Café au Lait

After the Turks were seen off in the Siege of Vienna in 1683, a Polish army officer, Franz Kolschitzky, retained the 500 sacks of coffee beans left by the fleeing Turkish army. He had previously lived in Turkey and, being the only person there who knew how to use them, claimed the coffee for himself.

The following year, Kolschitzky opened central Europe's first coffeehouse in Vienna with the stock of coffee beans. He established the habit of refining the brew by filtering out the grounds, then heating up some milk and whisking it to create a foaming liquid before sweetening it with honey and adding a dash of cream. This drink became known as café au lait.

Milk as an additive to coffee became popular in the 1680s, when a French physician recommended that café au lait be used for medicinal purposes.

The earliest written reference to café au lait appears in the letters of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, the Marquise de Sévigné, a celebrated French aristocrat who corresponded extensively in the mid-to-late 17th century. Her mention of the drink is among the first recorded uses of the term.

In New Orleans, café au lait took on a distinctly local character. During the American Civil War, Union naval blockades cut off the Port of New Orleans and coffee became scarce, so the city's French Creole community began blending roasted chicory root into the grounds to stretch their supplies. The resulting brew — stronger, slightly bitter, with a hint of chocolate — became so beloved that it remains the standard version to this day. Café du Monde, the open-air coffee stand that has operated in the New Orleans French Quarter since 1862, still serves café au lait made this way, traditionally accompanied by beignets dusted with powdered sugar.

In France, café au lait is traditionally served not in a cup but in a wide, handleless ceramic bowl. The broad opening makes it easy to dip a croissant or chunk of baguette into the coffee — a breakfast ritual so ingrained in French culture that a specific style of bowl is named after the drink. The most collectible vintage examples, produced in the early 20th century, carry Art Deco designs in bold reds, blues, and yellows.

At Starbucks, café au lait is sold under the name "Caffè Misto" — a 1:1 blend of French-press brewed coffee and frothed milk. It differs from a caffè latte, which uses espresso as its base rather than drip or press-brewed coffee.

In Spain, it is common to pour chocolate milk or café au lait over cereal for breakfast.