Timeline for What is the origin of the word "latte" referring to a caffè latte?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 13, 2022 at 23:47 | comment | added | Michael Kay | With food and drink, there's a tendency for the UK to use French words where the US uses Italian: courgette vs zucchini comes to mind. | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 23:45 | comment | added | Michael Kay | Such shortening is obviously much more likely to happen in a user community that doesn't use the word "Latte" to mean "Milk". | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 15:37 | comment | added | TaliesinMerlin | @Mari-LouA What a history! :) I would absolutely welcome evidence that the word appeared elsewhere or earlier independently. The best UK menu source I can find (uk-menu-archives.co.uk) usually turns up "coffee and tea," maybe with filtered coffee as a third option. But those sources may never capture boards with daily specials, offering a regular customer a caffe latte from the new espresso machine, and things like that. | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 9:58 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | Italians in the 1940s and 50s using French words? Never! :)) Back in the day, it was mostly working class people who stopped by to have an English breakfast, hot cup of tea and takeaway sandwiches. The menu had to appeal to British palettes at the time. | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 9:56 | comment | added | IMSoP | @jsw29 The shortening seems to me like an obvious progression that could easily have happened in multiple places independently as soon as the full name became established. People know that "caffe" (and "café") in names of drinks means "coffee", so the rest of the phrase must be the type of coffee. So, "a caffe espresso" becomes "an espresso coffee" or just "an espresso"; and "a caffe latte" becomes "a latte coffee" or just "a latte". It doesn't even need to be a foreign phrase: you can ask for "a flat white", but it's not a kind of "white", it's short for "a flat white coffee". | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 9:50 | comment | added | TRiG | My guess, @Mari-LouA, would be that they served café au lait. | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 5:49 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | Sadly all my aunts and uncles who ran and worked in the London snack bar (The Cathedral) have all died. So there is no one left to ask if the shop sold "caffe latte" or simply translated it as milk coffee. | |
| Apr 13, 2022 at 5:46 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | @jsw29 i am also surprised and disappointed that earlier instances were not found in the UK as my family ran quite a famous Cafe in London during the late 40s until the late 70s and I know they imported the original Gaggia espresso machine from Italy. What would you suggest the OP do to verify whether the abbreviation "latte" actually began in the West Coast? Time travel is not an option. | |
| Apr 12, 2022 at 23:50 | history | edited | TaliesinMerlin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Add section on research.
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| Apr 12, 2022 at 17:41 | history | answered | TaliesinMerlin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |