Welcome to my blog! Locally Caffeinated is a project I plan to initiate by discussing various aspects of one of my favorite beverages: coffee! I’ve been drinking the stuff since at least the young age of 14. It’s kept me caffeinated and alert since freshman year of high school, and I continue to develop more love for it each and every day. I want this blog to function as a space for me to express my thoughts and ideas of specific parts of the beverage itself, while also reviewing the lovely local coffee shops of the Penn State and surrounding areas that I have gratefully enjoyed for the past two years while living in Happy Valley.

Jumping right into the heart of this project, I want to dedicate this first blog post to helping my readers who perhaps may be new to the coffee scene understand the terms I’ll be using throughout my future posts. Because my primary focus on coffee will be on espresso-based drinks, defining the somewhat cloudy terms that these drinks tend to encompass is crucial to understanding any reviews I will write.

To begin, espresso is a highly popular method of brewing in which hot water is forced under pressure through a compressed bed of finely ground coffee. A single espresso shot contains three individual parts: the crema, the body, and the heart. The crema is the golden-brown top layer of any raw espresso shot: it contains the best tasting and aromatic qualities of the espresso shot. The body of the shot sits between the crema and the heart, acting as the full-bodied, light brown section of the espresso. At the bottom is the heart, which contains the more bitter qualities of the espresso shot, which acts as a counterbalance to the sweetness of the crema. Espresso is a highly concentrated substance, due to the high pressure used to create it, meaning it is not diluted easily. Therefore, espresso can be perfectly blended with other ingredients to create distinctive coffeehouse beverages, or can be enjoyed solo.

Additionally, many specialty drinks are created with espresso at the essence of their being. A latte is simply espresso mixed with steamed milk, when enjoyed hot, or can be drank cold by replacing the steamed milk with regular cold milk. A cappuccino is very similar to a latte, but it contains less steamed milk in order to compensate for more foam. Espresso, steamed milk, and foam from the steaming create this extra frothy and smooth beverage. Cappuccinos are most often served hot, but if you decide to order one iced, expect espresso, cold milk, and hot foam topping it all off – or just expect judgmental looks from the barista and a decline to make it, since it is a bit counterintuitive. Do cold milk and hot foam really belong together?

These terms are the most commonly used ones when regarding coffee, but more will come up along the way that I will most definitely define in future posts.

Until then!