You would think that this simple drink would be easy to make, but you would be wrong. Everybody wants to turn this coffee drink into a milk drink by adding way too much milk. If I wanted a milk drink, I would ask for a milk drink, but this is “café” con leche, not the other way around. Why does everyone always want to put a quart of milk in my two shots of expresso? Granted two shots of expresso look a little dark and opaque, but that is where the flavor starts, anything you add after that only reduces all of that good coffee taste with which you started out. In Spain, Italy and France, they pretty much understand the concept of “café con leche” with the milk “leche” being a secondary player that gets tossed in at the last minute to bring up the flavor of the coffee by involving a little fat in the equation. An ounce or two of milk is more than enough to fulfill this promise. All of the drinks at Starbucks are way too overloaded with milk, but I think that this is more in tune with the American taste palette than it is with a European one. Europeans like a strong flavor profile, and Americans tend to shy away from that super-ideal coffee drink, the “café sólo,” which will probably be two shots of expresso straight up, with nothing added or taken away. When I do go to the local coffee emporium I ask for a double shot of expresso with just a shot of milk in it–manchado, macchiato–which is not on the menu so they immediately asked me if I want a cappuccino, which is a bunch of milk with a shot of coffee–no, I don’t want that, let me explain it again. Two shots of expresso and a shot of steamed milk. “But that won’t even fill up the cup. Are you sure?” After I finally convince them to build what I want, then they have to charge me for something, and since my drink is not on the menu, they have to go outside the box. I usually solve this problem for them–just charge me for the double expresso, which is a great solution for them and for me. Where I go regularly for coffee, my café con leche, the baristas have it figured out. The idea behind “café con leche” is to drink a strong coffee drink, but you don’t have to drink five or six cups of “Americano” to get the same effect. You drink a “café con leche” and you don’t have to run to the bathroom six or seven times right away. When you drink a café con leche you can sit and sip and contemplate the world while your mouth is invaded by this beautiful, full-flavored coffee drink that is, in and of itself, a wonderful flavor. You don’t need to add vanilla or cinnamon or hazelnut because coffee is already a flavor by itself. You don’t need caramel or chocolate or orange because coffee, if done well, undiluted by gallons of milk, works just fine by itself. You have one café con leche and you are fine for a good long while as the caffeine courses through your body, lighting up your nervous system, changing the way your brain processes information, realigning your neurons and firing synapses at a much higher rate than before, chasing sleepiness off to the darker recesses of the brain where it curls up like a tired dog. The beauty of this simple concoction cannot be overstated–two shots of expresses, and an ounce or two of hot milk, maybe a bit of sugar, and you have a libation worthy of the gods.