Latte Vs. Cappuccino

Do you, like me, falter at the counter of the coffee shop and wonder what would you want to have? Is the fight always a latte vs cappuccino fight? For a number of my friends, I look like a coffee illiterate. Before we go into the details of latte vs cappuccino debate, let's see how do we pronounce both of them. Latte is pronounced as 'laa-tay' and cappuccino is pronounced as 'cap-o-chene-o'. Now let's see the difference between latte and cappuccino.

Difference Between Latte and Cappuccino

The local coffee shops are to be blamed for latte vs. cappuccino dilemma that the common man has. In most of the coffee shops both latte and cappuccino are made from poor quality espresso and it is topped with a lot of milk and foam. However, it is important to understand that both of them are different from the other and they are not to be used interchangeably.

What is a Latte?
Latte originally comes from Italian, where it is known as caffelatte. You will be able to find latte in most of the countries in the world. To be able to get the right coffee, you should know what it is called in the different languages. It is known as café au lait in French, café con leche in Spanish and Milchkaffee in German. If you have to translate latte into simple English, it simply means 'coffee (and) milk'. It often accompanies breakfast. Latte is actually a double shot of espresso topped with steamed milk. Latte does not have milk forth or frothed milk. It makes the breakfast very filling as it has a generous quantity of milk in it.

The right method serving the latte is in a 7-8 oz glass. The glass is important, so that the drinker is able to see the amount of milk added to his coffee. In some cafés, you will come across foam topping the latte. However, it is often used for the sake of presentation, in order to make the latte more tempting and attractive. You may come across some latte art on the latte. This latte art is used for garnishing. The designs used include shape of a heart or a leaf.

What is Cappuccino?
The main difference between a latte and cappuccino lies in the composition of this coffee. Cappuccino consists of espresso, steamed milk and foamed or frothed milk in equal quantities. It is the cappuccino which ideally should have a thick layer of foam on it. Actual cappuccino coffee is stronger as compared to a latte, but should not be bitter to taste. In other words, it should be evenly balanced. There are two types of cappuccino, namely 'wet' and 'dry'. The difference between both these types is the quantity of milk. Dry cappuccino has more foam, less milk and wet cappuccino on the other hand has more milk and less foam.

Latte is served in a glass, whereas a cappuccino should be served in porcelain cup. The cup should consist of 6-7 oz coffee in it. The cups in which cappuccino is served often have a large mouth and a narrow base. Do you wonder why is cappuccino served in porcelain cups? The answer is, because porcelain retains heat better as compared to most of the other materials. The garnishing used on a cappuccino is that of cinnamon. Cinnamon powder is simply dusted on the cappuccino. Find information about cappuccino vs. latte.

Now that we have understood the difference between latte and cappuccino, let's come to the next part of the latte vs cappuccino debate. The next part of the debate is latte vs cappuccino calories. Read about how many calories in coffee.

Latte

Weight	Carbs	Calories
12 oz	16 gms	120 - 200 calories
16 oz	21 gms	160 - 260 calories
20 oz	27 gms	210 - 340 calories

Cappuccino

Weight	Carbs	Calories
12 oz	10 gms	80 - 120 calories
16 oz	15 gms	100 - 180 calories
20 oz	17 gms	130 - 210 calories

I hope, now the dust has settled on the latte vs. cappuccino debate. If you are still confused and also are weight conscious, you may simply opt for a cup of cappuccino, as it has lesser calories as compared to a latte.