Improvised Stovetop Lattes

Okay, this latte is kinda ghetto. The phrase "ghetto latte" might seem like a contradiction - after all, a latte is a classy blend of espresso and steamed milk. It's the type of thing you buy from a pretentious hipster, flavored with gingerbread or peppermint mocha. This latte becomes ghetto because, to be frank, I cheat. I own neither an espresso machine nor any legitimate means of making steamed milk.

But on Saturday, I found myself jonesing for a latte. I improvised! The result tastes shockingly like something you'd buy at Starbucks and doesn't require investing in any expensive equipment. Perhaps more importantly, you can get your hands on it without being judged by any hipsters whatsoever! The only important thing to have is some means of filtration. If you have a french press, that would be ideal. If not, you could use a fine mesh strainer or (like I used) a regular drip coffee machine filter.

Well, I didn't mention peppermint mocha for no good reason.

1. Figure out how much latte you'll be making. Take a quarter to a third of that volume and put it in a small pot where you'll start boiling it. For a standard coffee mug, this will be maybe 1/3 or 1/2 cup.
2. Once the water is boiling, add one tablespoon of coffee grounds per quarter cup of water. Stir! And then immediately begin skimming grounds off the top of the coffee and disposing of them. These floating grounds are a bit more likely to be burnt, and don't give the coffee as nice of a taste. Let the pot stay on the heat for about a minute, and then remove it and let it sit (with the sunken grounds still in the pot). You really want the coffee flavor to intensify, since you can't get the strength that comes from espresso's pressure-brewing.
3. Once the coffee has been brewing for five or ten minutes, strain out the grounds. I opened the top of my drip coffee machine, tossed a filter in, and poured the liquid right into the filter. Into the carafe came some bizarre super coffee - extra strong, but not burned like something from a percolator.
4. Meanwhile, start gently heating some milk. Since we're doing this without a steamer, creaminess has to come from elsewhere. I added about a teaspoon of half and half per latte. Make sure to stir the milk often, else you'll find a solid on the bottom that appears to be butter. Science on this in a later post.
5. When the milk is starting to steam but preferably before it boils, remove it from the heat. Pour coffee into your mug (whatever you estimated in step 1) and top it off with warm milk.
6. If you're brewing something flavored, add your flavorant! A bit of hot chocolate powder will do wonderful things. My girlfriend recently bought some (unexpectedly expensive) peppermint hot chocolate, so we've used that a couple of times now. I used about 2 teaspoons per mug. You could also use some cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel, chocolate syrup, or anything else your imagination comes up with. Stir it up nice.
7. Top it off with whatever accoutrements you desire. Treat yourself, and use some whipped cream to compensate for the lack of foam from steamed milk. The shaved chocolate in my picture above took around thirty seconds to grate and made for a much more presentable beverage..

Viola! You have a latte that will compete with anything you could buy from your local barista. Try it out! I'd love to hear how this works out for other people.