Coffee Wrong

Hey everyone! 

Thanks for all of your nice messages. I really appreciate it. Yep I’m still traveling around in the Netherlands. 

I stumbled across something that seemed peculiar at first, just like nutmeg in your coffee. Many people order coffee wrong. It’s very common to order coffee wrong. Coffee wrong is a literal translation of a common concoction made solely of milk and coffee. They call it “Koffie Verkeerd” (pronounced - coffee fur-cared). It's sort of a Dutch take on Cafe au Lait. One thing’s for sure, this is a very popular coffee drink in this country. 

Hands with red painted fingernails holding a cafe au lait

If you like coffee with more milk than coffee or half / half, then you’re gonna love this. Traditionally koffie verkeerd is made with fresh whole milk, or a barista milk alternative is also possible. At a cafe you’d need to specify an alternative. I had one made with almond milk that was wonderful. It can easily be made in 6 steps, but before you begin consider the C2M ratio (see below). We used Cafe Holland.

The coffee 2 milk ratio (C2M)

The question to ask yourself is, “would I prefer to taste more milk or more coffee?” The traditional version is ⅓ coffee and ⅔ milk - just like lattes. You may need to play with the ratio to get it to your taste. Nothing is more important than “your coffee your way”. Right?

Preparation time is about 5 minutes. Here are the steps:

  1. Set a sauce pan and coffee cup at the ready - The pan you use to warm the milk. You can also use a milk frother that has a milk warming function.
  2. Warm the milk up in the pan
    It’s really important that the milk does not boil. Stir the milk so that it doesn’t develop a skin (milk skin, bah).
  3. Make an espresso or a dark strong coffee
    If you can’t make espresso, then use what you have to make it a strong cup.
  4. Pour the coffee in the cup
    Use a large cup or a mug because you need room for the milk. Fill the cup just under halfway with coffee.
  5. Add the warm milk to the coffee
    Carefully pour the milk into the coffee. Add as much as you like.
  6. Done! Drink up!
    Enjoy your fresh Coffee Wrong.

As a side note, I have also had this coffee with lightly frothed milk and it was delicious too. Frothing the milk makes it more of a cafe au lait a la the French.