Reader question: What’s the right French way to order a coffee with milk at a café please? What’s the difference between grand crème, café au lait and café crème?
France’s list of different coffee appellations and their endless offshoots for added elements like milk, cinnamon, vanilla or caramel can be really exhausting for foreigners.
If you wander into a coffee shop and ask for un café s’il vous plaît, you will most likely be served a black coffee in an espresso-sized cup.
For a slightly larger cup you can ask for a café allongé, which is still served black but tastes less bitter as it contains more water.
In each of these cases you can also ask for du lait (milk) or du sucre (sugar) to be added.
The Connexion spoke to the iconic Paris Café de Flore’s director to help you understand the differences in terms and to order the right coffee with milk at your local café.
Café crème and café noisette
Café crème: is a large cup of coffee with hot milk [most similar to a latte].
Café noisette: is an espresso with added foam-milk. Noisette is the French term for hazelnut and is to be understood as “a glimpse of foam-milk.”
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These are the only two official forms of cafe served in brasseries or cafés.
However, other colloquial terms are now widely employed by French people and accepted and understood by cafés.
Grand crème: refers to a bigger sized-cup than the usual café crème and is generally understood by servers as simply being a large café crème.
Café au lait: The term is not officially listed by professionals of the industry although it is normally understood as being a café crème or a grand crème if it is a large serving.
Cappuccino, café viennois and café gourmand
Other forms of coffees are often listed in cafés, including cappuccino and café gourmand.
Cappuccino: The cappuccino is an espresso with foam-milk [usually] topped with sprinkles of cocoa.
Café viennois: The café viennois is an espresso with whipped cream on top and a dusting of cocoa powder.
Café gourmand: The café gourmand was created around 1985 by Bernard Boutboul, a restaurant owner, and Hervé Gourlaouen.
It contains a small cup of coffee with one or several small desserts like crème brûlée, a brownie, cookies, chocolate fondant or a scoop of ice cream depending on the café or the customer’s choice.
A typical café gourmandJulia Kuznetsova/Shutterstock
If you prefer decaffeinated coffee you can ask for a café décaféiné, although most French call it un déca. This is served as a shot of decaffeinated espresso, however you can usually order a decaffeinated version of any of the coffee beverages listed above.
Most traditional brasseries and cafés do not accommodate alternative non-dairy milk requests such as almond (lait d'amande), oat (lait d'avoine), or soya (lait de soja), although indie establishments and large coffee chains typically will.
If you have a question relating to French culture or society, let us know at news@connexionfrance.com
