Talk:Café au lait

message: What's with the Preferred ratio of 2.0 US gallons per 13 ounces (10 L/kg) of Coffee and Chicory? Is this a recipe for ten people? And what does "10 liters per kilogram" mean? — Asbestos | Talk 15:55, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm removing the whole section, as WP:NOT a cookbook. Someone can re-create it in the WikiCookbook if it isn't already there. --Icelight 22:04, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  Where it is written that brief recepies do not belong to Wikipedia? I did not find it at WP:NOT. WikiCookbook does not include drinks. --Gorn 02:23, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ratio 

message: The therminology of cafés and coffee bars seems to have a lot of confusion over whether to use french or italian name for the same beverage. This article argues 'café au lait' isn't made on an espresso machine, but from a drip brewer, a 'moka', or a french 'press' pot -and hot milk heated on a plate. True, this method HAS been common in both France and Italy since the late 1800's, and just as the spanish named it 'cafe con leche' (coffee with milk), the french and italians named the beverage the same in their respective languages.
However:  
In Cafés in France and Caffè's(they are called so) in Italy, however, the large coffee machines were introduced simultaneously towards the end of the 19th century. When the 20th century dawned, the french and the italians improved the machines to brew coffee in the espresso way. No restaurant or public 'Café' would serve coffee brewed on anything but an espresso machine from the 1940's on. 
The french therminology named their coffee café express, café noisette, cappuccino  and café au lait.
(later on, a hybrid arrived, with the name Café Crème) 
The italian said caffè espresso, caffè macchiato, caffè maracchino, cappuccino and caffèllatte.
(The spanish? Café Espresso, Café Cortado and cafe con leche).
As traditions move, therminology is borrowed. Cappuccino, who originated in Austria, was so defined by the italians that the italian therm was exported. Hence , the french did not re-name it or translate it. 
Café au lait was a novelty and a trendy café beverage in the countries who imported the french tradition throughout the 1980's. Still, it was espresso and steamed milk who made up the drink; -not plain coffee and heated milk. In the 1990's, however, the influence was italian via the US:  -a new generation learned to say 'latte' in the american way: lay-tey, and drink it from a glass more often than a large cup. Even in Paris, the italian/US way of serving was introduced, but did not catch on in the world of pavement café's. A french garcon won't serve you a caffèllatte!
Some claim caffèllatte is served only in a tall glass, and café au lait is served in a bowl or large cup, but these two varieties are just ways of serving. A french bakery would serve café au lait in a bowl, but a french Café would serve it in a little smaller cup, (and more often than not call it a 'Café Crème'; Grand Crème où Petit Crème) just as an italian Caffè would serve the same beverage and call it a caffèllatte. 
Confused?
Try ordering both café au lait and caffèllatte at french and italian café's, and see if the barista makes one drink at the espresso machine, and the other on the café's kitchen stove!
Claiming the terms are used differently in the US, is something entirely different.
Yours, John in Oslo
:Sounds good. Do you have a source we can cite? --Eyrian 10:18, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't agree. A Cafe latte is no was the same as "cafe au lait", no matter how it's served. When served a French breakfast, au lait is warm milk and strong coffee in equal parts, poured together. It's even common to be given the milk and coffee to mix oneself. However, the main fallacy with this article is the "regular coffee" part. No true coffee connoisseur would confuse drip coffee with strong coffee, such as is made with a French  press (when used correctly). I have a lot of experience with French press, and it makes coffee about as strong as espresso, but not with the same quality of flavor. I believe this part of the article should be clarified. I was horrified to order cafe au lait once and be given half drip coffee, half warm milk and I'm sure any other strong coffee devotee would feel the same. Garnet avi 15:49, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

text: "Café au lait" and "caffè latte" are used as contrasting terms, to indicate whether the beverage is served in the "French" or the "Italian" way – the former being in a white porcelain cup or bowl, the latter in a kitchen glass, and always served from the espresso machine.
I'm Italian and I always saw "caffè latte" served in porcelain cup and from moka machine. So the above statement is not correct. --94.166.95.120 (talk) 17:51, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

text: I agree. I'm going to add a barebones section on New Orleans style "cafe au lait," and I would love any additions to it, or regarding this article at all. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by FerventDove (talk • contribs) 02:47, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure the New Orleans section is accurate when it mentions the use of scalded milk. I work at Cafe Beignet and we use coffee with chicory but definitely use steamed milk, not scalded milk. Maybe it's different at Cafe du Monde but I'm not sure a generalized statement like this can be made over how one New Orleans cafe serves au lait and some citation that looks mostly like a creative writing class assignment. Joshisanonymous (talk) 16:23, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Café Au Lait and Caffèllatte is the same 

message: What unites them all is that they are roughly equal parts coffee and milk, of some sort or other. A New Orleans resident would be offended by any drink that didn't have chicory in it (or anything but whole milk), and the same can be said for Italians, the French, etc. A better way to settle your dispute would be to make sections for each kind of drink and explain the differences. Seems like that would be the encyclopedic thing to do.
Whether I make it at home with instant coffee and skim milk, or you make it with chicory and whole milk, espresso and cream, or goat's milk and Postum (OK, I made that one up), in a demitasse or Dixie cup, they are all in the same family. You can argue that one is a better cup or a worse bowl of the stuff, but they are all the same thing. We don't say that a Mercedes and Yugo's aren't both cars, just different kinds of cars. Same thing here. GumbyProf: "I'm about ideas, but I'm not always about good ideas." 02:26, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. I'm going to add a barebones section on New Orleans style "cafe au lait," and I would love any additions to it, or regarding this article at all. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by FerventDove (talk • contribs) 02:47, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure the New Orleans section is accurate when it mentions the use of scalded milk. I work at Cafe Beignet and we use coffee with chicory but definitely use steamed milk, not scalded milk. Maybe it's different at Cafe du Monde but I'm not sure a generalized statement like this can be made over how one New Orleans cafe serves au lait and some citation that looks mostly like a creative writing class assignment. Joshisanonymous (talk) 16:23, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  What makes the World Go Round? Coffee + Milk 

message: Does this need a section on Cafe au Lait as a skin colour, or colour in general? --Nickpheas 23:08, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Skin Color? 

message: The photo used at the top of this page is incorrect for 2 reasons:
#the filename states that it is "latte" not cafe au lait, so the picture is inappropriate for the cafe au lait page
#the same picture is used as the top photo on the cafe au lait wikipedia page, and this is confusing
According to its filename/description, this particular photographed drink was ordered in Oslo and is not cafe au lait. It has not been proven beyond doubt that the two drink names (cafe au lait and cafe latte) are interchangeable; therefore, a picture of cafe latte should not be used here. And even if the two drinks sometimes look similar after they are prepared... we should not confuse readers by using the same exact picture as the one on the cafe latte page.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fallendarling (talk • contribs) 17:09, 14 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Top Photo Incorrect 

message: I went ahead and assessed the article for Wikiproject Food and Drink against the B class article criteria.  I don't think that it has gotten there yet.  The article definitely needs more references, and appears to contain some factual inaccuracies according to my coffee drinking friends.  It could use a history section if references for such a section can be sourced.  I think the flow of the article could be improved dramatically, but I think the best improvement for helping with this would be the addition of a few more sections.
Anyhow, I thought I'd leave an explanation for my rating. Zell Faze (talk) 16:51, 11 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Article Quality Check