Britain has become a nation of home baristas since coffee shops across the country shut six weeks ago amid the coronavirus lockdown.
Sales of wholebean coffee and coffee-making equipment at Waitrose and John Lewis are up a third since this time last year, and the nation has flooded social media with their home made attempts at frothy coffee and dalgona lattes.
With many missing their speciality lattes and delicious coffee shop brews, FEMAIL spoke to the nation’s favourite cafes, including Pret a Manger and Starbucks who have shared exclusive recipes and tricks for making some of their most popular drinks.
Read on to find out how to make your own Costa and Caffe Nero drinks, as well as expert analysis on how to get the professional feel at home and recipes for hot chocolate and chai for those who aren’t coffee drinkers.
COLD COFFEES
How to make a Starbucks Frappucino, Iced Coffee and Cold Brew at home
Cold foam cappuccino
Starbucks have reavealed how to make their cold foam cappuccino at home
INGREDIENTS
- 250ml of skimmed milk
- Your favourite coffee (Two shots of espresso or quarter cup of water with one teaspoon of instant coffee)
- Ice
METHOD
- Pour two shots of Espresso over ice
- Using a cafetiere, froth milk until its silky smooth
- Pour milk over ice in a glass
- Pour espresso over the top
Classic Iced Cappuccino
Starbucks also revealed their iced lattes are simply coffee and milk over ice
INGREDIENTS
- Milk (optional)
- Ice
- Sugar (optional)
- Coffee
METHOD
1. Prepare your favourite coffee as desired
2. Pour over coffee
Cold Brew
Chocolate Frappucino
Starbucks also shared the very simple three-step method to making their frappes at home
INGREDIENTS
- One cup of milk
- Two teaspoons of cocoa powder
- One teaspoon of sugar
- Two cups of ice
- Whipped cream
METHOD
- In a blender, add milk, cocoa powder and sugar, and ice
- Blend until smooth
- Pour into a glass and add whipped cream for the perfect topping
TIPS FROM STARBUCKS COFFEE’S MASTERS
Starbucks also told FEMAIL that customers can find the same high quality, 100 per cent Arabica coffee used by Starbucks baristas sold in grocery stores across the UK.
Here, their coffee masters share how to make the perfect cup at home.
Amp up your coffee with one of these creative household hacks
· Make it minty: If you want a natural flavour for your mocha or hot chocolate, brew mint tea (or mint leaves) and use this beautifully brewed water to make your hot chocolate or mocha
· A dash of cinnamon makes all the difference: Spice up your French Press by adding a pinch of cinnamon to the grounds before plunging for a spicy kick to your morning coffee
· Add cheese! Yes, really… Serve bold dark Asian coffees with a cheese board pairing – this is where dreams come true! If you are open to getting your mind blown, grind the coffee very fine, cut up some cubes of medium cheddar, dip into honey and then dip into the ground coffee and eat… honestly this is a game changer!
Make that iced coffee even better
· Make Cold Brew at home by steeping coffee in a French Press for 20 hours and letting it cool. Add slices of orange if using an African coffee as it highlights the juicy acidic notes.
· Make coffee ice cubes with VIA sachets and add to already iced coffee so the flavour doesn’t dilute
· Add honey to hot or cold coffee for a calming natural sweetness
· Let a French Press of Kenyan coffee cool to room temperature, mix equal parts coffee and lemonade in a glass, add ice and enjoy a refreshing afternoon beverage
· Add a vanilla pod to your French press for a subtle hint of vanilla as the coffee infuses.
How to make Pret’s Coffee Frappe
Jonny England, Pret A Manger’s Global Head of Coffee told FEMAIL his recipe for making a Coffee Frappe at home.
Jonny England, Pret A Manger’s Global Head of Coffee, told FEMAIL how to make a Coffee Frappe at home
Jonny revealed how to make a lovely coffee frappe in just five simple step
He also shared great coffee using ground coffee and a cafetiere.
- Place your cafetiere on the kitchen scale, tare your scale and add your ground coffee. A good starting ratio to work to is 60g of coffee per litre of water – that would be 15g of coffee to 250g water per cup
- Fill your kettle with freshly filtered water and boil
- Tare your scale again and add your freshly boiled water straight onto the coffee grounds (keeping to the 60g of coffee per litre of water ratio as above)
- Immediately stir with a spoon to ensure all the coffee grounds are in contact with the water and place the cafetiere lid on top to retain the heat, but don’t plunge. Set your timer for four minutes
5. Once the coffee has brewed for 4 minutes, remove the lid and stir again. Using a spoon, skim off any remaining floating coffee grinds and oils off the surface of the coffee. This will make it easier to plunge and ensure your coffee tastes less muddy.
6. Now at the lid back onto the cafetiere a plunge, but only halfway!
7. Allow the coffee to rest in the cafetiere for at least five minutes before pouring. This ensures all the fine coffee particles settle to the bottom of the cafetiere and don’t end up in the bottom of your cup.
HOT COFFEES AND FLAVOURED LATTES
How to make Costa’s Chocolate Orange Latte at home
INGREDIENTS
- Milk of your choice
- Orange
- Dark chocolate
- Honey
- Cinnamon
- Espresso, prepared how you like
Costa revealed how to make their chocolate orange latte at home
METHOD
1. Using a coffee machine, Moka pot, instant coffee, or pod machine, prepare 30-40ml of Espresso
2. Pour over the top of small amount of honey and chocolate in bottom of the glass
3. Stir until melted
4. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut piece of peel of the orange and set aside as a garnish
5. Heat 200ml of your chosen milk, with two teaspoons of freshly squeezed orange juice to 60C
6. Optional, if you have a cafetiere, you can use it to froth milk
7. Drizzle honey on the inside of glass
8. Pour steamed milk and orange into glass
9. Pour espresso milk and honey into glass
10. Add light dusting of cinnamon
11. Add garnish or orange
How to make the perfect Flat White, or Latte with Instant Coffee
Toby Weedon, Head of Coffee Shop Channel at Oatly, shared his expert tips on re-creating the perfect Barista coffee from home.
READ RELATED: Celebrity chef behind Mr Wong restaurant Dan Hong shares secret to chicken and hot chips recipe
These tips are based on making a coffee shop style Oat latte, but can be adapted to make a Cappuccino, Flat White and more.
Toby Weedon, Head of Coffee Shop Channel at Oatly, shared his expert tips on re-creating the perfect Barista coffee from home. These tips are based on making a coffee shop style Oat latte, but can be adapted to make a Cappuccino, Flat White and more.
Ingredients
- Oatly Barista Edition (Or our whole and Semi versions would work too!)
- Instant coffee
Method
1. Heat 200ml of Barista Edition, both the hob and a microwave can be used for this. You are aiming for a temperature that is just too hot to touch, but not boiling. In a coffee shop, the barista will often have one hand on the side of the jug whilst steaming, and when the jug is too hot to touch they know it is the right temperature.
2. Whilst this is happening, dissolve one teaspoon of instant coffee in a splash of hot water. If you are a double or triple shot kind of person, increase the coffee. If vanilla is your thing, you could also add a drop of vanilla extract here. If you have a stove top espresso maker, you can replace the instant coffee with this.
3. When a barista is steaming for a latte, they aren’t just heating, they are also incorporating air, which is what we need to do next. Pour the Barista Edition into a cafetière, and put the plunger in and down so the lid is on. Push the plunger up and down quite quickly so the fine mesh comes above the surface of the liquid before going down again. The liquid should increase in size in 10-20 seconds. You can incorporate more air at this stage to make more of a Cappuccino, or less air to make more of a Flat White.
4. With the plunger plunged pour the foamed Barista Edition into the mug so that it incorporates with the coffee at the bottom, by gently swirling the mug with one hand as you pour with the other.
How to make the perfect cappuccino by Sam Trevethyen, Head of Beverage Training & Development at GRIND
Sam Trevethyen, Head of Beverage Training & Development at GRIND, a trendy chain of London coffee houses revealed how to make a cappuccino at home.
Sam Trevethyen, Head of Beverage Training & Development at GRIND, a trendy chain of London coffee houses revealed how to make a cappuccino at home. Pictured, a Grind Coffee
INGREDIENTS
- Nespresso compatible pod machine
- Grind House Blend pods
- French Press
- Milk or Mylk
- Saucepan
- Cappuccino
- Cup
METHOD
1. Fill the French Press ⅓ full of milk
2. Pour into the saucepan
3. Heat on the stove until it starts to bubble
4. Fill up the pod machine with filtered water
5. Once the milk is heated, pour back into the French Press
6. Using the metal filter, pump it up and down into the surface of the milk to add texture
7. Once the milk as increased in size by 30% take our the metal filter
8. Place a Grind House Blend pod in your machine (our pods are Nespresso compatible) and make into the Cappuccino cup
9. Swirl the milk in the French Press until it is shiny
10. Pour into the coffee
11. Enjoy!
SAM’S TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE A PERFECT COFFEE
KEEP YOUR COFFEE IN AN AIRTIGHT BAG
As with all things, fresh is best, always. However, not everyone has access to a quality coffee grinder, which is why there are so many different styles of ground coffee available.
Once the coffee is ground, it can lose up to 50 per cent of its volatile aromatics (the good stuff) within five minutes, so how it is stored, and how it is ground is very important
Firstly, if the coffee is not in an airtight bag or container, it can taste weak, or stale. This is especially true of coffee that sits in supermarkets or weeks or even months. Secondly, if the coffee is ground fine enough to brew espresso, it will have lost a lot more flavor and intensity as it sits in the packet.
There are ways around this. At Grind, for example, all of our tins are nitrogen flushed and then instantly sealed, for freshness. The nitrogen replaces the oxygen inside the tin, creating a natural environment that helps preserve the coffee. Another thing we do is only offer coffee on what we call ‘Omni Grind’ – this is suitable for all types of filter coffee, including drip, french press, or immersion brew. As this is a coarser grind, it helps keep the coffee fresh for longer. As with all things, the most important thing you can do is buy high quality, well-sourced and well-roasted coffee.
HOW TO STEAM YOUR MILK
The best at-home milk hack is to fill a French Press 1/4 full of milk, heat it until it starts to bubble, and pour it back into the French Press. Then, using the metal filter attached to the lid, hold to just under the surface of the milk and pump it up and down, fairly vigorously. This will drive air and texture into the milk, and you can experiment with how deep you go or how fast for different results.
As a general rule, once the volume of milk has increased by 1/4 it will be thick enough to transport you back to the last time you had a barista-made coffee. You can even watch some latte art videos and give that a go!
How to make the perfect cup of coffee: Caffe Nero reveal the correct way to use home brewing equipment
Caffe Nero have also released a series of infographics on the right way to use home coffee equipment, including a French Press, drip coffee makes and aeropress
Caffe Nero have also released a series of infographics on the right way to use home coffee equipment, including a French Press, drip coffee makes and aeropress
AND IF YOU’RE NOT A COFFEE DRINKER…
How to make Dishoom’s Masala Chai at home
Indian Iranian Cafe Dishoom also revealed how to recreate their popular chai at home.
Indian Iranian Cafe Dishoom also revealed how to recreate their popular chai at home.
How to make the perfect hot chocolate from the creators’s of the viral ‘Chin chin’ dessert loved by celebs
Nyisha and Ahrash Akbari-Kalhur, who run the celeb-loved London dessert parlour CHIN-CHIN told Femail how to make a perfect hot chocolate.
The married couple’s hot chocolate is a viral sensation due to its extravagent burned marshmallow top, and their cafe has been visited by Angelina Jolie, Jude Law, Tim Burton and Mila Kunis.
They told FEMAIL how to recreate delicious hot chocolate at home.
Nyisha and Ahrash Akbari-Kalhur, who run the celeb-loved London dessert parlour CHIN-CHIN told Femail how to make a perfect hot chocolate. Pictured is their hot chocolate
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
‘Make sure that you use expensive chocolate. Generally 70 per cent cocoa solids or higher works best as when you dilute the flavour by adding milk or water, you want to ensure that you keep that intensity of flavour
MELT REAL CHOCOLATE OVER HOT WATER
‘Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie instead of in a microwave or over direct heat – this way it’ll be glossy enough to see your face in and it won’t be grainy.
BLEND YOUR DRINKS
‘If you have one, use an immersion blender to mix the hot chocolate in the pan, as this will emulsify it, giving that luxurious, thick and creamy consistency.
ADD HERBS AND FLAVOURS
‘In order to make your drink extra wintery, infuse the milk or water with woody herbs like rosemary or juniper – don’t be afraid to be inventive! Just heat the herbs with the milk, strain (as no one wants bits of branch in their hot chocolate!) and then pour into your melted chocolate.
You can also order a kit directly from them to recreate the magic at home.
Source: Food Recipes and News
