Condensed-milk latte (Spanish latte)
Section: Hot · espresso · dairy
Applies to: the HOT Spanish latte only, built à la minute in a 12 oz cup. Sweetened condensed milk is weighed on a scale — never poured, never spooned, never estimated. That single variable defines the drink and is where it most often goes wrong. Cold service does not use this build: it runs off the prepared batch base — see the Spanish latte batch base SOP.
Target: under 90 seconds.
Operating procedure
- Cup — 12 oz.
- Sweetened condensed milk — 30 g, weighed.
- Espresso — a double shot at 36–40 g yield, per the espresso-extraction SOP.
- Steamed milk — 180–200 ml, textured per the milk-steaming SOP.
- A scale on the bar, zeroed, before the first drink of service.
- Customer modification — “less sweet” is 15 g condensed milk. It is a second fixed standard, not a free-pour reduction.
- Weigh the sweetened condensed milk directly into the cup.
- 30 g on a scale, ±1 g. For a “less sweet” order, 15 g — the stated figure, not a judgement call.
- Extract the double shot directly onto the condensed milk.
- 36–40 g yield, per the espresso-extraction SOP.
- Stir once so the condensed milk dissolves fully into the hot shots.
- Fully dissolved before the milk goes in. An undissolved base pools at the bottom and the last mouthful is syrup.
- Steam the milk to spec and pour.
- 180–200 ml, textured to the milk-steaming SOP.
- Condensed milk WEIGHED, not poured. A scale on the bar, or the drink is not to standard.
- Fully dissolved before the milk goes in — check the base of the cup on the training bar.
- A modification is the stated figure. “Less sweet” is 15 g; “less” without a number is not a spec.
The path question is now settled and the two routes are kept apart on purpose. HOT is this procedure: à la minute, 30 g weighed per cup. COLD runs off the prepared batch base — 740 g sweetened condensed milk to 3 L full-fat milk — at 200 ml of base per cold cup. Do not batch for hot service and do not build cold to this per-cup spec; a barista who mixes the two routes produces a drink that is neither. The batch carries its own HACCP limits and lives in its own SOP for that reason.
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No caffeine figure is published for this drink: its record carries no tokenised ingredient list to derive from.