On Really Good Coffee

As baby boomers, we’re entitled to more than a few eccentricities, right?! For David Henderson, BoomerCafe’s publisher and co-founder, it’s hand-crafting an outstanding latte. Here are some of his secrets for making a perfect cup.

I remember when I made my coffee conversion. It was in London at Covent Garden late one night in 1988. I was with old friends, and we had been out to dinner, and we stopped by the coffee shop in the center of Covent Garden for a cappuccino. Europeans don’t worry about drinking coffee late at night, as we Americans do.

I took one sip of that cappuccino and wondered aloud why we couldn’t get coffee like that on a consistent basis in the U.S. The time was just at the cusp of the coffee explosion here, when really good coffee was a thing pretty much limited by region to San Francisco, where there is Peet’s, and to Seattle, where Starbuck’s was expanding.

It was time, I decided at that late night moment, for me to learn how to make such a good cup of coffee, the type that Europeans have been enjoying for decades. So, I asked the guy behind the coffee bar who had made our cappuccinos, and he invited me to watch. Here’s what I learned –

It’s the coffee. The most popular coffee in the U.K. and Europe is Lavazza. Everyone drinks it. Lavazza is an Italian company based in Turin that has specialized in espresso for more than a century. They don’t mess around with blends. Their espresso is 100 percent Arabica. “Il perfetto,” they say. It’s perfect. I’ve tried others but always come back to Lavazza.

It’s the machine. Forget those little cheap Krups espresso makers. If you want to get serious about making a super cappuccino, invest in a good Italian-made espresso coffee machine. I like those made by Rancilio but there are many other good ones. Shop the Internet. A coffee machine will cost about $400. It’s expensive because of the pump and the internal boiler. The coffee machine first needs to get the water hot in the boiler and then force it with a strong pump through tightly packed espresso coffee in the stainless steel filter.

It’s the water. Only begin by putting cold water in a coffee machine. I prefer filtered water, mainly because the water in the Washington, DC metro area tastes like it came from a swamp and purified with bleach.

It’s the milk. In Italy and throughout much of Europe, they use skim milk that’s the equivalent of organic skim milk in the U.S. I have found that using organic milk to make a cappuccino produces a much tastier cup. It’s a lot better for you, too. And … this is very important … the milk must be cold when you begin to froth it, using steam from the coffee machine.

It’s proper steam. This is one of the most important steps — the steam pipe of the espresso coffee machine must first be purged of hot water, and there must be pure steam, no water, before frothing the milk. If hot water is plunged into the milk, it will ruin any chance of making a great cappuccino. That’s where so many production-line and restaurant coffee bars in the U.S., including Starbuck’s, go wrong today … they don’t purge the hot water before steaming the milk.

It’s a sprinkle of chocolate. A tiny sprinkle of English powdered chocolate atop a cappuccino is tradition in Europe. Not cinnamon, which competes with the taste of the coffee.

So, each morning, it’s become a zen-like ritual for me. I make one cappuccino, always striving for perfection and all the while remembering those times in England, France and Italy where all cappuccinos are perfection.

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