Café Crème

Also grand crème, crème

The Paris café milk coffee: espresso with steamed milk in a cup, close to a cappuccino with less foam. Confusingly, in Switzerland the name means a long black coffee.

Espresso and milkServed hotFrom France

Volume
160ml5.4 US fl oz
Espresso
1shot
Caffeine
64mgderived, USDA FDC
Coffee to milk
1:3.0
Cappuccino cup, 200 ml. Layers in pouring order from the bottom, drawn by volume.
  1. Espresso40 ml25%
  2. Milk120 ml75%
Volume
160ml
Caffeine
64mg
Espresso
1shot

Scales every component together, so the ratio holds; caffeine scales with the coffee.

Espresso with roughly three parts steamed milk; a 'grand crème' doubles the size. In Switzerland the same words mean a long crema-topped black coffee.

Caffeine

Derived
64mg

in a 160 ml café crème

Derived per shot: USDA FoodData Central FDC 171891 (espresso, restaurant-prepared) lists 212 mg per 100 g; a standard 30 g shot is about 63.6 mg, times 1 shot(s). Real values vary with dose, roast and species (robusta roughly doubles it).

USDA FoodData Central record 171891 · read 2026-10-26

A derived figure: the reference food's caffeine per 100 g scaled to the coffee in this build. Real cups vary with the coffee, the dose and the shot.

Variants by country

2
NameCountryHow it differs
café crème / SchümliSwitzerlandA long black coffee with crema, no milk.
noisetteFranceEspresso with a dash of milk.

History

Popular account

Parisian café vocabulary of the twentieth century; the Wikidata item under this name is a print, so no QID is assigned. We have not found a primary source for this account.

The Parisian café's milk coffee.

Popular account

Parts of this story are repeated widely but were not confirmed against a source this atlas accepts. They are kept as the story people tell, not as fact.

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