Caffè Mocha

A caffè mocha is a caffè latte with chocolate: espresso and hot or steamed milk, sweetened with cocoa and sugar or chocolate syrup, and often finished with milk foam or whipped cream. Wikipedia sums up its simplest form as hot chocolate with a shot of espresso. The odd thing is the name: “mocha” originally had nothing to do with chocolate. Here’s how to make one, the variations, and how a Red Sea port ended up on chocolate coffee menus.

The short version

• Espresso, chocolate and steamed milk: a chocolate latte.
• Chocolate as cocoa and sugar, syrup or real chocolate.
• Topped with milk foam or whipped cream.
• Named after Mocha, a coffee port in Yemen.
• White, marble and tuxedo mochas use white chocolate.

What’s in a caffè mocha?

Wikipedia describes the basics: like a caffè latte, it’s based on espresso and hot milk, with chocolate flavouring and sweetener added, typically cocoa powder and sugar, though many use chocolate syrup and some use dark or milk chocolate. It usually has milk froth on top, like a cappuccino, or whipped cream, like hot chocolate, often dusted with cinnamon, sugar or cocoa. Tasting Table notes that Starbucks’ version is espresso with mocha sauce and steamed milk, topped with whipped cream.

Variation	What changes (Wikipedia)
White mocha	White chocolate instead of dark or milk
Black-and-white, marble or tuxedo mocha	A mix of white and dark chocolate syrups
Mochaccino	A double espresso with steamed milk and cocoa, or with chocolate milk
With brewed coffee	Coffee instead of espresso, with steamed milk and chocolate

How do you make a mocha at home?

1. Put the chocolate in the cup: a spoonful of cocoa and sugar, chocolate syrup, or a little melted chocolate.
2. Brew the espresso straight onto it (see our espresso guide) and stir until the chocolate dissolves.
3. Add steamed milk to fill the cup.
4. Top with foam or whipped cream, and cocoa or cinnamon if you like.

Why is it called a mocha?

Because of a port. Al Moka, or Mocha, on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, shipped coffee grown in the mountains nearby to the world, Tasting Table explains, and by the 17th century “mocha” had become a byword for coffee in Europe. Wikipedia adds that European traders called Arabian coffee “Mocha” even when little of it came from Yemen, and that before the 1900s the word meant Yemeni coffee, not chocolate. Why it came to mean chocolate is uncertain:

Theory	Source
Mocha beans were prized for a chocolatey flavour	Tasting Table
Some assume it came from confusion over the chocolate flavour sometimes found in Yemeni coffee	Wikipedia

The idea of mixing coffee and chocolate is older and Italian. In Turin, chocolate was mixed with coffee and cream to make the bavarèisa, which became the layered bicerin, Wikipedia and Piemonte Italia explain. Tasting Table suggests the drink reached the United States, was served mixed rather than in separate parts, and was renamed the “mocha” or “mochaccino”.

Caffè mocha vs other sweet coffees

• Bicerin: Turin’s chocolate, coffee and cream, in layers.
• Caffè latte: the same drink without chocolate.
• Affogato: espresso over vanilla ice cream.
• Einspänner: black coffee under whipped cream.

Explore every drink in the sweet and spiced chapter.