In search of a good Latte...

For the last 6 and half years I lived in Seattle, Washington… beautiful city! Anyway… some of you may have heard of a lil ol’ company called Starbucks. Well Starbucks originated in Seattle and needless to say the city is covered in them! Coffee in Seattle is a way of life! Between Starbucks and all the other local chains you can pretty much find a coffee shop in every corner. Hearing things like “I want a double tall half caf non fat extra hot no whip sugar-free vanilla white chocolate mocha” is really not that big of deal! By the way that’s 12 ounce cup with 2 shots of espresso (one caffeinated and one decaf) with steamed non fat milk heated a few degrees over the norm and to add flavor it has sugar free vanilla, white chocolate and in this case no whipped cream which normally goes on top of a mocha ;)

Ok… going back to the point of this post. I am addicted to coffee!!! Some people might not see this as a problem because Dominican Republic actually has amazing coffee… the problem is that besides espresso and drip they don’t really have a clue! Let me elaborate…

For starters there aren’t that many coffee shops in DR and the few that are around serve crap that looks more like a freaking cappuccino blast from Baskin Robbins!

So I am looking at the menu in one of these so called coffee shops and after browsing through a ton of these “coffee” drinks I find a small section at the end that contained an espresso, a cappuccino, a mocha and a café latte. GREAT! I proceed to order a latte and the guy behind the bar looks at me and goes

“Que?”

“A latte.” I say. “You know espresso with steamed milk”

“Oh you want coffee with milk”

“Yes”

So I see the guy pour out the shots of espresso into a cup and he then proceeds to pour milk into it right out of a carton…

“Whoa! Aren’t you gonna steam the milk?

“Why?”

“I ordered a latte”

“You wanted a cappuccino?”

“No. A cappuccino has mostly foam and little bit of milk. A latte has milk AND foam.”

(Laughing) “Mostly foam?”

“Yes”

“So you want a ‘latte’?”

“Yes!”

“Oooookay...”

He turned around and started to steam the milk. He then pours the milk in and yells to the cashier.

“Cappuccino coming up!”

I didn’t feel like arguing any more and I took the coffee cup from him… at least I had my latte… no matter what they want to call it.