Iced Cappuccinos: Real or Not Real?

In the latter part of the Hunger Games series, Peeta turns to Katniss on more than one occasion and asks, “Real or not real?”

Sure, Peeta happens to be asking whether the events in his memory actually occurred or are nightmarish fictions implanted by his captors… but stick with me here.

As a once-casual coffee consumer recently turned barista, I (Alexis) have had the privilege of learning a lot as I expand my coffee knowledge, and there’s also much I’ve had to unlearn (pearls of conventional wisdom, hastily Googled ratios, etc.).

There are amazing organizations that provide tons of resources and education on standards for roasting, brewing, and other farm-to-cup elements—but through this process, I’ve also discovered that certain aspects of coffee are subjective, much like any other art form.

Thanks to Hawaii’s year-round temperate climate, iced drinks are ordered here just as frequently as hot ones (much to my delight!). And this brings us to a highly controversial question: do iced cappuccinos exist?

If approached from a technical standpoint, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) provides definitions and standards for hot cappuccinos, but not iced ones. So by that measure, they don’t exist… right?

However, the SCA does not include guidelines for iced lattes either—a drink that the majority of us agree does exist, or at least lives as a prominent part of the zeitgeist of global coffee consumption.

So where does this leave us (besides, of course, confused and conflicted)? It leaves us with a variety of interpretations of what an iced capp could be:

• Espresso + a smaller-than-latte amount of cold milk?
• Espresso + cold milk + cold foam?
• Espresso + cold milk + foam skimmed from steamed milk?
• I’ve even seen mentions of some franchises offering iced cappuccinos as blended drinks!

The Reddit users of r/barista are divided, ChatGPT maintains that they “definitely exist,” and even the Tradition Coffee Roasters group chat is a 60/40 split.

My novice take on this heated debate is this: if we’ve all collectively agreed iced lattes exist, then we should accept other iced drinks into the lexicon as well. Ultimately, when a customer requests an iced cappuccino or an iced cortado, what matters most to me in that moment isn’t technicalities; it’s ensuring that we share a mutual understanding of what they’d like to drink. After all, there’s no better feeling than the first satisfying sip of a beverage really hitting the spot!

Of course, if you’d like to chat about coffee hot topics (or really anything coffee-related), I’m more than happy to exchange learnings, share recommendations, and even engage in some witty repartee! And as long as you don’t mind answering an extra question or two from me about milk volume, please do come visit us at Tradition and order any iced beverage your heart desires!

Lastly, to my Katniss Everdeens of the coffee world, I’m now passing the question on to you: iced cappuccinos, real or not real?