Deciphering the Local Coffeehouse Menu

Espresso drinks are an art form for many a barista, but there are many other drinks worth exploring on your local coffeehouse menu. From Italian soda to microlot coffee, this guide will help you navigate beyond the world of espresso-based drinks.

Apple Cider
A strong, hot apple beverage that's similar to apple juice, but spiced with cinnamon and other spices. Sometimes, it's served with caramel or whipped cream. It is usually on coffeehouse menus seasonally.

Blended Coffee
A combination of different single origin coffees selected to achieve a consistent balance of flavor, aroma, and body. House blends are a popular type of blend on coffeehouse menus. They vary from coffeehouse to coffeehouse, and are usually geared toward the tastes of the shop's proprietor(s) or the shop's target customers or regulars.

Chai
In most coffeehouses, chai is a spiced, milky black tea blend made from concentrated syrup, but sometimes it is made with teabags or loose-leaf tea. You can usually order it dairy alternatives and sometimes you can order it caffeine-free (if they have a spice-only or spiced rooibos blend). It may come in special flavors, like vanilla, raspberry or chocolate, or it may be topped with foam, whipped cream or shaved chocolate.

Iced chai is popular in the summer. It can be made with ice cubes or blended until smooth.

Decaf
Coffee with most (not all) of its caffeine removed. Standards require that 97% of the original caffeine be removed, but the actual caffeine content in decaffeinated drinks is a controversial topic. Caffeine may be removed with water processing (called the "Swiss water process") or with chemical applications.

Drip Coffee
Coffee brewed by dripping hot water through ground coffee in a filter basket and into a pot or cup. Although drip coffee is best known as a home brew, it is also popular in coffeehouses.

Egg Cream
Recipes for egg creams vary, and many New York businesses claim to have "the best" egg cream in the city. It is usually a blend of a flavored powder or syrup (usually chocolate, but sometimes vanilla or strawberry) with milk and soda water.

Flavored Coffee
Coffee with added flavor. It can be made with flavored beans or with flavor added in the form of a syrup or powder. Popular flavors include chocolate/mocha, vanilla, Irish crème, caramel, cinnamon, almond, hazelnut and pecan.

French Press
Coffee brewed in a plunger-style pot. It may be single serving or up to eight cups. It uses a coarser grind than drip coffee, is higher in caffeine than espresso and is the preferred choice of many serious coffee drinkers.

French Soda
Two ounces of flavored syrup and two ounces of half-and-half in iced soda water. The shots are sometimes poured over the top of the soda and left to sink down into the drink for an appealing look. If they are topped with whipped cream, they are called Cremosas or Italian Cream Sodas.

Hot Cocoa
A blend of steamed or hot milk (or, sometimes, soymilk or rice milk upon request) with chocolate powder or syrup. It may be topped with whipped cream, marshmallows, cinnamon or other toppings. Some places offer Mexican Hot Cocoa, which is a spicier version of regular hot cocoa. It typically has red chili pepper and other spiced blended in or on top.

Iced Coffee
Iced coffee is a cold version of a hot favorite. Purists make it with cold-drip coffee, but some coffeehouses make by pouring hot coffee over ice. Sometimes, espresso drinks prepared with cold milk and then iced will also be called "iced coffees." Iced coffee may be flavored, sweetened and/or topped. Occasionally, coffeehouses will use coffee ice cubes in their iced coffee drinks.

Italian Soda
Two ounces of flavored syrup in iced soda water. The flavor shot is sometimes poured over the top of the soda and left to sink down into the drink for an appealing look. Popular flavors include cherry, lime, peach, raspberry, strawberry, pineapple and vanilla.

Juice
Popular types include orange, apple, pineapple, grape, carrot and grapefruit. They may be in single-serving bottles or poured from a larger container.

Microlot Coffee
A relatively small, discrete amount of coffee that has been especially selected from within a farm or cooperative for its quality, kept intentionally separate throughout the chain of milling and import, and sold separately.

Single Origin Coffee
Coffee from a single, distinct place, usually a single farm, a single village or a farmer's cooperative. Single origin coffee is the opposite of blended coffee. Tasting single origin coffee is a great way to see how terrior (the influence of growing region on a flavor) impacts coffee.

Smoothie
Smoothies are usually a mixture of some kind of dairy (such as ice cream, milk or yogurt) or a milk alternative (like soymilk) with fruit (either fresh or as a fruit concentrate). Common fruit flavors include banana, strawberry, mango, peach and mixed berry.

Smoothies are occasionally topped with whipped cream or flavored syrup. Sometimes, coffeehouses will replace fruit with coffee or espresso and add extra flavors, like candy bars or flavored syrups.

Steamer
One ounce of flavored syrup in foamed or steamed milk. Popular flavors include mixed vanilla, mint, chocolate, Irish crème, almond, hazelnut, apple, ginger, pumpkin, berries and caramel. Steamers are usually topped with a little foam or with whipped cream.

Tea
True teas (like green or black teas) are caffeine-containing infusions from the leaves of a particular type of camellia plant, but most coffeehouse tea menus include "herbal teas," which come from other plants and are usually caffeine free. Herbal teas (also called "tisanes" or "herbal infusions") are things like mint, chamomile, rooibos and ginger.

Some shops offer iced versions of the teas on the menu or specific iced teas that are pre-brewed each day.

Teas can also be made into tea lattes, which are typically lower in caffeine than traditional lattes.

Yerba Mate
An herb from South America that is often brewed like a tea. It's high in caffeine and antioxidants, and has a bittersweet, earthy, woody taste.

This article was written with some input from Peter Giuliano, co-owner and director of coffee at Counter Culture Coffee.