[2024 Jun 17: Updated prices and links.]
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Nutrition Facts
Calories | 85 kcal |
Total Fat | 4.1 grams |
Sodium | 48.0 grams |
Total Carbohydrate | 8.4 grams |
- Dietary Fiber | 0 grams |
Protein | 3.8 grams |
Ingredients and Price List
Hot Latte Made with Fine Grind Perk Coffee Beans.
I'm no coffee connoisseur, but I love drinking a cup of good coffee, preferably with freshly roasted ground coffee added with milk and sugar. But coffees sold in cafes are so expensive! And a coffee machine is kind of pricey as well...
This is why a portable coffee machine is the perfect solution for me. I just heard of its existence recently, and I immediately bought one online during the 7.7 sale. A portable coffee machine of average quality is reasonably priced at $30 - $40 (I bought the Mozeeda STREAMLINE Mini Handheld Portable Espresso Machine on Lazada) while premium brands like Wacaco can be priced up to $105. Sure, the preparation and cleaning up afterwards may be a bit tedious, but it just takes about 15 minutes to have a great start for the day.
By the way: Perk Coffee offers a coffee subscription service that delivers freshly roasted coffee right to your doorstep. If you've never bought Perk Coffee before, do not miss out on their promotion for new customers! Just pay $2 for shipping fees and you get free coffee saving up to $21.50.
How to Make Latte at Home:
1. Boil a kettle of water.
2. Warm up some fresh milk. (I use 100ml of Meiji Fresh Milk, pour it into a microwave-safe ceramic bowl, and heat it up using a microwave at medium temperature for 1.5 minutes. Be careful not to use too high heat for too long - the proteins contained in the milk will coagulate and form a layer of skin on the milk surface, and we certainly don't want that.)
3. Pour about 8 grams of coffee powder into the coffee ground basket (from the portable coffee machine), and use the coffee scoop to tamp the coffee (see how to tamp coffee).
4. Put the coffee ground basket back into the portable coffee machine (different portable coffee machines may have different layouts/parts - follow the instructions of your portable coffee machine.)
5. [Optional] I usually put 1/2 table spoon of white sugar into a cup at this point and set it aside.
6. Remove the bowl of warmed milk from the microwave and pour it into a French Press.
7. Pour the boiled water into the water tank of the portable coffee machine. Take note: don't pour beyond the maximum water level, and be careful not to scald your hands.
8. Flip the portable coffee machine upside down so that the water tank is at the top with ground coffee at the bottom. Unlock the piston by pressing and rotating it anti-clockwise (if it is locked) and start pumping the coffee into a cup (the cup may contain sugar if you followed step #5). The first few pumps will not pump out anything from the portable coffee machine, because it is pumping the excess air out of the machine. Coffee should start pouring out after about 6 pumps.
9. [Optional] I use a French Press to pump the warmed milk to give the milk a thicker consistency, imitating the "steaming milk" process if we were to use a barista coffee machine (see how to froth milk using a french press). Hence, the French Press should allow you to plunge the mesh filter all the way to the bottom of the liquid, and this is only possible if your French Press has an easily removable lid.
10. Pour the milk into the cup of coffee, and we're done!
Here we have about 180ml of semi-homemade latte (I said "semi" because we did not grind the coffee beans ourselves), priced at about $1.60. Isn't that so much cheaper than what you get in cafes? If you don't think 180ml is enough, simply repeat the process and you will have a 360ml latte priced at about $3.20. Trust me, you can't find a cup of nicely roasted ground coffee latte outside under $3.50.
In fact, here's a list of coffee I've bought recently in Singapore, and I decided to keep a record of their volumes and prices for comparison. If I had to choose from this list, my favourite is Starbucks Vanilla Latte. But as you can see, one cup is priced at $7.30, so I'd rather make my own coffee to satisfy my daily coffee fix.
Store | Coffee | Price (SGD) | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf | Hot Vanilla Latte | $7.60 | 375ml |
Delifrance | Iced Cafe Latte | $6.50 | Did not measure, but should be similar to Coffee Bean cup size as above |
Starbucks | Iced Vanilla Latte - Tall | $7.50 | 355ml |
McCafé | McCafe Latte | $4.15 | 360ml |
Signature KOI | Iced Latte | $6.90 | 380ml |
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Home-made Latte Ingredients & Kitchenware Recommendations 674F2F
Item | Recommendation |
|---|---|
Fine Grind Ground Coffee | |
Whole Coffee Beans (Alternative, for those who prefer grinding the coffee beans themselves) | |
Vanilla Syrup | |
French Press |
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