Caffe Leccese

Why this works

Latte di mandorla is not almond milk in the supermarket sense. In Puglia and Sicily it is made from ground almonds pounded with sugar and water, often sold as a thick paste or syrup to be diluted. That sugar is doing most of the work in this drink. It sweetens, it gives body, and dissolved sugar lowers the freezing point slightly, so the coffee chills quickly without the ice simply dissolving into it.

The almond fat also matters. Ground almonds carry a lot of oil, and a little of it emulsifies into the coffee when you stir, giving the drink a faint creaminess and a marzipan note that carton almond milk, which is mostly water, cannot supply.

Pouring the espresso hot onto ice, rather than chilling it first, is the same principle as a Japanese iced coffee. The aromatic compounds are captured in the cold liquid within seconds instead of evaporating or oxidising over the minutes a slowly cooling cup takes. A shot left to cool on the counter tastes flat and slightly sour by the time it is cold.

The drink is a Lecce institution. The city's bars serve it as caffè in ghiaccio con latte di mandorla, usually just caffè leccese to visitors, and in recent summers it has spread well beyond Puglia. It is essentially the southern Italian answer to the freddo espresso of Greece, just across the Adriatic.

Variations

• Caffè in ghiaccio: the plain version, espresso over ice with a little sugar.
• With orgeat: orgeat syrup and a splash of milk if you cannot find latte di mandorla.
• Shaken: shaken hard with the syrup and ice in a cocktail shaker for a foamy top, like a caffè shakerato.
• Double: a double shot and 35 ml of syrup in a taller glass.