Guides

Powder, Syrup or Sauce? Choosing a Base for Blended Café Drinks
A frappe can be built three different ways, and cafes routinely pick the wrong one — then spend months fighting texture problems that were decided at the purchasing stage. The three formats Powder base Syrup Sauce Adds Flavour, sweetness and body Flavour and sweetness Flavour, sweetness and body Texture in a blender Thick, holds together Thin — will not build body Thick, rich Best for Frappes and blended drinks Hot and iced drinks, sodas, teas Frappes, drizzles, desserts Weakness Needs blending; clumps if added badly Watery frappes Will not dissolve... Read more...
How to Build a Tiramisu Latte (And What Is Actually In One)
Dessert-led lattes have been steadily taking menu space on Philippine café menus — salted caramel, crème brûlée, and increasingly tiramisu. They sell well because they read as a treat rather than a coffee, which supports a higher price than a flat white on the same bar. Tiramisu is the most interesting of them to build, and the one most often built badly. What is actually in a tiramisu sauce People assume tiramisu flavour means mascarpone and cocoa. In Toschi's Tiramisu Sauce, it does not. The manufacturer's ingredient list is built... Read more...
Storing Syrups and Sauces in a Tropical Climate
Most storage advice for café syrups is written in Europe or North America, for a back-of-house that sits at 18–22°C. A Philippine café store room does not. Heat and humidity change how fast an opened bottle goes off, and they do not affect every product on your shelf equally. Sugar is doing most of the preserving Toschi's 1L syrups carry roughly 80–87g of sugar per 100ml. At that concentration there is very little free water available for anything to grow in, which is the main reason an unopened syrup is... Read more...
Why Your Iced Drinks Taste Weaker Than the Hot Version
A recipe that tastes balanced hot will almost always taste thin over ice. Baristas usually blame the syrup. It is rarely the syrup. Two separate things are working against you, and they need different fixes. 1. The drink is not the same size Fill a cup with ice and you have not made a bigger drink — you have made a smaller one that grows. The liquid you pour in occupies the gaps between the cubes, so a 16oz iced cup might hold well under half that in actual liquid... Read more...
Descaler or Cleaning Tablets? Two Cafetto Products, Two Different Jobs
Espresso machines get dirty in two completely different ways, and the products that fix them are not interchangeable. Using the wrong one does not half-work — it does nothing at all, while the actual problem carries on getting worse. Two problems, two products Scale Coffee oils Comes from Your water Your coffee Builds up in Boiler, heating element, water lines Brew group, screens, portafilter, baskets You notice Slow flow, weak steam, longer heat-up, flat or metallic-tasting shots Bitter, ashy or stale-tasting shots; dull crema; a rancid note that will not... Read more...
How Many Drinks Does a 1L Bottle of Syrup Actually Make?
It is the first question anyone asks when comparing two wholesale quotes: how many drinks do I actually get out of this bottle? The answer is not printed on the label, because the label cannot know the one thing that decides it — the pump you screw into the top. The short answer We supply two Toschi portion pumps, and they are not interchangeable: Toschi Syrup Pump 31ml — a 1L bottle gives 32 full presses Toschi Syrup Pump 38ml — a 1L bottle gives 26 full presses If your... Read more...
Toschi Syrups and Sauces: Frequently Asked Questions
The questions café owners actually ask about the Toschi range, answered from the manufacturer's own published data — including the four questions Toschi does not publish an answer to at all. Read more...
Which Catcher Gourmet Syrups Have Zero Added Sugar?
Eleven of the nineteen Catcher Gourmet syrups carry a zero-added-sugar claim from the manufacturer. Here is the full list, what the claim does and does not tell you, and an honest account of the halal certification. Read more...
How Often Should You Descale an Espresso Machine? The Full Cafetto Renew Procedure
Every three to six months, depending on your water. Here is Cafetto's own step-by-step procedure for Renew Descaler on espresso machines, kettles and brewers — plus the difference between a cleaner and a descaler, which is the thing most cafés get wrong. Read more...
Which Toschi Syrups and Sauces Are Vegan, Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free
Every Toschi product we stock carries a gluten-free badge. 42 of the 43 syrups are vegan-badged, and only two contain nuts. The exceptions are all in the sauces and toppings — here is the full list, and an honest note on what Toschi's halal and kosher certifications actually cover. Read more...
Toschi Syrup, Barista Sauce or Topping? Which One Goes In Which Drink
Toschi makes three different things that all taste of caramel, and they are not interchangeable. A practical guide to consistency, dairy content, format and cost — plus a note on why some of these are listed as “Sauce” on our site when Toschi calls them Toppings. Read more...
Seven Toschi Syrups That Don't Contain What Their Name Says
Toschi publishes full ingredient lists for its syrups — on an Italian consumer shop almost nobody outside Italy finds. We read all of them. Seven syrups in the range are named after an ingredient that isn't in the recipe, and two are named in a way that hides the nuts that are. Read more...