You’re standing in line at your local cafe. It’s almost your turn. You don’t know what to order. The menu has thirty million Italian words on it. You’re panicking. You get up to the counter and manage to blurt out… “coffee”.

If that sounds like something you’ve done before, or you’re just curious about what all those Italian words mean, don’t worry, because this guide will explain all of the coffee drinks that most cafes offer.

When you order just “coffee”, that typically refers to drip coffee, which is just basic coffee. The beans are ground up, put into a filter, and then hot water is poured onto the grounds and through the filter. There are many different variations of this kind of coffee, but the most common is using some kind of automatic coffee machine. The fancy big ones that cafes like Hexagon have are exactly the same as countertop coffee machines (but not the same as single-serve coffee machines that use disposable coffee pods). Drip coffee is great for making lots of coffee at once, and it also lets you bring out the different characteristics of different coffee beans.

Espresso is an entirely different creature. Espresso originated in Italy (hence the Italian names), and is made by pushing very hot water through ground coffee very quickly. Coffee beans are typically ground much finer for espresso than for drip coffee. When hot water is pulled through the grounds as opposed to just poured over top, you pull a lot more caffeine and oils out of the beans, creating a markedly stronger flavor when compared to drip coffee.

Because of the difference of strength and much smaller amount of actual coffee, people eventually started adding things to espresso, and this is how we get all of those different drinks. These are some of the main drinks that are fairly universal amongst most cafes (all espresso shots are “doubles”: 2oz or 60m):

-Espresso: 2oz or 60mL of coffee

-Traditional macchiato: espresso with a dollop of milk foam on top (macchiato is Italian for “marked”; you “mark” the espresso with milk foam)

-Americano: espresso with hot water (a quick substitute for drip coffee)

-Americano misto: espresso with half hot water and half steamed milk

-Latte: espresso with steamed milk and a centimetre or less of light foam

-Cappuccino: espresso with steamed milk and much more foam than a latte

-Mocha: espresso with steamed milk and chocolate syrup

With all of this in mind, I hope you are little bit less confused the next time you go to order!