Everything About Milk For Latte & Cappuccino 🥛
Photo Credits to Woei Ling
There are dozens type of milk in the market these days, which is best to pair with espresso for latte cappuccino?
This post we break down everything you need to know about milk pairing, and of course the top tips to make the best latte art all by yourself 🥰 Let's get started!
Types of Milk 🥛
When it comes to food, freshness is everything! The same goes for milk, fresh milk makes an absolutely creamy & velvety cup of latte! 😋
We highly recommend fresh milk to pair with coffee! You can easily find fresh milk in any supermarket chiller, and pretty much all make great tasting latte!
Grass fed cow milk, perfectto!
We are big supporter of our local dairy. There are a number of dairy farms in Malaysia, you can check on the label of where they are manufactured. There are dairy farm in Johor, Selangor etc. 🇲🇾
If you happen to be in Kota Kinabalu, you have to try out the Desa milk! It makes a super creamy and sweeeeet latte ⛰
Home delivered low pasturised milk
Also, there are several brands of dairy like brightcow that does low pasturised milk. Low pasturised milk makes a much creamier and velvety latte cappuccino 😋
But the shelf life of low pasturised milk is pretty short, if you make lots of coffee everyday, low pasturised milk is perfect for big families 👨👩👧👦
That said, UHT (ultra-high temperature processing) milk taste really really bad pairing with coffee, all the nutrients in milk are destroyed by this processing.
There are zero nutrient and all you get it sugar & calories, certainly it's are not fresh... So avoid them at all cost!
Cow living in cool place, living stress free with view of Mount Kinabalu
Alternative milk is on the rise! 🙌🏼 There are so many types like soy, oat, almond, walnut, and list goes on. Personally, we like almond and oat milk for latte 🤗
We would prefer organic alternative milk as most nuts and oats are GMO. Best to avoid GMO if you are taking alternative milk latte on daily basis ☺️
Go organic for alternative milk
Also, we highly recommend that you read the ingredients & nutrition facts before purchasing any alternative milk 😮 take a very close look at the Total Sugars!
Some alternative milk has high amount of sugar and the artificial sweetness will cover up all the sweetness of coffee. Of course, too much sugar is not good for you too
Best pick the unsweetened organic alternative milk, our all time favourite! This way you allow the espresso to shine with it's natural sweetness 😋
Of course, you’ll need espresso roast blend or single origin coffees that goes well with milk. Our roasters specially created espresso blends with better body & tasting note that makes perfect latte & cappuccino 😍
About Milk Frothing🥛
Milk frothing is one of the simple challenges for beginners to make delicious latte cappuccino. With a little know-how & practice, anyone can make a superb latte at home!
Delicious perfect froth milk should taste very sweet, velvety, creamy & comfortably warm as if you can drink it all in one go. Here are a couple of tips to froth the most delicious velvety, creamy milk for your latte cappuccino! 😍
Delicious Caramel Popcorn makes the perfect latte cappuccino
1. DO NOT OVERHEAT THE MILK! Steam milk is essentially pumping hot water in form of steam into milk. The hotter & longer you froth the milk, the more water you are pumping in, the more diluted its texture 🙃
The best temperature should be between 50-60ºc or lower, just barely too hot for your hand to hold on to the pitcher. If your hand can’t hold the pitcher, it’s definitely overheated 🥲
We usually just froth the milk slightly on the warm side rather than hot, the temperature that we can just down the latte within minutes. That's the temperature where the milk texture is the sweetest & creamiest! 🤗
2. The whole process of frothing milk should sound pretty pleasant. You may have probably heard the loud milk frothing sound in cafes as though the milk is screaming for help. If you hear that, get out of the cafe 😆
To prevent that, you must start to ensure sufficient air goes into the milk during the frothing. You can do that by pointing the tip on the surface of milk during the frothing, you'll hear the 'hissing' sound when the air is inserted into milk.
During hissing, that's when the foam of froth milk forms. The more hissing sound, the more the foam is. If there is insufficient air insert into milk, the milk will start making loud noise & no foam is formed. If that happens, forget about latte art 🥴
3. Before you start, always purge the steam wand before steaming! This step removes all the water trap inside and prevents your steam milk from getting diluted.
4. Aerate the milk by creating a whirlpool by dipping ONLY the tip of the steam wand. There the milk capture air at the surface and incorporate it into milk, you’ll hear the sound of ‘hissing’ when you turn on the steam wand.
Once you’ve mixed in some air, plunge the steam wand slightly deeper into the milk to further stir and emulsify it.
Once you get these tips right, you’ll get a well-textured, velvety, creamy, and sweeeeeeeet steam milk. Also, textured milk makes latte art real easy too!
Lastly, practice makes perfect steam milk 😍 Have fun practising ☕️
Latte Art top tips 🧡
A nice looking latte art is a sign of delicious coffee. Here are some top tips for pouring beautiful latte art!
NO. 1 - Well textured milk is a MUST!!
An easy way to know is by listening to the sound of steaming milk.
If the process sounds good (hissing sound while insert), you are on the right track. If it ‘screams’ through the whole process, forget about latte art. Untextured milk is too watery for latte art.
Secondly, do not over heat the milk. Over heated milk means too much water insert into milk and makes froth milk watery. Of course it doesn’t taste good too 🥴 don’t forget to purge the steam before frothing!
Learn Rosetta! This is like the foundation of all latte art. Master this and you are in the world to explore more advance latte art!
Here are the steps for pouring the perfect Rosetta,
1. Always start with a tilt cup! Pour slowly in thin flow to avoid any foam pouring into espresso
2. To start drawing, drop your pitcher on centre of espresso and let the foam flow in gently. Your pitcher must be close to touching the surface so that you are literally drawing on espresso.
3. Slow consistent wiggle for symmetrical art and draw towards the top of Rosetta.
4. Back to thin flow again to stop any foam pouring in and slowly cut through the centre of art. Voila!
For sure, practice makes perfect! Professional latte artist practice over thousands cups to perfection 🤩
Lastly, you’ll need espresso blends coffees that pairs with milk. You can get yours here
