25 Terms You Should Know to Order Your Perfect Cup of Coffee

Until you've perfected your go-to coffee order, getting precisely what you want out of every visit to your local café can be a major hassle. When you're new to the world of coffee, even ordering something directly off the menu can be a gamble when you're not knowledgeable about the industry's unique terms.

But coffee doesn't have to be confusing. Below, we've broken down 25 of the most important coffee terms so you don't have to guess and your next cup will be precisely to your tastes.

Americano

An Americano is a popular coffee and less potent coffee drink made by diluting espresso with hot water.

 

Affogato

Affogato means "drowned" in Italian, and is essentially a scoop of vanilla ice cream or gelato topped with a shot of hot espresso. Typically, it's enjoyed as a sweet yet bold desert.

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Auto-Drip Coffee Maker

Auto-drip coffee makers are probably the most common types of coffee makers we see in American homes, as well as diners and cafes, and they're also some of the simplest. You simply have to add water, a filter and coffee grounds, and the machine does the rest. Its boiling water makes steam, steeping the grounds, before the hot coffee drips into the carafe below.

 

Breve

A breve is the richer, creamier cousin of the latte. It's made with espresso and half-and-half, rather than regular milk, for a more decadent coffee drink. The word "breve" means short in Italian, because this drink often incorporates a "short" shot of espresso—but more on that later.

 

Cafe Au Lait

Cafe au lait is French for "coffee with milk," and that's precisely what you get with this classic drink. Traditionally it's half brewed coffee and half frothed milk, making for a rich and creamy beverage.

 

Cappuccino

Cappuccino is a drink that gets its name for Capuchin friars and the brownish color of their habits. It's a classic and well-known coffee drink made with one part espresso and two parts frothed milk, typically served in a small and extra foamy cup.

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Also read about: 6 Tasty Recipes to Recreate on National Cappuccino Day

 

Cold Brew

While coffee has traditionally bean made with hot water, cold brewing does things a bit differently. This coffee is brewed using cold water after a lengthy period of time. The resulting coffee is generally smoother and less bitter due to the lack of heat, but packs a higher caffeine content.

 

Cortado

Cortado means "cut" in Spanish, referring to the strength of the espresso in this drink being cut with milk. It's made with one espresso shot and an equal amount of milk, resulting in a small but satisfying sip.

 

Dark Roast

When coffee beans are dark roast, it refers not to the origins of the beans themselves, but how they were prepared. These beans are roasted at high temperatures for a long time to lend a richer, darker and bolder flavor, as well as to create greater consistency between batches.

 

Doppio

A doppio (or "double" in Italian) refers simply to a double shot of espresso.

 

Drip Coffee

Drip coffee is prepared using a method that adds hot water to coffee grounds, with gravity doing the work to slowly drip coffee into the receptacle below. This process can make more coffee with fewer beans and often has a mellower flavor than traditionally brewed coffee.

 

Espresso

Espresso is one of the most essential parts of many great coffee drinks, and for good reason. Espresso means "expressed" in Italian, referring to the process by which hot water is pushed at high pressure through super finely ground coffee to create a concentrated shot of coffee that's small yet mighty.

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Flat White

The flat white is a coffee drink that originated in Australia. It combines espresso with flat steamed milk with just a subtle amount of froth. It's known for its silky texture and boldness.

 

French Press

A French press is an elegant brewing device with a special plunger that allows you to brew coffee by adding coffee grounds to hot water before separating them out with a special filter. Since it extracts more oil from the beans than other processes, it's recognized for creating some of the strongest and most complex coffee flavors.

 

Frothed Milk

Frothed milk is a very popular ingredient in many beloved café drinks. The milk is frothed using hot steam, which gives it a slightly bubbly and foamy texture that's pleasant on the tongue while mellowing out more bitter coffee notes. It also has a unique consistency, allowing its use for elegant latte art.

 

Iced Coffee

Iced coffee drinks are by first making hot coffee or espresso and then pouring them into a cup of ice to cool them.

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Also read about: The Best Instagram Captions for Pics of Your Iced Coffee

 

Latte

Perhaps the best-known espresso drink, lattes are made with one part espresso to every three parts of milk. Appropriately, latte means "milk" in Italian.

 

Lungo

Lungo is Italian for "long," referring to a long espresso shot pull. It's created with more water and over a longer period of time, thus creating a bigger shot of espresso. While lungos are not as strong as the typical espresso shot, they are known for being more bitter.

 

Macchiato

Macchiato literally means "marked" in Italian. While some popular coffee chains might use this word to mean something different, traditionally, a macchato is an espresso shot served (or "marked") with a spoonful of extra frothy steamed milk.

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Mocha

The classic mocha is a drink for the chocoholics out there, adding chocolate to a combination of espresso and steamed milk for a rich, decadent and dessert-like flavor.

 

Mochaccino

The combination between a mocha and cappuccino, a mochaccino is just a cappucino with chocolate.

 

Percolator

A percolator is yet another traditional coffee-brewing device that's good for making a lot of coffee at once. It works by boiling water, which sends bubbles up a tube into a chamber full of coffee grounds to steep them. Once coffee is brewed, it drips into the water in the pot below—the same water being boiled to create this process. It's a simple and practical process, but the coffee can be prone to bitterness and it takes practice to get consistent results.

 

Pour Over

The last coffee-making method on this list, pour over coffee is brewed by pouring hot water over ground coffee beans into a conical filter, which then trickles down into your cup. While this method gives the brewer a lot of control, it can be highly time-consuming and difficult for beginners to get just right.

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Ristretto

A ristretto, Italian for "narrow," is essentially the opposite of a lungo. It's a shot of espresso with a shorter-than-typical pull, also using less water. The resulting shot is about half the size, with a sweeter and less bitter but still strong flavor profile. It's also known a "short shot" or simply a "short."

 

Skinny

A skinny drink refers to any coffee drink made with espresso and milk that features skim milk rather than a full-fat milk.

 

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