This is where I got the latte - Antonello Espresso Bar
Antonello Espresso Bar
3800 South Plaza Drive (Inside South Coast Plaza Mall)
Santa Ana, California 92704
Telephone: 714.751.7153
The reason why this Latte was the best latte of my life is NOT because it had the silkiest foam. I have had much better foam at my local Starbucks and at Peet’s Coffee in Irvine. The reason why this is the best latte of my life is because the espresso actually tasted, nutty and buttery. At first I was surprised that I was drinking a latte, because I have been acclimated to either drinking strong or bitter espresso. But the flavor of this espresso was to die for. And the girl poured a lot of espresso into the drink and I was thinking that it was going to be overwhelmingly strong and bitter when she did that. But I was blown away by the delicious flavor. I live miles away and I am seriously tempted to drive back over to the mall just so I can have another latte from these people.
The main reason why I think the espresso tasted so good is because they used an old style machine to pull the shots. You see, at Starbucks they use a machine that pulls the shots automatically. The only real control that the barista has over the flavor of the shots are the amount of time that the shot gets water pulled through them, and the fineness or coarseness of the grind of the beans. I am not complaining about this, it generally gives a decent shot this way. But the old school machines require that you tamp the ground beans into the thing that pulls the shot (I can’t remember what that’s called right now). Tamping is when you tap the ground beans with a blunt object in order to press them to the desired density before pulling the shot. I think Peet’s Coffee uses manual machines like this, but their espresso never tastes this smooth and creamy.
When I first tasted the drink I was actually surprised. It was so good, I felt like someone gave me the wrong drink. I didn’t get any sweetener and was given their standard milk and I was like, “Whaaaa?” The closest thing I can think of to describe the flavor would be if you mixed espresso flavor with a little butter some milk and half-and-half with a nutty aftertaste. But the crazy thing is that I watched the girl make my drink and she just used espresso and steamed milk and that was it. The one thing I noticed about the espresso was that it was a more dark caramel-looking color instead of being dark brown or black. And there was a lot of espresso. So what I’m thinking, is that she pulled shots that had a lot of “crema.” This means that the shots she pulled had the foamier sweeter part of the espresso as the focal point of each shot. It did not taste watery at all. So I don’t think she ran the shots for a long time. I’m not exactly sure how she got the espresso to taste that good. But it is definitely worth a repeat visit under another barista to see if they can reproduce such a great latte.
The other emotion that I felt when I drank the latte was, confusion. I was confused and perplexed by how she was able to make my drink taste so good. I wish I had a picture of my face when I first tasted it. That was I could have a firm record of the moment when I drank the best latte of my life to date.
Again, this drink didn’t have the best foam. If it had the foam that the amazing baristas at my local Starbucks have been making lately, I would have probably came back for another one after I tried on clothes.
-Tyler