café con leche

See also: cafe con leche

English

Café con leche from Lugo, Spain

Alternative forms

• cafe con leche

Etymology

From Spanish café con leche.

Noun

café con leche (countable and uncountable, plural cafés con leche or café con leches)

1. A coffee beverage common throughout Spain and Latin America consisting of strong coffee (usually espresso) mixed with scalded milk in approximately equal amounts.
   • 2000, Ivonne Lamazares, The Sugar Island, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, pages 88 and 109:

     She made thick stews from leftovers and the smells drowned out the aroma of Melena’s café con leches. […] She was expensive, but Melena lived on café con leches and we paid her price.

   • 2010, Alisa Valdes, The Three Kings: A Christmas Dating Story, St. Martin’s Press:

     We sit in puffy velvet armchairs near the fireplace, in a corner at Satellite Coffee across from the University of New Mexico, drinking cafés con leche.

   • 2012, A.Paul Dileski, After the Carnival, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 39:

     Some were slumped over their café con leches in deep conversation; others were playing chess and some playing dominoes.

   • 2015, Eduardo Lalo, translated by David Frye, Simone, Chicago, Ill.; London: The University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 64:

     I watched as she drank two café con leches, ate three different kinds of pastry, let me win our very quick, second chess game.

   • 2019, Kay Sellers, Outlier, Xlibris, →ISBN:

     The waiter refills their coffee cups with warm café con leches.

   • 2021, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Savage Tongues, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 131:

     I was one of the only customers at that hour except for a few elderly men sitting morosely at the bar inside, busily reading their newspapers and dunking their croissants into their café con leches in semiautomatic movements.

Related terms

• café au lait
• caffè latte

Further reading

• café con leche on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Spanish

Etymology

Literally, “coffee with milk”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˌfe kon ˈlet͡ʃe/ [kaˌfe kõn ˈle.t͡ʃe]
• Syllabification: ca‧fé con le‧che

Noun

café con leche m (plural cafés con leche)

1. white coffee; café con leche