Caramel macchiato is a sweet coffee drink made with espresso, steamed milk, and caramel sauce or flavoring. It can be made at home with an espresso machine and is also available as a packaged mix. The Starbucks version is a latte macchiato with added vanilla syrup and caramel sauce. The drink is marked with espresso and can be a large, milky drink or a small, concentrated one.
Generally served hot, caramel macchiato can come in a few forms, but always contain espresso and steamed milk with caramel sauce or caramel flavoring. It is typically a particularly sweet coffee drink that is friendly to the palate of those who rarely drink coffee. This drink is generally one of two things, depending on where the drink is made. It can be a large, warm milky drink with a light coffee flavor and caramel syrup on top, or it can be a small, sweet, concentrated coffee drink not much larger than an espresso. Caramel macchiato can also be made at home with the use of an espresso machine.
The best-known type of caramel macchiato, produced by Starbucks, is what’s called a latte macchiato, flavored with vanilla and caramel. Starbucks is a chain of coffee shops that originated in the United States in Seattle, Washington but later grew to an international presence. Essentially, the difference between the familiar latte and latte macchiato is that the milk in a latte macchiato should be added before the espresso, which creates an espresso mark in the milk froth. The Starbucks version of this drink also has several pumps of vanilla syrup and a drizzle of caramel sauce on the milky foam. Adding flavored syrup increases the sweetness of the drink and adds another sweet taste to the mix.
A true caramel macchiato is made with espresso, a special technique used to make coffee. Espresso is made by filtering pressurized hot water through finely ground roasted coffee beans using an espresso machine. Brewing ground coffee this way produces a concentrated hot liquid that is high in caffeine. This technique also makes the texture of the macchiato more bubbly than drinks made with drip coffee.
Making caramel macchiato at home requires the use of an espresso machine and ground espresso beans. While the espresso is being extracted from the beans, the milk is heated and frothed, then poured into a cup. Sometimes, the latte is flavored with sweet syrup, which can come in many flavors, such as caramel, vanilla, and amaretto. The freshly brewed espresso is poured into the frothed milk, which leaves a mark in the froth. A brown caramel sauce, usually made from caramel, sugar, and cream, is drizzled over the foam as an accent.
When an espresso machine isn’t available, there are a few options for making a similar drink at home. Some packaged beverage manufacturers sell drink mixes designed to simulate the sweet, milky flavor of this coffee drink. Usually, these come in the form of a powder or syrup that you mix into heated milk.
Macchiato simply means marked, and its use in reference to coffee can apply to a few different beverages. The well-known caramel macchiato from Starbucks differs from the type of caramel macchiato produced in many Italian-style independent coffee shops. When ordered at independent coffee shops, the caramel macchiato is usually a caramel macchiato rather than a latte macchiato. This version is made with just a small amount of milk dropped in to mark and froth the espresso.
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