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In Europe, cappuccino is espresso made coffee topped with a thick foam of milk and sprinkled with “shaved chocolate, raw sugar and ….other spices”.  Espresso is actually concentrated coffee made by forcing pressurized  hot water through any finely ground coffee.  It is a method for making coffee and not a type or mix of coffee.   Now if you are a wealthy European and have lots of useless time on your hands you fill that time by sauntering down to your favorite coffee café, order a cup of cappuccino and very leisurely sit and sip (eat) while reading the latest stock quotes.  Does that sound like anything you might see in the US?

In the US what you will see are the white collar workers,  desiring to appear culturally sophisticated, sucking down burnt bitter overpriced Starbucks espresso made coffee that is capped with steamed milk and possibly having an added flavor such as Hazel nut.  The blue collar workers, not giving a damn what it looks like, will be seen purchasing a container of machine brewed cappuccino from a local truck stop such as Flying J.  The taste is gentle, the price is cheap and the customer is satisfied. 

The actual taste of the American machine brewed cappuccino is achieved by adding chocolate to espresso brewed coffee and often highly sweetened.  There is not a lot of difference in taste between US commercial machine made cappuccino and mocha (coffee brewed traditionally and chocolate added).  In summary the only real difference is the brewing method and the foam on top of the cappuccino.

Now the question is: does the foam have any flavor?  Well the answer is debatable.  I have had all types of cappuccino, including authentic European, and I can not detect any flavor.  But that may be due to my non sophisticated American taste buds.  However, the foam is a nice decoration and does add to the ambience of the moment.  So let’s say you are having a special quest over for coffee and would like to serve something attractive, tastes good and a bit different;  such as that shown in the following photo.

This is a cup of percolated coffee, with two table spoons of Nesquik Chocolate Syrup added to the cup (Mocha) then topped with skim milk foam (you might want to add a bit of the non foam milk to the cup). Since it is topped with foam I guess it should have a different name, such as Amerimocha.  I sort of like that : A-merry-mocha!  A 22 ounce of the Nesquik cost about 2 dollars (at Wal Mart) and does not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. Making the foam is really simple and is made from instant nonfat dry milk (skim milk).  It is important to use skim milk and not whole milk.  Simply heat up (do not boil) the skim milk (mix ‘n drink brand from Wal Mart) and mix vigorously with a kitchen whisk or put in a blender (or just shake up in a container).  Skim milk makes foam very easily and it can be sprinkled for taste and color.