Cappuccino vs latte: what is the difference?

What is the difference between a cappuccino and a latte?

Milk, and what was done to it. Both start as espresso. For a latte the barista adds a lot of steamed milk and finishes with a thin layer of foam. For a cappuccino the milk is stretched with more air, so the cup holds less liquid milk under a thick cap of foam. Same coffee, same machine, same shot. A cappuccino tastes stronger because there is less milk in the way, not because there is more coffee in it.

A cappuccino is a latte that skipped lunch

So a latte has more milk, always. Which one has more caffeine is a different question, and the name cannot answer it. The café decides how many shots go into each size, and cafés do not agree.

Which has more caffeine, a cappuccino or a latte?

At Starbucks in the US, neither. The chain publishes its recipes, and a latte and a cappuccino get the same shots at every size: one in a Short or a Tall, two in a Grande or a Venti. So the caffeine matches too: 75 mg for either at Tall, 150 mg for either at Grande.

Now cross the street. Costa in the UK builds the two drinks differently: a medium latte gets two shots and a medium cappuccino three, which is 200 mg against 325 mg. At large it is 325 mg against 400 mg. Small is stranger still: the cappuccino is 200 mg, and the latte is 100 mg if you sit down and 200 mg if you take it away.

Starbucks in the UK goes back to matching them, at lower numbers: 89.1 mg for either drink at Tall or Grande. Three menus, the same two words, three answers. The rule that survives all of them: count the shots, ignore the name and ignore the cup. If the menu does not say, ask. It is the one question at the counter that changes your afternoon.

Does a bigger latte have more caffeine?

Only when the size crosses a shot. The Starbucks ladder is a staircase with two steps. A Short and a Tall latte both hold 75 mg; a Grande and a Venti both hold 150 mg. Going from 12 fl oz to 16 fl oz doubles the caffeine. Going from 16 fl oz to 20 fl oz adds milk and nothing else.

A Venti is a Grande with more milk and more confidence

Nor is a shot one fixed amount. The laboratory average we use is 63.6 mg for a shot; Starbucks states 75 mg for one of its own in the US and 44.6 mg in the UK, and Costa states 100 mg. The long version is in how much caffeine is in a shot of espresso, and the filter-coffee side of it in how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee.

Which has more calories, a latte or a cappuccino?

The latte, because the calories are the milk and the latte has more of it. The espresso itself is close to nothing: 2.7 kcal a shot.

At Starbucks in the US a Grande latte has 50 kcal more than a Grande cappuccino, with the same two shots, the same 150 mg of caffeine and the same 2% milk. The gap is 30 kcal at Short and 50 kcal at Tall and Venti. 69704445

Foam is milk with air in it, so a cup finished with foam holds less milk than a cup finished with liquid. That is the entire calorie difference. Dunkin’ shows the same pattern with whole milk.

Is a flat white stronger than a latte?

At the chains, yes, and by more than its size suggests. A Starbucks US flat white is made with ristretto shots and gets one more of them than the latte at every size: two in a Short or a Tall, three in a Grande or a Venti. The iced versions, the other chains and why a ristretto shot is the weaker shot are in flat white vs latte.

A Starbucks US flat white carries 1.73 times the caffeine of a latte at Tall (130 mg against 75 mg) and 1.3 times at Grande (195 mg against 150 mg). That works out at about 65 mg for each of its ristretto shots, against the 75 mg Starbucks states for one espresso. Starbucks calls its caffeine figures approximate. 46444771

Costa sells its flat white in one small size, with three short shots and 241 mg: more than its medium latte. Starbucks in the UK lists it only as a Short, at 89.1 mg against 44.6 mg for the Short latte.

The flat white is the quiet one. It’s always the quiet one

What is a real cappuccino, by the book?

Smaller than anything a chain sells. Two bodies have written a cappuccino down, and neither describes a 20 fl oz cup.

Italy’s espresso institute certifies a cappuccino as 25 ml of espresso and 100 ml of milk. Its 2006 brochure adds that the 100 ml is measured cold and is steamed to about 125 ml and about 55 °C, then poured into a cup of 150 to 160 ml; those details were read only in a copy of the brochure on a third-party site. 7273

The 2015 World Barista Championship rules defined a cappuccino as one single shot of espresso with textured milk and foam, served in a 150 to 180 ml cup, and asked for at least 1 cm of foam for a good score. The rule is historical and was read in an archived copy of the rulebook. 75

The 2026 World Barista Championship rules do not contain the word cappuccino. They define a milk beverage as one single shot of espresso and steamed milk, with no volume stated, and an espresso as around 30 ml. 74

Somewhere between those two rulebooks the competition deleted the word. I could not read the editions in between, so I cannot give the year. And I found no definition of a latte or a flat white in either: not the Italian institute’s, not the championship’s. Those two are whatever the café says they are.

The familiar rule of equal thirds of espresso, milk and foam is in neither rulebook. The institute’s own recipe is 25 ml of espresso to 100 ml of milk, which steaming takes to about 125 ml. That is also the only sourced figure I could find for how much milk grows when it is foamed; the tidy percentages I came across carried no source that I could find.

Equal thirds is a rule the way a horoscope is a forecast

A dry cappuccino has more foam and less liquid milk; a wet one leans the other way, toward a latte. Neither rulebook defines either term. On temperature, the one sourced figure is the institute’s: milk steamed to about 55 °C. Whichever you order, the caffeine stays for hours after the foam is gone, and how long it stays has its own page.