French Coffee

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). ...

A café au lait is the breakfast coffee of France — strong drip or French press coffee combined with an equal volume of hot milk, traditionally served in a wide bowl big enough to dunk a piece of bread. In New Orleans it’s the local café drink: the same drink, but made with a coffee-and-chicory blend. Despite the French name, this is not an espresso drink. That’s the single thing most people get wrong. A café au lait is regular brewed coffee, scaled up, and topped with hot milk — which is exactly why it tastes different from a latte, cappuccino, or café con leche even though all four are technically “coffee with milk.” ...