What Is French Coffee? Café au Lait, Café Crème, Noisette, Allongé & Gourmand Explained
French coffee is not a single drink. It is a family — at least seven distinct drinks built around the small espresso shot, hot milk, and a long café tradition that reaches back to the 1686 opening of Café de Procope in Paris, the first true coffeehouse in Europe. Each member of the family has its own ratio, its own time of day, and its own place in the bistro routine: the café (a straight espresso, what you order if you say ‘un café’ without elaborating), the café crème (the morning espresso-and-milk drink), the café au lait (the home-bowl drip-and-milk drink), the café noisette (the French macchiato), the café allongé (the French lungo or americano), the café gourmand (the espresso served with mini desserts, a 1990s invention), and café filtre (drip-filter coffee, historically uncommon, now reviving). ...