Cafe au lait

Have you ever entered Coffee Bean in Malaysia, found yourself staring at the list of drinks available on the big board behind the counter for minutes but could not make up your mind of what to get?

And also, have you ever walked into a coffee shop and wondered what's the difference between machiato, white coffee and espresso, then just ordered cappuccino or latte when you were finally in front of the cute waiter because you didn't want him to think that you couldn't differentiate between americano and black coffee?

Well, I have to admit that for the past twenty years, I've never been bothered to care!! and ended up getting hot chocolate all the time because we all know it. Right?

However, I was forced to learn about coffee on my first day at work. And after months of making the coffee machine my best friend, I can now forth milk like a pro, forming generous foam for latte and cappuccino especially.

I made this today, hehe. Not too proud.

I'm a coffee girl. (because I always need it to stay awake, boo!)

By the way, I feel so blessed for having a Starbucks next to the bus stop I wait at every morning. Walk in, ask for coffee, swipe the card, take two packets of sugar and leave. Life could've never been easier.

And in the case where the queue is rather long, there are another two Starbucks waiting at the underground station where I take my tube from. Now tell me how can I not be too dependent on coffee.

So dear readers, having talked about the same thing in the six paragraphs above, I feel obliged to educate you with a quick coffee 101. Now put your nerd glasses on, get ready and read away ...

Okay I cheated before. Americano, black coffee and filter coffee are all the same. I wonder who came up with the name americano (duh!!), hehe. Is there any Italiano, Spaino and France-o? Also, why can't we create Malaysia-o? Ah, maybe because we already have Milo and Neslo. Such cool names, kan? Hehe.

Next is cappuccino. This one has three parts : coffee, milk and froth. Each takes up a third of the cup, with coffee being poured in first, and froth the last. A good cappuccino is when the foam sits nicely and the coffee doesn't spill when u gently shake the cup.

I'd like to think of latte as the same thing as cappuccino, only different in the way it's prepared. More milk, less foam and coffee is added last. It's usually served in a tall glass so that you can see the three visible layers. sooo nice :) Anyway, there are actually two types of latte, caffe latte and latte macchiato, but let's not go in too deep.

Espresso is served in the teeny weeny cup which I'm sure you have seen before. It's basically the first extract of the coffee, very strong and concentrated.

Macchiato is essentially espresso with a dash of milk.

So, guys, let's all now go and get ourself a good cup of coffee. The smell is tantalising...

*The reason behind all this is because I don't like making cappuccino !!! But that is, ironically, the one word that permanently resides in everyone's mind and pops up when it's coffee time.

On a separate note,
congratulations to my sister for completing her ACCA.
double congrats to another sister for being pregnant!
I want a boy, please??
triple congrats to me for the good afternoon email I received :)
and finally. Happy Birthday, mama!!