How to make a perfect Cappuccino at home

Introduction

If you are a Pakistani you most probably are automatically accustomed to drinking a cup of soothing and relaxing "Doodh Patti Chai". You occasionally go to a Café with friends, family and acquaintances to have a chat "over a cup of coffee", and typically order a Cappuccino or Latte [and have it with a spoon full of sugar!].

If this sounds like you, read on.

Cappuccinos are the most popular type of coffee consumed in Pakistan and since Chai has seasoned our palates to only accept sweet-milk-based-drinks, a sugared cappuccino is happily welcomed by our palate. But that's OKAY! One must keep their palate happy.

[Coffee enthusiasts would argue about sugar over-powering and eventually diminishing the true flavours of a coffee, which in its place is very true, but we'll leave that for another day.]

Today, let's talk about how to make the perfect Cappuccino or Latte at the beloved place you call home.

Let's dive right into it.

How to make a Cappuccino at home, like a pro.

The Base 

Let's make this clear - most milk based coffees you get have the same base. Which is, obviously, coffee! 

Now here's the catch, the base of all (or most) milk based coffees is an Espresso.

Not sure what an Espresso is? Read along.

An Espresso is made up of water gushing through finely ground coffee at very high pressures. This is Espresso in a sentence. We'll skip the nitty gritty for now.

Cooking coffee in a pan of water and adding milk to it when it hits a boil doesn't work. It definitely does wonders when you're up for a "paki huwi non-tea-bag chai", but please don't waste your precious time doing this with coffee, trust me, I've been there!

Conclusion: Whether you're making a Cappuccino, Latte or any kind of milk based coffee, the base is the same; Espresso.

The Topping

The main factor that will create what is originally an Italian concoction and is called Cappuccino, is the milk.

A Cappuccino will generally be made using the following proportions:

• 1/3 Espresso
• 1/3 Steamed Milk
• 1/3 Milk Froth

The Method

1. Making an Espresso

Sounds intimidating? Yes it does, because a good Espresso machine typically starts from roughly Rs. 30,000 and goes up to a million rupees. But worry not! We've got it all sorted out.

All you need to make a delicious cup of authentic Espresso in your very own Kitchen is a Moka Pot.

Learn how to make an Espresso using a Moka Pot using our Brew Guide.

(We're in the process of making our own explanatory videos, but we don't want to keep you waiting) So we've gathered a bunch of awesome resources to guide you how to make a perfect Espresso using a "stove-top" Moka Pot.

Here's an amazing video put together by Karajoz Coffee Company about making a perfect Espresso using a Moka Pot.

Karajoz demonstrates the correct way to make coffee with stove top Moka Pot coffee maker.

 2. Preparing frothed milk

The second most important part of making a Cappuccino is frothed milk.

There are two ways to do this.

1. Use a beater/whipper that intrinsically lives in your kitchen.
2. Use a French Press.

A beater/whipper works well and you can find tonnes of internet resources using it, but very honestly speaking, what worked best for me was the French Press. A few pumps of the French Press will give you a richly textured "white-gold" cup of frothed milk.

Here's a video by Café Britt explaining how to use a French Press for making frothed milk. Its super simple!

Besides making coffee, the French Press is also the perfect way to turn milk into the heavenly froth you long for in your cappuccinos. With a French Press you won’t have to bother with the difficulty of steaming milk and cut your preparation time significantly.

The whole Process in one video:

This one is my favourite. ChefSteps shows how to make a Cappuccino using a Moka Pot and a French Press all together in a neat little video. 

Grant Crilly and James Hoffman walk us through the process of making a cappuccino with  a Moka Pot and a French Press.

Note: For the best results, we recommend using freshly roasted coffee beans, ground at a very fine setting. Rethink Specialty coffee is one the finest coffees found in Pakistan. Specialty coffee is an internationally graded coffee which is superior to all "off-the-shelf" commercially sold coffee. A Specialty coffee typically scores above 85 marks on a "cupping table". Where as commercial coffees score a maximum of 45-55 marks.

We also recommend using a Burr Grinder to get the an even grind resulting in a delicious cup of coffee.

Get 10% off on the Moka Pot Brew Bundle. Use "MOKAPOTBUNDLE" at checkout to apply discount.

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If you have any suggestions, comments or any other queries, feel free to comment below or email us at rethinkcafe53@gmail.com

Please note: Rethink Café does not own the rights to these videos and cannot be held accountable for their content.

Rethink Café | The First Online Specialty Coffee Shop in Pakistan | Peshawar, Pakistan