An espresso with a spot of milk, originally that was all there was to it. Today there are two routes: the classic dab with a spoon and the modern version with latte art in the espresso cup.
Joscha Gewinner
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The original recipe is for 1 cup.
Values per cup. Calculated with fresh whole milk, without sugar.
For 30 ml of milk you need the smallest pitcher you have, plus an espresso machine, grinder and scale for a clean shot.
Grind 10 g and pull around 25 ml of espresso straight into the pre-warmed cup.
Tip: because so little milk follows, you taste every extraction fault. Worth tasting the shot neat once beforehand.
Macchiato means stained: what is meant is the spot of milk on the espresso.
Froth 30 ml of milk. That is little for a pitcher. Take the smallest one you have, otherwise the wand will not catch the milk.
Tip: a short stretching phase, then guide the wand deeper: in the rolling phase the bubbles break down into fine microfoam. At 60 to 65 °C it is ready, that is the moment when the pitcher becomes uncomfortably hot against the flat of your hand.
Whatever foam is left over is enough for a second macchiato.
Classic: set a spoonful of foam in the middle of the crema. Modern: let the foam flow in and draw a small design.
Tip: there is little room in the small cup. Go closer to the surface than with a cappuccino, then the design holds.
In the modern version the macchiato carries a small design, and the circle works soonest.
Values per cup. Calculated with fresh whole milk, without sugar.
Italian for "stained". What is meant is the spot of milk on the espresso. With a latte macchiato it is exactly the other way round, there the milk is stained with espresso.
Both are right. The classic macchiato is an espresso with a dab, the modern one is a small latte art exercise. Anyone who wants the espresso in the foreground sticks with the dab.
Classically a spoonful, modern up to 30 ml. More turns it into a cortado and eventually a cappuccino.
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