New Starbucks Drink Not Easily Understood

"#Starbucks newest drink is the Latte Macchiato. WTF is that?" OK, that's one way of tweeting it. The answer is that latte macchiatos—available at Starbucks starting Tuesday in the US, Canada, and some locations in Latin America—combine espresso with "steamy creamed whole milk," the company tells Us Weekly. How does that differ from a macchiato or a latte? Well, a macchiato is an espresso with milk foam on top and a latte is an espresso under steamed milk and milk foam, the Huffington Post reports. With latte macchiatos, baristas first pour in the milk, then the espresso.

This allows the espresso to "stain" the steamed milk, as Time puts it. The "perfectly aerated" milk is "marked by slowly-poured full espresso shots, creating a signature espresso dot," per a Starbucks press release. "Starbucks baristas will use this carefully crafted technique to draw out an intensely bold and roasty flavor that highlights the Starbucks espresso in the beverage." No reviews are in yet, of course, but @Deeem_X tweeted this: "I wanted to quit drinking coffee. But then there was starbucks and latte machiatto. Oh well..." (More Starbucks stories.)