Brew guide

35 drinks, and where their numbers come from.

Every ratio, dose and time here is the same one the Flatwhite iPhone app ships with - not a second recipe invented for the web. Coffee has no fixed truths, so most of these are ranges rather than single numbers, and each drink names what it is sourced from. Where nobody could say what a figure should be, the page leaves it out instead of guessing.

Espresso

Nothing but the shot - dose, yield, time and grind.

Espresso

The shot every other drink on this list is built on.

Ratio1:2

Espresso

Ristretto

The same coffee, stopped early. Sweeter, thicker, less of it.

Ratio1:1 - 1:1.5

Espresso

Lungo

The same coffee, run long. More cup, more bitterness to manage.

Ratio1:2 - 1:4

Espresso

Americano

Espresso lengthened with hot water, poured in that order.

Ratio1:2 - 1:4

Espresso

Long Black

The Australian and New Zealand answer to the americano - water first.

Cup180-220 ml

With milk

Espresso plus steamed or cold milk, in every ratio cafés pour it.

With milk

Flat White

A small, strong milk coffee with a thin, glossy foam.

Cup150-200 ml

With milk

Cappuccino

Espresso under a deep, soft cap of foamed milk.

Cup150-180 ml

With milk

Caffè Latte

The mildest of the milk coffees - a lot of milk, a thin foam.

Ratio1:3 - 1:5

With milk

Cortado

Espresso cut with an equal measure of barely foamed milk.

Ratio1:1

With milk

Espresso Macchiato

An espresso marked with a spoon of foam - nothing more.

Cup60-105 ml

With milk

Latte Macchiato

Built the other way round - milk first, espresso poured through it.

Cup250-350 ml

With milk

Piccolo

A flat white shrunk to a glass, built on a ristretto.

Cup85-100 ml

With milk

Caffè Mocha

Espresso and chocolate under steamed milk.

Milk150-180 ml

With milk

Café au Lait

Filter coffee and hot milk in equal parts - no espresso involved.

Ratio1:1

With milk

Wiener Melange

The Viennese house coffee - milder than a cappuccino, in equal parts.

Ratio1:1

With milk

Einspänner

Strong black coffee under a thick cap of whipped cream.

Yield15-40 g

With milk

Cortadito

Cuban espresso, whipped with sugar, cut with milk.

Ratio1:1

With milk

Café Bombón

Espresso layered over condensed milk, in equal measure.

Ratio1:1

With milk

Caffè Breve

An American latte made with half-and-half instead of milk.

Ratio1:2 - 1:3

With milk

Cà phê sữa đá

Sweetened condensed milk under a phin brew, over a full glass of ice.

Milk5-45 ml

With milk

Dalgona Coffee

Instant coffee, sugar and water whipped to a meringue and dropped onto cold milk.

Ratio1:1:1

With milk

Yuenyeung

Hong Kong coffee cut with milk tea, in a ratio a government department actually wrote down.

Ratio3:7

Filter

Pour-over, immersion and the stovetop - no pump involved.

Filter

Hario V60

The cone pour-over - fast, clear, and unforgiving of a bad grind.

Ratio1:15 - 1:17

Filter

French Press

Full immersion, metal filter, and the heaviest body of any method here.

Ratio1:15 - 1:17

Filter

AeroPress

Short immersion under hand pressure - and deliberately cooler water.

Coffee14-15 g

Filter

Chemex

A pour-over with a very thick filter - the cleanest cup, and the slowest.

Ratio1:15 - 1:17

Filter

Cold Brew

Hours of cold steeping instead of minutes of heat.

Ratio1:4 - 1:5

Filter

Moka Pot

Steam pressure on the stove - strong, but not espresso.

GrindMedium

Filter

Turkish Coffee

The finest grind in coffee, brewed from cold and never boiled.

Ratio1:8 - 1:12

Filter

Kalita Wave

A flat-bottom dripper that forgives an uneven pour.

Ratio1:15 - 1:16

Filter

Siphon

Vapour pressure up, vacuum down - full immersion with a clean finish.

Ratio1:14 - 1:16

Filter

Phin

The Vietnamese metal filter - no paper, no hurry, and a concentrate rather than a cup.

Ratio1:6 - 1:8

Filter

Japanese Iced Coffee

Brewed hot straight onto ice, so it chills in seconds instead of steeping for hours.

Ratio1:15 - 1:17

Filter

Nel Drip

A flannel cloth instead of paper - the coffeehouse filter of Japan, and the one method nobody agrees on.

Coffee10-20 g

Filter

Filter Kaapi

A steel two-chamber filter that drips for a quarter of an hour and yields a decoction, not a cup.

Ratio1:5 - 1:6

One thing worth repeating

A starting point - adjust to your beans. Every number on this page moves with the bean, the roast and the machine - that is written into every page here, not just this one.

Coming soon tothe App Store

This guide and the café list live in the same app - one place for the drink and the room to drink it in.