Hazelnut Coffee
Hazelnut is the most-used flavoured coffee syrup in the world and usually the least convincing, because the nut character is synthetic. Steeping real toasted hazelnuts into the milk gets you somewhere the bottle cannot.
Hazelnut milk infusion, first
- Toast 40 g of blanched hazelnuts in a dry pan until fragrant and golden, 4–5 minutes. Watch them — they turn from toasted to burnt quickly.
- Crush them roughly with the flat of a knife.
- Warm 250 ml of full-fat milk to about 70°C, take it off the heat, add the nuts, cover and steep for 30 minutes.
- Strain, pressing the nuts to get everything out. Keeps two days in the fridge.
What you need
- A double shot of espresso — 18 g of coffee in, 36 g in the cup
- 180 ml of hazelnut-infused milk
- 10 ml of simple syrup, or to taste
- A 300 ml cup
How to make it
- Pull the double shot into the cup.
- Add the syrup and stir.
- Steam the infused milk as you would for a latte. It steams and foams normally — the fat content is unchanged.
- Pour in.
The ratio
Same as a latte: roughly 1:4 espresso to milk. The nut flavour arrives through the milk rather than through added sweetness, so you need far less sugar than a syrup version — 10 ml is usually plenty.
Short on time?
A teaspoon of good hazelnut butter, whisked into the hot shot before the milk goes in, gets you most of the way there. Check the label for one that is nothing but nuts.
Pairs well with
Chocolate. Add 10 g of dark chocolate to the shot and you have a gianduja mocha, after the Piedmontese hazelnut-chocolate paste that inspired every hazelnut spread since.
Which coffee to use
Anything on our shelf works, but milk drinks reward a coffee with body and sweetness over one built for delicate florals — the milk will bury the top notes either way. Check the tasting notes and the process on each product page; a natural or a honey-processed lot usually cuts through milk better than a light washed one.