Types of Coffee Drinks: A Guide to 23 Café Favourites
Café menus use a lot of names for what are often small variations of espresso and milk. This guide explains what’s in each common drink and how they differ, so you can order with confidence, or plan a café menu.
Recipes vary from café to café, especially cup sizes. Where an official standard exists, such as the Italian Espresso National Institute’s specification for espresso and cappuccino, we quote it. Otherwise the descriptions show the usual style.
Espresso drinks without milk
| Drink | What it is |
|---|---|
| Espresso | A small, concentrated shot made by forcing hot water through finely ground coffee. The Italian standard for a single is 25 ml in the cup, from 7 g of coffee, in about 25 seconds. See how much coffee is in a shot. |
| Doppio | A double espresso: two shots in one cup. |
| Ristretto | A shorter, stronger shot, about 1:1 coffee to liquid. See our ristretto guide. |
| Lungo | A longer, milder shot, about 1:3 coffee to liquid. |
| Americano | Espresso topped up with hot water, giving a drink closer in strength to filter coffee. See the Americano. |
| Long black | Like an Americano, but the espresso goes on top of the hot water, which keeps more crema. |
Coffee beans for your café
Caffeine Brothers supplies cafés, offices and restaurants with freshly roasted Philippine coffee in 10 kg wholesale boxes from ₱773/kg, with free Metro Manila delivery and a free sample before you commit.
See Wholesale Prices →Espresso with milk
| Drink | What it is |
|---|---|
| Macchiato | Espresso “marked” with a spoonful of milk foam. |
| Cortado | Espresso with a similar amount of warm milk and little foam. |
| Flat white | Espresso with steamed milk and a very thin, silky layer of foam. Smaller and stronger-tasting than a latte. See flat white vs latte. |
| Cappuccino | Espresso with steamed milk and a thick cap of foam. The Italian standard uses 25 ml of espresso and 100 ml of cold milk steamed to about 125 ml at about 55 °C, in a 150 to 160 ml cup. |
| Latte (caffè latte) | Espresso with plenty of steamed milk and a thin layer of foam. The milkiest of the classics. See latte vs cappuccino. |
| Mocha | A latte with chocolate. See cappuccino vs mocha. |
| Spanish latte | A latte sweetened with condensed milk, very popular in Philippine cafés. Try our Spanish latte recipe. |
The milk is half the drink. Our lesson on how to steam milk shows how to make the foam for each one.
Cold and iced coffee
| Drink | What it is |
|---|---|
| Iced latte | Espresso and cold milk over ice. See our iced coffee recipes. |
| Iced Americano | Espresso and cold water over ice. |
| Cold brew | Coarse coffee steeped in cold water for many hours, then strained. Smooth and low in bitterness. See how to make cold brew. |
| Affogato | A scoop of ice cream “drowned” in a hot espresso. See our affogato recipe. |
Brewed coffee
| Drink | What it is |
|---|---|
| Drip or filter coffee | Hot water poured over ground coffee and filtered, by machine or by hand. |
| Pour-over | Filter coffee brewed by hand, cup by cup. See our pour-over guide. |
| French press | Coffee steeped in hot water, then pressed through a metal filter. See French press coffee. |
Filipino and regional favourites
| Drink | What it is |
|---|---|
| Kapeng Barako | Strong brewed coffee from Liberica beans, often sweetened with muscovado. See Kapeng Barako with muscovado. |
| Dalgona coffee | Whipped instant coffee, sugar and water spooned over cold milk. See our dalgona recipe. |
| Vietnamese egg coffee | Strong coffee topped with egg yolk whipped with condensed milk. See our egg coffee recipe. |
For café owners: building a menu
Most of these drinks use the same few ingredients: espresso, milk, water, ice and a few sweeteners. A short menu of well-made classics is faster to serve and easier to keep consistent than a long one. Our menu pricing calculator helps you cost each drink, and the Café Business Resource Center has more guides for running a café. For espresso and milk drinks, cafés can see wholesale pricing for our blends.
More lessons are in the Caffeine Brothers Coffee Academy.
