Macchiatos, wet macchiatos.

Posted by Steve Hanna on August 29th, 2007 filed in Coffee Tags: addiction, Coffee, espresso, macchiato, passion, silvia

Yes, I have an obsession, a passion, a love. If you know me at all, you know that I am inevitably going to talk about my obsession with coffee and coffee drinks.

By far, my favorite drink is a macchiato, wet. What is this strange drink, you ask? Well, it’s a 1.5-2.0oz extraction of espresso with a dollop of foam on the top. The wet qualifier means that instead of just microfoam, it has just a dash — and I mean a dash of milk. To get the delicious drink you see pictured below, I use a Rancilio Silvia semi-auto espresso machine, a Gaggia MDF Grinder on setting 6 (oh how I want a stepless grinder!), an approximately 30 pound spin tamp with 4 points of pressure after the spin (top, bottom, left right) with Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso Blend all shoved inside a slightly overfilled 3 shot naked portafilter. The shot should be extracted over a period of about 25-27 seconds. I froth whole milk and bring its temperature to approximately 148 degrees Fahrenheit. I then pour the microfoam into the glass to top off the shot. Delicious. Don’t they look sexy in the thermal glasses?

Note: using this method I have acheived over an inch of crema in the past! Sadly this is not pictured. Also, for the love of god, PLEASE ignore the Starbucks[sic] Milk pitcher.