are placed in the tray – usually on a paper filter (like in pour-over coffee!). The water drips through the filter into a carafe, which is usually placed on another heating element to keep the coffee warm.

While we’ll outline the differences between drip coffee makers and percolators in more detail, the main difference between the two is that when using the former, water goes through the coffee grounds only once, while a percolator recycles the same water several times – although this, too, can be adjusted.

The elegant simplicity of a drip coffee maker is what makes it so popular. All you have to do is put water in the container, add coffee on the tray, and turn the machine on. You can walk away and get ready for the day, or do some work, and return half an hour later with still warm, still fresh coffee waiting for you.

What Size Coffee Grounds Should I Use with a Drip Coffee Maker?

As drip coffee makers use paper filters, you can use medium or medium-fine grind. A good rule of thumb is choosing medium-fine grind for a flat-bottomed funnel and medium grind for a conical funnel. In addition to paper filters, the fact that the water is cycled through only once makes it a good idea to use a finer grind than you would with a percolator. A single cycle means that the coffee won’t be over-extracted, but the finer grind ensures that it won’t come out tasteless, either.

Who Do We Recommend Drip Coffee Makers For?

Homes, offices, dorm rooms. Drip coffee makers are great for any place where they’ll be stationed for a longer period of time. All you need is electricity! They’re especially a good choice for multi-person households and offices. The machine will do everything on its own, and supply everyone present with a cup of coffee. Keep in mind, however, that large drip coffee makers are still usually smaller than large percolators.

What Are the Differences Between a Percolator and a Drip Coffee Maker?

You can already see that there are some differences between a percolator and a drip coffee maker in the way they work:

• A drip coffee maker has a separate reservoir for water and a separate carafe for the end product – coffee. A percolator only has one reservoir, which starts off as water and ends up as coffee.
• A drip coffee maker cycles the water only once, while a percolator can recycle the water as many times as you like.
• Drip coffee makers are automatic, while percolators generally need a separate heat source (stovetop or gas burner). Of course, there are also electric percolators available today.
• A percolator doesn’t use paper filters, while drip coffee makers do.

The way these machines work naturally has an effect on the difference in taste that we get from the coffees they produce. As percolators recycle the same water over and over again, the coffee is bolder and stronger. Of course, you can get a milder taste from your percolator by letting the water cycle through only once. The longer the coffee brews, the more cycles it turns, the more extracted the beans and the bitterer the taste.

In all honesty, no matter how strong you like your coffee, you probably don’t want that kind of bitterness, so it’s best to pay attention to your percolator as it brews, lest your coffee become undrinkable.

Drip coffee makers produce milder-tasting coffee because they only cycle the water through once. This allows for more nuanced notes in the coffee beans to be detectable, a joy for the palate. If you want your drip coffee to be stronger and a bit more bitter, you can use very finely ground coffee beans.

Have you ever wondered what the most elite coffee beans in the world are? From unique flavors to intense aftertaste and fresh aroma in the air, if you’re a true coffee enthusiast, you would probably want to try everything that the coffee industry has to offer.

If that sounds like an impossible feat, we did the research for you. We compared and reviewed 10 of the world’s best coffee-growing countries that produce the most famous coffee beans that are enjoyed worldwide.

Keep reading to find out more about how the most exotic types of coffee are produced, the specific coffee taste each of them has, the brands that sell them, and the best brewing methods for each country.

What Are The Most Exotic Types Of Coffee Around The World?

Brazilian, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Greek, or Turkish – which are the countries that produce some of the world’s finest coffee beans and unique coffee flavors? Let’s break down the top 10 countries all over the world and their best coffee brands.

Brazilian Coffee

Brazil is easily associated with high-quality coffee and that is not without reason – their climate is ideal for growing coffee beans. In fact, Brazil is the world’s largest coffee exporter, accounting for the production of one-third of all coffee in the world. So, having these figures in mind, it’s understandable why some of the best coffee beans come from Brazil.

The majority of coffee plantations are located in the southeastern states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, and Paraná, where two coffee species are grown, arabica and robusta. Arabica dominates the plantations (70%), while robusta is produced more exclusively. Coffee manufacturers sell coffee in two forms – ground/roasted coffee beans and instant coffee. Robusta is mainly produced as an instant coffee and some coffee gurus consider it to be of lower quality.

Taste: Depending on the species, bean variety, and brand, the flavor varies, but you can expect high-quality Brazilian coffee to be of low acidity with a nutty and sweet chocolatey flavor. It’s not very intense, which means it’s a great addition to most blends as it serves as a balancing note.

Where To Find And Buy Brazilian Coffee?

Thankfully, Brazilian coffee is easy to find, and you can order it online through many websites, or even on Amazon. Brazilian coffee blends are often found in supermarkets, although single-origin coffee beans and ground are best purchased from highly-rated sellers on Amazon or other online stores. Most specialized coffee stores have Brazilian coffee beans and grounds. The one thing you should keep in mind is to always buy fresh coffee beans. Since Brazilian coffee is mild, stale beans might be completely flavorless.

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The Best Brazilian Coffee Brands

Mundo Novo, Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, Typica, Acaia, and Icatu, are just some of the most popular coffee varieties grown in Brazil. Most of them are used as a base rather than the main driver of flavor, which is why despite the numerous brands Brazil has, only a few offer premium specialty coffee. Café Pilao, Café do Ponto, Brazil Santos Coffee, Cafe Melitta, and Santa Clara are just some examples.

How To Make Brazilian Coffee?

Brazilians drink their coffee black with a lot of sugar. It’s always a good idea to have Brazilian coffee beans when you want to make your own unique blends, as it’s a great foundation and offers a mild balancing flavor. Espresso is also a specialty for many Brazilians, as it is Brazilian coffee with chocolate or vanilla, and/or milk.

Kenyan Coffee

The coffee industry is very important in Kenya even though around 70% of the coffee is produced by small-scale companies. Some of the major coffee-growing regions in Kenya include Mt. Kenya, Kisii, Nyanza, the Aberdare Range, Nakuru, Kericho, Bungoma, and some other smaller coast provinces.

Most of the coffee grown in Kenya has the Strictly High Grown (SHG) status as the beans are grown between 1,400 meters to 2,000 meters above sea level. The volcanic soils and optimal climate in Kenya allow a lot of coffee varieties to be cultivated, like Batian, Ruiru 11, K7, SL 28, etc.

Taste: The coffee in Kenya resembles the famous Colombia coffee flavor and has a full-body aroma. We can also describe it as crisp and vibrant, with a very rich taste with bitter-sweet cocoa notes. Although, you should note that the flavor and taste vary greatly between regions.

Where To Find And Buy Kenyan Coffee?

You can buy Kenyan coffee in big coffee shops, as well as online shops and markets like Amazon.

When buying Kenyan coffee look for the class label, which grades the quality from 1 (worst) to 10 (best). You may also notice another grading system (Kenya E, Kenya AA, Kenya C, etc.) describing Kenyan beans’ size. The Kenya AA beans are grown 6,600 feet above sea level and are considered one of the finest specialty coffees.

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The Best Kenyan Coffee Brands

Because of the high elevation, Kenyan coffee plantations produce some of the best premium gourmet coffees in the world. The best-known brands include Kenya AA Coffee Beans and Kenya Peaberry by Volcanica Coffee, Green Mountain Coffee, Fresh Roasted Coffee, and Coffee Bean Direct, among others.

How To Make Kenyan Coffee?

To fully enjoy the rich taste of Kenyan coffee beans, you should make Kahawa Chunghu (Kenyan Bitter Coffee) as many of the natives do. You can also brew the coffee through the steeping rather than the drip method, which is the best way to savor the subtle aromas. You can use a French Press or an Aeropress to do this.

Guatemalan Coffee

Guatemalan coffee would appeal most to hard-core coffee lovers that want a unique and robust flavor. Although small, Guatemala is one of the top ten coffee producers in the world and delivers some of the finest coffee grounds/beans well-known among coffee experts.

There are eight regions in Guatemala responsible for almost all of the coffee production – Antigua, Acatenango, Atitlán, Cobán, Fraijanes, Nuevo Oriente, and San Marcos.

The coffee plantations are located at an altitude varying from 500–5,000 meters (1,600–16,400 ft) above sea level.

There are three types of coffee beans grown in Guatemala, which are known all over the world – the Antigua Santa Barbara, Huehuetenango, and San Marcos.

Taste: The three types of beans offer three different flavors. San Marcos beans offer a nutty flavor with floral notes. Huehuetenango is sweeter with a caramel-like flavor and a very light aftertaste, while the Antigua Santa Barbara beans produce a sweet and creamy coffee flavor with chocolatey notes.

Where To Find And Buy Guatemalan Coffee?

There are many online websites that offer high-quality Guatemalan coffee grounds, like CafeCampesino, although you can also find some well-reviewed sellers on common marketplaces like Amazon. No matter where you choose to buy from, make sure the seller has good reviews and the coffee beans are fresh.

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The Best Guatemalan Coffee Brands

When shopping for the best of the best Guatemalan coffee brands, look for Guatemala Peaberry (Volcanica), Guatemala Finca Nuevo Vinas, Guatemala Antigua (Volcanica), Cooper’s Cask Guatemalan, and Pablo’s Pride Guatemala.

How To Make Guatemalan Coffee?

The best thing about Guatemalan coffee is that it’s highly versatile, so you can enjoy it as a hot brew, cold brew, drip coffee, or pour-over coffee. The best methods to make Guatemalan coffee include French Press, Pour-over, and long steeping time for Cold Brew.

Peruvian Coffee

Peru is the third-largest coffee producer in South America, after Brazil and Colombia. In the world, Peru is in eleventh place with around 192,000 tons of coffee produced yearly. Peruvian coffee is considered to be one of the best in the world because most of the production comes from small plantations, where farmers have no access to chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

Coffee plantations can be found in the regions around the Andes mountain range, as the climate there is ideal for growing specialty coffee. The major Peruvian coffee regions are Chanchamayo, Cajamarca, Cenfrocafe, Amazonas, Ayacucho, Cusco, Huánaco.

Taste: Peruvian coffee offers a variety of flavors and tastes but most coffee beans have strong aromatic qualities with a fruity or nutty sweetness. The coffee profile is very rich, so you can expect a pleasant experience even when drinking it black on its own.

Where To Find And Buy Peruvian Coffee?

Single-origin Peruvian coffee might be harder to find in local coffee shops, although you have plenty of options online and on Amazon. When buying, make sure you choose 100% Arabica coffee beans that are grown at least 1,200 meters above sea level. No matter where you’re in the world, you can enjoy high-quality Peruvian coffee beans, and here’s what you should look for.

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The Best Peruvian Coffee Brands

The most popular premium Peruvian coffee brands are Volcanica Peruvian Coffee, Fresh Roasted Coffee Peru, Café Altura Peruvian Coffee, Java Planet Decaf Peruvian Coffee, Cubicao Coffee’s Peru, and AmazonFresh Organic Peruvian Ground Coffee.

How To Make Peruvian Coffee?

Most Peruvian coffee beans have a dark roast with smooth and nutty flavors, so you can make a French Press, pour-over coffee, or espresso to make sure you bring out as much flavor as possible. Using these methods, you’ll create a rich and saturated cup of coffee that will overwhelm your taste buds in the best possible way.

Nicaraguan Coffee

Right after Peru comes Nicaragua, which produces more than 130,000 tons of coffee a year. Nicaragua may be a small country, but the coffee industry plays a big part in the country’s history and economy. Some of the regions that produce great coffee are the Managua Department, Diriamba, San Marcos, Lake Nicaragua, Nueva Segovia, although the best coffee is believed to be produced in Matagalpa and in Jinotega.

Coffee in Nicaragua is grown between 1097 and 1600 meters above sea level, although there are some regions with much lower sea levels that grow coffee successfully. Although the coffee isn’t grown at a very high elevation, it’s still considered high-quality and premium because Nicaragua grows mainly organic arabica beans. You can expect to find the following types of coffee beans: Caturra, bourbon, red and yellow Catuai, Maragogype, Pacamara, and others.

Taste: Nicaragua coffee delivers a mild taste and a flavor of smooth and medium body with mild acidity and fruity, crisp notes.

Where To Find And Buy Nicaraguan Coffee?

The best place to find and buy Nicaraguan coffee is at a trusted local store where you can be sure you’re getting fresh coffee beans/grounds. However, you also have a variety of options online where you can find the most famous brands from Nicaragua. Make sure you buy from a website that delivers within a week once you place your order. Don’t buy from off-the-shelf brands because the coffee might have been produced a long time ago and the flavor might be mostly gone.

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The Best Nicaraguan Coffee Brands

Some of the best Nicaraguan coffee brands worth your attention include Matagalpa – Nicaragua Coffee (Volcanica), Finca El Bosque (Rave Coffee), Nicaragua Dry Process Java Cultivar (Sweet Maria’s), and Tiny Footprint Coffee – Fair Trade Organic Nicaragua Segovia.

How To Make Nicaraguan Coffee?

If you like to roast your coffee at home, Nicaraguan coffee beans are a pretty safe and easy bet. Use elephant beans to make a medium roast, while dark roasts create richer but more subtle taste. Beans from Jinotega and Matagalpa are great for dark roasts and espresso. Elephant beans should be used only for light to medium roasts.

To fully enjoy the flavor of Nicaraguan coffee, use an espresso machine or a cold brew method with room temperature filtered water.

Cuban Coffee

If you prefer strong coffee, then you’re surely familiar with the Cuban coffee brands, but in case you’re not – you’re missing out a lot. While Cuba has been a major player in the coffee production industry in the past, today it exports less 6,000 tons of coffee yearly. However, the smaller production hasn’t affected the quality and strength of the coffee grown in Cuba, which is why Cuban coffee is known all around the world, making it even more exclusive.

90% of the coffee plantations can be found in the Sierra Maestra mountains where a variety of arabica and robusta coffee beans are grown. The most famous coffee types in Cuba are Cortadito, Café con Leche, and Colada.

Taste: Cuban coffee has a strong and intense taste, darker tones, and thicker consistency. Most of the beans are entirely organic and hand-picked. However, the single-most defining characteristic of Cuban coffee is the unique sweetness that comes from the hydrolysis of the sucrose in the demerara sugar. The coffee is usually pre-sweetened before brewing, which results in the familiar taste. It’s not the same as sweating the coffee while brewing it after, which is why Cuban coffee is incredibly unique.

Where To Find And Buy Cuban Coffee?

Unfortunately, sourcing original Cuban coffee in the USA can be difficult because of the complex trade relations between the two countries. If you’re in Europe or Japan, on the other hand, you might even find Cuban coffee in some local coffee shops. Online websites and marketplaces like Amazon might be a good alternative, although you might have to compromise on the freshness of the coffee. Another possible solution is to buy coffee from Cuban-style coffee brands, which are not sourced from Cuba but are suitable for making Cuban-style coffee.

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The Best Cuban Coffee Brands

The best brands that offer coffee grown in Cuba include Supreme by Bustelo Whole Bean, Mayorga Organics Cafe Cubano, and Café La Llave Espresso.

How To Make Cuban Coffee?

If you want to follow the Cuban tradition, the first thing you should acquire is a Moka pot, in which Cubans make their coffee. The pot is made from stainless steel material and the coffee is brewed by pushing water up through the coffee grounds with the help of steam pressure.

Vietnamese Coffee

After Brazil, Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer in the world. True coffee aficionados are probably familiar with the cà phê đá, the most popular Vietnamese iced coffee, although Vietnam has a lot more to offer. In fact, up to 90 – 95%  of the coffee production in Vietnam is being exported all around the world. Today, Vietnam is considered to be one of the most competitive producers of robusta coffee.

The majority of the coffee plantations in Vietnam produce robusta coffee, which is considered to be more bitter and less aromatic than arabica. Robusta is generally used for making instant coffee and low-quality blends, although most people are drinking Vietnamese coffee without even realizing it. Nescafé, Starbucks, Boncafé, and other major coffee brands use Vietnamese coffee for some of their most popular coffee drinks.

Taste: Vietnamese coffee is twice as strong as other arabica coffee beans, and has a distinctive flavor due to the high acidity and thick lingering taste. Most of the time, some of the beans in the blend are over-roasted, which results in a unique aroma.

Where To Find And Buy Vietnamese Coffee?

Vietnamese coffee is distributed all around the world, which means you can find it at local coffee shops, some larger supermarkets, or even common online marketplaces fairly easily. When buying Vietnamese coffee, make sure the beans/grounds are fresh and fair-trade sourced.

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The Best Vietnamese Coffee Brands

Some of the best Vietnamese coffee brands you can find online and in-store are Chestbrew – Moon Bear Premium Vietnamese Coffee, Trung Nguyen -Premium Blend, Dalat Peaberry Robusta, Lang Thang – Saigon Phin Daklak, and VN Roaster – Butter Roasted Coffee.

How To Make Vietnamese Coffee?

While Brazilian, Kenyan, and even Guatemalan coffee are more suited for the French Press method, Vietnamese coffee is almost always made using the drip method. However, there are other characteristics that make Vietnamese-style coffee unique.

Generally, the coffee is prepared in single-cup filters/brewers known as phin. The coffee is served while still brewing and it’s mixed with sweetened condensed milk instead of fresh milk. Most famous Vietnamese coffee recipes include Coffee with milk (ca phe nau), Yoghurt coffee (sua chua ca phe), Egg coffee (ca phe trung), Coconut coffee (ca phe cot dua), and many more.

Greek Coffee

Have you ever heard of frappé coffee? If you have, then you’re already familiar with the most popular greek iced-coffee. As opposed to all other counties that we mentioned so far, Greece doesn’t grow their own coffee. Greeks are famous for being among the world’s 20 biggest coffee drinking nations, with 5.4 kg of annual coffee consumption per capita.

Greece imports coffee from Latin America’s countries like Brazil and Colombia, as well as African countries like Kenya and Ethiopia.

The Frappe was invented through experimentation with instant coffee by Dimitris Vakondios, who was a Nescafe representative back in 1957 in Thessaloniki. This is why the Nescafe brand offers a special Nescafe Frappe instant coffee. Frappe basically means “a drink chilled with ice” which is exactly how one can describe the famous Greek coffee.

Taste: The Frappe has a distinctive mild taste, with a subtle nutty flavor. It’s really sweet since it’s made with sugar and milk. Some recipes use melted chocolate, which makes the frappe even sweeter. Without sugar, the frappe has a strong, bitter taste.

How To Make Greek Coffee?

To make Greek frappe iced-coffee, you need to buy granulated instant coffee from a brand that you trust (in Greece, Nescafe is what’s generally used, milder and sweeter blends in particular). You’ll also need a cocktail shaker or an electric milkshake maker.

First, add the coffee, sugar, and 50-70 mg of water in a high cup and blend until you create a thick foam. Take a high serving mug or glass, add two or three ice-cubes, and pour the blended coffee mixture over. Then fill the rest of the glass with milk (if you like it stronger, use less milk), and you’re done.

Turkish Coffee

Just like Greece, there isn’t a single coffee tree in Turkey, although the whole world has heard about the famous Turkish coffee. It’s a unique and distinctive style of preparing hot brewed coffee, without filtering. Turkish coffee made our list because it’s hard to call yourself a true coffee expert without trying the traditional Turkish coffee.

Taste: Turkish coffee has a very thick consistency and a grainy taste since it’s not filtered. The flavor is bittersweet with bold smokey notes. It has a distinctive and rich aftertaste because you’re drinking the unfiltered coffee itself. Depending on the coffee beans used, there will be some subtle variations in the taste.

Where To Find And Buy Turkish Coffee?

Since Turkey doesn’t grow its own coffee, to make Turkey-style coffee, you’ll need finely ground arabica coffee that has a powder-like consistency. If you can’t find some Turkish coffee brands, you can ask your local coffee shop to have your arabica coffee ground for Turkish coffee.

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The Best Turkish Coffee Brands

On Amazon, you can find some of the best Turkish coffee brands, which are Mehmet Efendi – Kurukhaveci, Nurettin Kocatepe (known as the Ataturk’s coffee), Cezbeli, Dunyasi, Tugba, and more.

How To Make Turkish Coffee?

To prepare authentic Turkish coffee, you’ll need an ibrik – a small coffee pot in which the coffee is boiled.

Turn the stove on, and add 1 cup (as much as your serving cup) room temperature water in the ibrik. After this, add 1 to 1 ½  tsp of coffee, and one tsp of sugar (although this depends on your personal preferences and taste). Mix the coffee mixture with a spoon and place the ibrik over the stove. Boil until there’s a thin foam over the coffee. Once the coffee starts to rise, remove it from heat and pour it in the serving cup. Don’t mix, because it’s not filtered and you’ll ruin the consistency.

Ethiopian Coffee

Ethiopia has an incredibly diverse variety of geographical sub-regions, from depressions to mountains with 4,600 meters above sea level peaks – the Semien mountains. Considering its geographical variety, it comes as no surprise that Ethiopia is the origin of all coffee, as arabica was first found there and then distributed around the world. It all began around 1,000 years ago, in Ethiopia’s southwestern highlands, specifically the region named Kaffa, which is where the name of this beloved drink actually originates. However, ancient texts give evidence that coffee drinking might have even begun as early as the 9th century in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia enjoys an ideal production environment for growing some of the finest coffee beans in the world. The major regions where coffee arabica is grown include Sidamo, Genika, and Harar. Genika is arguably the most famous, as “Ethiopia Genika” has become an elite type of arabica coffee of single origin grown exclusively in the Bench Maji Zone of Ethiopia.

When it comes to coffee bean variety, Ethiopian coffee can be divided into three categories: Longberry, Shortberry, and Mocha. Longberry is considered to be of the highest quality, while Mocha beans are known for their distinctive chocolatey and fruity notes.

Taste: Depending on the region where it’s been grown, Ethiopian coffee varies in taste. Sidamo regions are famous for their strong lemon and citrus notes that follow their strictly high grown beans. Genika coffee beans have more chocolate-like taste, while the Harar coffee beans are known for their mocha flavor.

Where To Find And Buy Ethiopian Coffee?

Buying single-origin Ethiopian Coffee is not a hard task, although you should be careful and buy only from trusted sellers, to ensure you don’t end up with a blend of beans with compromised quality. A lot of online coffee-shops offer coffee from famous Ethiopian coffee brands, and some of them can even be found on common marketplaces like Amazon.

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The Best Ethiopian Coffee Brands

The best Ethiopian coffee brands are Volcanica Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Stumptown Coffee Roasters Ethiopia Mordecofe, Sweet Maria’s Ethiopian Coffee Beans, Organic Sidamo – FreshRoastedCoffee, Oromia Gomma Microlot Coffee – Cooper’s Coffee Company, and Bekama Solinté Organic Coffee.

How To Make Ethiopian Coffee?

When searching on the internet, you’ll get a lot of results referencing a “ceremony” or “the importance of the ritual” when making Ethiopian coffee. This highlights the specific process when brewing Ethiopian coffee. The first step is to wash the fresh Ethiopian beans to remove the skin. After this, the beans are roasted over a tiny charcoal stove. The next step is grinding the beans, which traditionally is done with a pestle and a mortar. Finally, the coffee powder should be boiled in a jebena – a traditional coffee boiling pot. Here’s a more specific recipe you can follow.

Before You Go

Hopefully, our article will be of use to you the next time you go shopping for a new coffee or at least motivate you to start experimenting with new flavors. You can now make an informed decision on how to combine the beans to make a delicious personalized coffee blend or filter the good from the low-quality beans.

To find out more about coffee, coffee products, and recipes that go perfectly with a cup of coffee, make sure to visit our blog.

Summer is coming, temperatures are rising, and suddenly, cold brew coffee is everywhere. It’s refreshing and wakes up your body, giving you the strength to get through another busy day in the heat.

Sure, you can buy cold brew coffee in any coffee shop or local supermarket as a ready-to-drink refreshment, but for the true coffee enthusiasts, that’s not good enough. Brewing at home comes with many advantages, and the unique and intense aroma is definitely one of its biggest advantages.

Additionally, when you make coffee at home, you can control its quality, strength, and sugar level (as opposed to ready-to-drink coffee from the supermarket). However, there’s a learning curve for brewing a rich and sense-pleasing cup of cold coffee perfectly. So, where do you start, and what’s the most important thing you should consider when cold brewing?

The first step to a flawless cold brew is the coffee quality. Are you roasting at home or buying roasted whole beans? Are you buying coffee grounds, or you want to make the most out of your instant coffee? In this article, we’ll share everything you need to know about cold brewing, so let’s start with the best coffee for cold brew.

What Is a Cold Brew?

Before we dwell on the specifics of cold brew coffee, let’s talk about the characteristic of the method itself and what separates it from regular brewing and ice coffee, especially.

Cold brewing is an alternative brewing method that’s used to make coffee without using heat at all. While regular brewing uses water between 91 – 96°C (195 – 205°F) to extract coffee, cold brewing is a long process where the coffee is extracted in cold water from 2 to 22°C (although these numbers are just loose guidelines, not strict rules). Because the water is cold, the compounds in the coffee take a long time to extract. In fact, the coffee is left in the water for at least 12 to 24 hours. Think about cold brewing as a long process where the coffee grounds are steeped in cold filtered water until the coffee is completely extracted.

Typically, people mistake cold-brewed coffee with iced coffee. They’re both cold, refreshing drinks, but iced coffee is made through regular brewing with hot water, after which the coffee is cooled, or it’s poured over ice cubes.

The Effects of Temperature on Taste

Iced coffee and cold brew coffee differ in taste as well. This is because the temperature affects the chemical compounds in coffee that release flavor.

Iced coffee is similar to regular brewed coffee, but the taste will be with milder, more diluted flavor, because of the cooling period and the ice cubes.

On the other hand, cold brew coffee will have a distinct taste. This is because certain flavor-releasing compounds are only extracted at close to boiling temperature. For example, some lighter floral and fruity notes in a coffee can only be extracted through hot brewing. Cold brew coffee is considered to be less acidic and easier on the stomach.

Сan You Use Regular Coffee for Cold Brew?

Technically, yes, you can drink cold brew coffee from any kind of coffee beans/grounds. However, when it comes to taste, not every coffee produces optimal results when steeped in cold water. Different coffee beans deliver different flavors.

If you find yourself without the right beans, you can always run to the grocery store and buy coarse-ground coffee. The grinding size is really important, which we’ll discuss in detail in the next section.

Nonetheless, if you want to learn how to cold brew a sense-pleasing cup of coffee, then the first step is to choose the right coffee beans or grounds.

Factors That Affect the Quality of Cold Brewing: Choosing the Best Coffee for Cold Brewing

There are several factors that affect the quality of cold brewing, the grind size, roast type, and homogeneity of the coffee being the most important ones.

Where the bean is grown, the elevation at which it is grown, how it was picked, processed, and stored, are additional factors that can affect the flavor.

Grind Size

Whether you buy pre-ground coffee or you ground whole coffee beans yourself, you should make sure the coffee is a coarse grind because size does matter. In fact, the chemical components that release a hard and bitter flavor are easily extracted in cold water, and when the coffee is finely ground, you might end up with overly-extracted harsh aromas.

Light Vs. Dark Roasts

There’s quite a debate whether light, medium, or dark roasts are better for cold brewing. This somewhat depends on personal preference, so don’t be afraid to try either way.

The proponents of light or medium roasts argue that light roasting retains most of the beans’ original flavor profile, making light roast beans especially acidic. And, since cold brewing somewhat eliminates acidity, it might give you a well-balanced taste without being too mild.

On the other hand, some experts believe that darker roasts outperform lighter roasts because they’re rich in nutty, chocolaty, or earthy aromas that are better felt in cold brew coffee.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to your personal preferences. Just keep in mind that if you think the taste of your cold brew is a little off, you might want to try a different roast.

Single-origin Vs. Coffee Blend

Here the experts are unanimous – single-origin coffee is better for cold brew.

The reason for this is not that single-origin coffee offers some major benefits, but blends are usually selected to balance the bitterness and sweetness of different coffee beans.

Unfortunately, since cold brewing eliminates some flavor-releasing compounds, the coffee blend won’t be as balanced and won’t taste the same as when it’s regularly brewed. In fact, it might be harder to balance out the taste of unique coffee blends in a cold brew.

However, single-origin coffee beans are usually more expensive. This is why some people still prefer coffee blends, rather than single-origin beans.

Black Coffee Vs. Milk Coffee

Another factor that affects the taste of cold brew coffee, obviously, is adding milk. However, the final taste might not be what you expect. Keep in mind that cold brew coffee is milder and with more subtle taste than regularly brewed coffee. Diluting it furthermore with milk might be overkill. This is why many hard-core coffee enthusiasts recommend drinking black cold-brewed coffee. But, it’s still a personal choice, and you shouldn’t be afraid to try different things and experiment to see what suits your taste the most.

Tips For Optimizing Your Cold Brew

Here are some useful tips to keep in mind when cold-brewing coffee:

• Buy coffee manufactured for cold-brewing. Everything is easier today, as there are many options available on the market that sell coffee grounds or whole beans specifically produced for cold brewing.
• Don’t settle for anything less than ultimate freshness. Cold brewing delivers a milder and subtler taste, so buying coffee that’s stale is a sure way to end up with dull and undrinkable coffee.
• Use the 1:1 ratio for best consistency – that is, for each cup of water, add one ounce of coarsely ground coffee.
• Steep the coffee for at least 18 hours. It’s best to leave the coffee overnight or work out something that best fits your schedule. However, to get the most out of the taste, you shouldn’t steep the coffee less than 12-15 hours. Fun fact: Starbucks steeps their cold brew coffee for 20 hours.
• Don’t steep for more than 24 hours. Balance is everything. Steeping it for more than 24 hours will make the coffee more bitter.
• Use filtered water. Tap water will alter the flavor of your coffee.
• Use coffee ice cubes. When the hot summer days peak, instead of diluting the coffee with regular ice cubes, make coffee ice cubes by freezing one batch of coffee.

Before You Go

Cold brew coffee is not the same as ice coffee, and the taste between these two coffee types varies significantly. Although some people might think cold brewing is inferior to regular brewing, we’ve discussed its advantages. At the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with experimenting with alternative brewing methods and trying new flavors. Hopefully, our article will be useful on your cold-brewing journey and will help you make a nice cold brew that you’ll enjoy.

Once you’ve got the hang of this, check out our article on “how to make a cold brew coffee in a mason jar.” We also have many other interesting articles covering food and kitchen appliances, as well as delicious recipes that will go perfectly with a cup of coffee.