My cup of comfort

I am a voracious coffee drinker. I like my cup of coffee in any form be it hot or cold. After the introduction of Aqua Java, Barista in Kolkata, I have a great time in tasting so many varieties of coffee, specially those tempting cold coffees, served with icecream, whipped cream, choco chips, nuts, to list a few...

My morning starts with a steaming cup of regular coffee (I do make variations by adding spices and cocoa powder) with some biscuits or homemade cookies (as the picture shows, my favourite coffee mug on the desktop with some choco chips & cashew cookies).

Here are some information on coffee and various coffee-based beverages:

Coffee: Coffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. Due to its caffeine content, coffee has a stimulating effect in humans. The two most commonly grown species are Coffea canephora (also known as Coffea robusta) and Coffea arabica. The seeds are roasted to varying degrees, grounded and brewed to create coffee.

Cappuccino: Cappuccino is an Italian drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and steamed-milk foam. The foam on top of the cappuccino acts as an insulator and helps retain the heat of the liquid, allowing it to stay hotter longer.

The traditional cappuccino consists of an espresso, on which the hot milk is poured, resulting in a thick milk foam on top.

Variations of the mixtures are usually called cappuccino chiaro (light cappuccino, also known as a wet cappuccino) with more milk than normal, and cappuccino scuro (dark cappuccino, also known as a dry cappuccino) with less milk (and typically more foam) than normal.

Cappuccino Freddo is the cold version of a cappuccino, where the drink usually has a small amount of cold frothed milk atop it.

Espresso: Caffè espresso / espresso (Italian beverage), is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing hot water under pressurethrough finely ground coffee. As a result of the high-pressure brewing process, all of the flavors and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are concentrated. For this reason, espresso lends itself to becoming the base for other drinks like lattes, cappuccino, macchiato and mochas.

Café au lait: Café au lait (French for "coffee with milk") is a French coffee drink. At home, it can be prepared from dark coffee and heated milk.

Frappé: Greek frappé (Café frappé) is a foam-covered iced / chilled coffee drink made from spray-dried instant coffee. It is very popular summer drink also known as "Iced Cappucino" (North America), "Float" (Anglo-European) and "Frappuccino" (Europe).
Frappé are available in 3 degrees of sweetness, determined by the amount of sugar and coffee used. These are glykós ("sweet", 2 tps of coffee and 4 tsp of sugar); métrios ("medium", 2 tsp of coffee and 2 tsp of sugar) and a skétos ("plain", 2 tsp of coffee and no sugar).

All varieties may be served with evaporated / dehydrated milk (known as frapógalo / "frappé-milk") or without milk.

Latte: Latte (from the Italian caffè latte, meaning "coffee & milk") is a type of coffee drink made with hot milk.
Today lattes are often served in a wide mouth cup in order to show off hearts, rosettas and other latte art designs.

Flavored coffees (mocha etc.): A Café mocha is a variant of a cafe latte is basically a coffee-chocolate drink.

Like a latte, it is typically 1/3 third espresso and 2/3 steamed milk, with a portion of chocolate (typically in the form of sweet cocoa powder), although many varieties use chocolate syrup.

Unlike cappuccino, café mochas do not contain the well-known milk froth on top. They usually have whipped cream and a dusting of either cinnamon or cocoa powder. Mochas can contain dark or milk chocolate.

Information and pictures courtesy: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia