After recently returing from Spain, I need help before i go crazy. After drinking 3 or 4 cafe con leche a day for three weeks. I need to find out how to make them properly. Regular coffee does not do it after my experience with cafe con leche. I brought back some spanish coffee, and am going to purchase an expresso/cappucino machine. So all I need now is the proper way to make. Thank you to those who help me, I will owe my life to you.

Ranman

Oh man,I hear ya. I went five years without one. I swear to GOD there is nothing better than a Spanish cafe con leche. I, on the other hand have not learned how to make them... which I should now that I think about it. where are you located? If nobody on the board has answers maybe there is a local restaurant that would be kind enough to show you (bribery works sometimes! or flattery)...

guys here is what you do. my family is from cuba, so i was raised with cafe con leche in my bottle! i make it at home all the time. this is what you do. It is not "spanish coffee" but it's cuban expresso you buy. It should be at any big market chain, it's a green can call "llave" you buy the little "cafetera" to make the expresso. a cafetera is a silver thing you put water and the expresso in and put it on the stove and it cooks from there. i don't know how to describe it i guess i need to put a picture up of a cafetera to show what i am talking about. then when the expresso is done warm the milk on the stove "use whole milk" and there you go! it is the closest cafe con leche i have ever had in spain, it's alomst identical. you can buy the cafeteras at latin food stores i think. If you can't find it or don't know what they hell i am talking about, i'll send you one, cause there is a store out here that sells the cafeteras. they are like 8.00 for the small ones i think i'll check. if you can't find the coffee i can send that too no big deal. i've been making this stuff all my life, that is the one thing that i MISS so much about my Tia being gone, is drnking cafe con leche with her all the time!! i actually have an original one she brought with her from cuba, and it still kicks butt!!

Hey, I actually have one of those at home. COOL! As for the milk, how do you steam that? Do you just boil it?

My method exactly! I use on of those stovetop espresso silver pots, fill the cups half to 2/3 coffee, the rest WARMED MILK: I fill a coffee cup with milk and pop it in the microwave on HIGh for about 75 seconds. PERFECT!!!!

what kind of coffee do you use? do you use the llave? that is the best or you can use Gavina. boiling the milk is the best, it gives it a much diferent flavor than in a microwave.

Missmadrid: boiling the milk gives it a funny flavor. I think the microwave is the same effect as heating it on the stove to an almost boiled state. They don't boil it in spain, just heat it so it doesn't get too much nasty NATILLA on it, yuck! I use cafe Goya. Probably a sacrilegio, but it is almost as good as the half torrefacto half tueste natural (whatever those things ever meant... what IS torrefacto!)

oh yeah i know they don't boil it in spain, that is just what i always do, that is what my tia always did. after i boil it, i pour it in the cup through a strainer to filter the film on top. it's just all a personal preference.

I am from Canada(Winnipeg to be exact). I appreciate the comments so far. I think i have seen those stovetop expresso makers here in some stores.But i do not know about that particular type of cuban coffee bean, if i could buy them here. How much expresso do you put in those things, and what type of milk is best. Thanks again

Ranman

I'm from Miami so I always use mi "cafetera" expresso. Cafe La Llave is good, but I also use Cafe Pilon or Bustelo very available here in Miami. There are different sizes of cafeteras, from 1 to 6-8 servings.
I also like milk boiled for my cafe con leche, but of course I always use a strainer to eliminate "la Nata" from the milk.
Ranman as far as how much coffee you put in, in depends on the size of the cafetera you have. Each cafetera has its own size of coffee holder so you can't go wrong!!!!!