Latte and Espresso

Time for a couple of coffee drinks!  My wife loves a nice Latte, and I like Espresso.  I had the camera handy and took a few shots of preparing the drinks:

First, you have to get everything out.  The coffee machine is already set up in the kitchen, a couple of Espresso cups and the coffee holder are all ready to go:

Pop some coffee in the holder, tamp it down (compress it with a special tool):

Put the holder on the machine, and switch the pump on.  If you've put the right amount of correctly ground coffee in and tamped it properly, then you get a beautiful espresso in about 25 seconds.

Fresh ground coffee, properly prepared in the machine will come out with a lovely "crema" - this is the creamy, oily frothy layer on the top of the coffee:

Now, for the latte you need milk.  Frothing milk is quite a precise operation - you need to get it between about 60 and 70 degree C.  Too cold and you end up with a luke-warm coffee, too hot and you scald the milk and it doesn't taste as nice.  That's why I use a thermometer:

About 1/5th of a jug of milk froths up to completely fill the jug if you get it right:

To make a Latte, you pour the milk into a glass, using a spoon to hold back most of the froth.  Leave a little bit of room, then pour the espresso into the milk and add a dollop of froth to the top:

For a cappucino, you pour about 50/50 froth and hot milk (using a spoon while pouring to divide) onto the coffee (so you put the coffee in first).

And there you go!  Photographically, all pictures were taken with 5Dmk2 (all at ISO 800), Sigma 50 f1.4 all at f1.4.  I'm absolutley loving the Sigma 50 f1.4 on the 5Dmk2 - an absolutley brilliant combination.