This drink is quick and easy to make, tastes like an éclair au café, and looks very pretty. It is perfect to share with a guest who likes coffee.

Ingredients (1 glass):

  • two teaspoons of instant coffee1
  • two teaspoons of sugar
  • two teaspoons of boiling water
  • one glass of very cold whole2 milk3

Preparation:

  • mix the instant coffee, sugar, and boiling water in a bowl
  • whip until the color lightens and the texture becomes fluffier4
  • pour the coffee foam5 on top of a glass of very cold milk
  • to serve add a straw, let guests mix, and start drinking

Credits:

This recipe was inspired by seeing James Hoffman discuss the drink on his youtube channel. I highly recommend his videos for people with an analytical interest in coffee.

  1. This will make or break the taste of the resulting drink. I recommend investing in some fancy instant coffee (I had good results with “Trader’s Joe 100% Colombian instant coffee”). ↩︎

  2. There is no point in skimming on the milk, it will be an important component of the final taste. ↩︎

  3. Some people add ice cubes but I think it goes against the result being a quick drink. ↩︎

  4. Whipping will become more effective as the syrup cools down. ↩︎

  5. The foam is essentially coffee syrup and will taste very bitter by itself. ↩︎