So is cafe con leche made with espresso or coffee? Milk or cream? is the dairy hot or steamed? - I don't know the difference but have been asked. We have asked a local coffee shop we frequent about experimenting. I had thought that cafe aul lait was the same, but locally it is made with 2/3 coffee and 1/3 hot milk. thanks

Elaine
PS By the way we had snow at our home this morning!

I believe a typical Café con leche is made with about 1 part normal black coffee and 2 (or 3) parts steamed, whole milk (or sometimes semidesnatada, too). I usually ask for mine with leche templada - which is a mix of steamed and cold (or room temperature) milk so the darn cup/glass doesn't burn my fingers or the coffee burn my tongue. Yes, sometimes they serve "café con leche" in a small glass in Spain!

At home I make it with about 1 part regular coffee and 3 parts semidesnatada (like 2%) milk, for breakfast and another at merienda with a few bran Galleta María cookies. Yeah, I'm a "regular" guy.

Saludos, MadridMan

Interestingly , maybe only for me , I have been asked quite a few times in medium quality cafés or restaurants here in England if I wanted hot or cold milk ( I prefer hot milk as it makes the coffee less bitter ) . This never happened as recently as 7 years ago when I moved to Madrid for the first time ! Seems the UK is catching up at last with coffee . I´m not a huge coffee drinker and will have a maximum of two in a day . I've always preferred the 'cortado' ... beautiful rich espresso with a small amount of hot milk ... Similar to the Italian Machiatto . Even better is a carajillo which is an espresso ( café solo ) combined with brandy or rum .. delicious !!!
Carajillo used to be pronounced 'corajillo' and derives from the Spanish word 'coraje' meaning 'courage' . During the Spanish occupation of Cúba , Spanish troops mixed rum with coffee to give them courage ( i'm not sure which part of the long occupation ) ... I only learnt this recently !

yes indeed many variations, however,the traditional cafe con leche is with real expresso coffee and hot whole milk. Nowdays with the diet stuff, many folks even use desnatada and all that ...and even mix it with the starbuck coffee yikes!!! or even the old plain american coffee in the USA.

and I too preferred the cortado, Steve lol! the other carajillo never try it, I am not into hard liquor. even rum ::) During the Spanish occupation of Cuba they even mixed it with aguardiente, which over there is strickly made with sugar cane as a further disllation of rum,and can be very very strong! Guafarina is the common men drink hotter than hell ::) to withstand cutting sugar cane in the hot Cuban sun lol!

Thanks for the info everyone. Juliana and I will experiment with the coffee shop this week maybe. We may try just the coffee first, depending on how strong they make it, then try with the espresso.

ok give us the culinary findings please ::)