As much as we all love a barista style coffee, they do cost more than a coffee made at home (but they probably taste better). Here in the UK, we drink 95 million cups of coffee each day and 80% of UK households buy instant coffee. Just over half of UK students are coffee drinkers.
Some coffee fans may invest in their own espresso machine to have at home. These allow you to make your favourite coffee at the click of a button and can use coffee pods, capsules or ground coffee.
However, if you would prefer not to purchase a machine don’t worry you can still make your own barista style coffee at home without any fancy equipment.
Firstly you need to make the coffee. You can use a cafetière for this if you have one or simply make it in the cup. Remember to warm the cup first by rinsing it with boiling water.
Next, you need to heat up the milk. Ideally, you should do this by heating the milk in a saucepan. Pour some milk into a saucepan and place it on a low heat. Make sure you keep stirring it or it will stick to the bottom (which is a nightmare to clean). If it starts to bubble it means the milk is burning.
If you don’t have time to stand over a saucepan heating up milk or would prefer not to, you can also heat the milk up in the microwave. However, it is still important not to let the milk burn or overheat it so it develops a skin (a horrible film over the surface). To avoid this you should only heat the milk in a microwave for 15 seconds at a time then take it out to stir it. It should be ready after 45 seconds to 1 minute. Any longer than that and it will start to burn.
Once your milk is ready you can simply keep it heated up as it is and pour into your black coffee or you can froth it.
For those of you who have a cafetière, you can choose this to froth the milk. If not you can simply use a whisk or even a fork.
Pour the heated milk into the cafetière and pump the plunger up and down for a minute or so. If you are using a fork or a whisk simply pour the milk into a bowl or large container and whisk it until it begins to froth.
Afterwards, pour the milk into the black coffee, add any sugar or sweeteners and your homemade barista style coffee is ready.
If you are a tea drinker, don’t panic! There are still plenty of ways you can make your tea even better.
- Warm the mug or cup up first by rinsing it with boiling water
- When you are ready to make your tea, put the teabag in the cup (don’t add milk yet) and pour boiling water directly over the teabag
- Give it 3-5 minutes to brew
- Use a spoon to squeeze the teabag against the side of the mug. Be careful not to burst it or your tea will be ruined and your efforts will have been for nothing
- If you prefer your tea black then it is ready to drink (biscuit, cake or other snacks to accompany your tea is optional!)
- Some people may add milk, sugar, cream, honey or lemon to their tea. Get creative!
