Cappuccino etiquette ☕️

[Creamcoconut]

I usually ask for a cappuccino if I visit a cafe. The last month or two it’s been a bit strange, my cappuccinos have arrived without chocolate sprinkled on top or they have been warm rather than hot (I’ve been directed to ask for extra hot next time as all coffee is 65c otherwise). Staff happily add sprinkles of chocolate or a hotter cappuccino when asked. I wondered if this was a city thing? I live in the sticks and wouldn’t consider myself cultured.

What's your AIBU?

Maybe cost cutting and only providing chocolate when asked?

Its lukewarm because yes ideal coffee temp, but its also to get you out faster....to make more money...same goes for sprinkles...saves money. All to do with money

Cappuccino should not be served very hot. Ask for chocolate.

I’m always asked if I want chocolate on it (and always say no because I hate %coffee with chocolate on).

If it's like cafes here in Australia, it might be a safety thing - they're worried about what happens if someone gets hot drinks spilled on them, I think. Friend has to specify a 90° coffee every time.

Don't know about the chocolate though, I drink flat whites so haven't noticed!

I agree OP and this drives me mad too. I like my cappuccino hot but finding more and more places serving it warm. When I say hot I mean just gone off the boil.

I assumed it was because of successful lawsuits against places that served scalding hot coffee which then scalded someone.

Warm cappuccino is an abomination!

My own cynical suspicion is that luke warm drinks go cold quicker and so stop you loitering about with them - ie faster turnover of tables etc.

But they are shit and I need to remember to ask for extra hot next time.

Chocolate on top is too misleading for me. It tricks me into thinking a sweet drink is coming so I never bother.

The thing is that you can't boil milk to the same temperature as water without altering the taste. So your cappuccino is made up of an espresso topped up with milk that is as hot as it can be without tasting awful, which is far from 90°, apparently closer to 60°. When people used to ask for theirs "extra hot" I'd just add boiling water, thus diluting it, there's no other way. Boiled milk is just not nice, we are told never to serve that

In Italy they are warm (not hot) with no chocolate, which is exactly how they ought to be. Most are an abomination in the UK!

I always ask for it specifically without chocolate on top. I think they cool down quite quickly because the cup is wider and open at the top, therefore more surface area and quicker release of heat?

Whenever Ive had one lately I've noticed that it's often quite flat. Surely a real cappuccino should be frothy.

I was a trained barista in another life. Milk does not hold the heat well for starters, the cup is usually wide and has more surface area to lose heat but in reality the milk shouldn’t be too hot because if you take it up too far the milk burns slightly and tastes nasty and ruins the coffee so there’s a correct temp for most coffees. If it sits on the side waiting to go out with other orders, it’s going to lose temperature very quickly.

I live in Italy and cappuccino is always served lukewarm. You also have to specify if you want chocolate (or cinnamon).

Cinnamon? That blows my mind

Cinnamon is the best! But Costa has stopped doing it, and other coffee shops are dog infested, so it's a choice between dog breath cinnamon or Costa.
(I actually love dogs, just don't want them panting into my coffee, coz the owners can't be arsed to keep them on short leads.)

I don't think it's a rural thing though, even our very, very small really just a village has a couple of coffee shops offer cinnamon or chocolate on top of cape.

Why did it autocorrect to cape, I definitely typed caps.

Warm with no chocolate for me. They often ask if I want chocolate but sometimes they just throw it on and I need to scrape it off and feed it to my sweet toothed DH!

The chocolate powder often contains wheat or dairy, which is a problem for a lot of people. Most cafes seem to have stopped putting chocolate on, and there’s a shaker for you to add your own. Because customers order a coffee, the barista adds chocolate without asking, then the customer complains they didn’t want chocolate or are allergic etc, and the barista has to re-make it and throw the original away. It’s easier just to let people add their own chocolate.

I work at an independent ‘city style’ coffee shop in the countryside and have had barista training - my thoughts:

• When you’re heating the milk, you are heating it to froth the milk for a cappuccino and if it gets too hot it burns the milk, and it doesn’t look right when you pour it - so when a customer asks for extra hot I just do it as much as I can without ruining it!!

• Where I work, we ask if you’d like chocolate on top when we take your order, some people are completely against it so they are maybe thinking it’s better not to put it on if they haven’t checked, as you would have to remake the coffee?

I would start asking for an extra hot cappuccino with chocolate on and hopefully they’ll get it right!

The temperature is 140f because any hotter and the milk gets burned and can taste horrible (to some) not to get you out faster, if this was the case why do I always get overheated milk which burns my tongue when I buy a cappuccino? It's drives me nuts how no one seems to get the temperature right. Also when I was a batista I would ask if the customer wants sprinkles. In starbucks you put your own on at the sugar station

I often regret ordering cappuccino when I am out because it takes so long to cool down to a drinkable temperature and my companion ends up waiting for me to finish. I also dislike it being smothered in chocolate powder as it inevitably ends up all over my top lip.

I can't recall having either of these problems when visiting the in-laws in Italy.The version that you are getting locally sounds perfect to me.

I had an ex-barista friend tell me this not long ago, but the temperature is something to do with the heating point of the milk.

As she said to me, "I'm somewhat limited by the thermodynamics of the liquid, but I'll give it my best shot."

Agree with others. The way you describe is the correct way to serve it and it's good more coffee shops are finally understanding their product. Too hot and the milk scalds. Chocolate needs to be asked for.