Every café menu is ten drinks wearing forty names. Here are the canonical ten with real specifications — shot, milk volume, texture — so your home versions stop being approximations.
The espresso family (no milk)
1. Espresso: 18g in, 36g out, 25–30s (dialing guide). The base unit of everything below. 2. Ristretto: same dose, restricted — stop at ~25g out. Sweeter, denser, less bitter tail. 3. Lungo: stretched to ~55g out; more extraction, more edge — better with medium roasts. 4. Americano: 1–2 shots into 120–180ml hot water (espresso into water preserves crema better than the reverse).
The small milk drinks (texture matters most here)
5. Macchiato: a shot "marked" with a spoonful of milk foam. Thirty seconds of milk work, maximum espresso presence. 6. Cortado: equal parts — 60ml espresso, 60ml barely-textured warm milk, served ~150ml glass. Flat, silky milk; no foam cap. The connoisseur's daily driver. 7. Flat white: double shot + ~120ml of thin microfoam (the paint-like texture from our frothing guide) in a 160ml cup. The whole drink is the milk texture — this is the one that exposes technique.
The big milk drinks
8. Cappuccino: classic thirds — shot, steamed milk, thick foam cap — in a 180ml cup, stretched noticeably longer during steaming. Dust of cocoa optional and traditional. 9. Latte: double shot + 250ml+ of lightly textured milk. The forgiving one — and the latte art canvas. 10. Mocha: latte + 20g real chocolate (melted into the shot, not syrup dumped in milk) — the difference between dessert and cocoa-water.
Reading the pattern
The menu is really one axis: how much milk, at what texture, over the same shot. Nail three skills — a dialed shot, flat silky milk, and stretched foam — and all ten drinks (plus every seasonal invention built on them) are yours. One-touch machines like the Jura E8 automate credible versions of most; the cortado and flat white remain stubbornly, rewardingly manual.
