Creating The Perfect Milk Foam

It almost seems a little strange that, as a culture, we have moved away from just drinking coffee to incorporating these slightly dandyish ways of enjoying it. At some point, people were content with drinking their Folgers or Maxwell House in the morning and heading off to work. Now, for some reason or another, we want a more complex coffee experience. People head off in droves to their local coffee shop for a morning Latte and often head back after a job well done to pat themselves on the back. Coffee, more than ever, really means something to us. Not only is it a kind of status symbol, it is a reward system and an art form. And to think, all of this ruckus is because we invented a steam wand that magically transforms ordinary milk into thick foam. Go figure.

Steamed milk actually makes coffee a new experience. It gives the coffee a rich and velvety texture that is complimented with the sugar, or lactose, in the milk. There is something incredibly satisfying about blending both the bottom and top layer of a cappuccino in your mouth as you take the very first sip. Coffee on its own is a wonderful thing, but when you add another layer of complexity, it instantly becomes gourmet. Suddenly something that would otherwise be ordinary becomes a reward unto itself.

Not everybody is good at foaming milk. It is an art form that takes some time to perfect. Having said this, and having worked in the industry, there a lot of lazy baristas who simply do not follow the rules and frankly don't care about what they are serving their guests. If you have an inkling of competence as a human being, and as a barista, you will be making much better milk foam than anyone you know within one week. This is because many baristas forget one simple step. They don't prepare the milk or the steam cup.

What sort of milk and steam cup preparation is necessary? Not much, actually. You just have to keep the milk and the steam cup cold. That' s it. Put both in the refrigerator after you have made a drink. Don't reuse milk that you have just steamed. Always throw it out, and clean your steam cup afterward. Only cold milk will form bubbles when you use your steam wand. As soon as it gets to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, much less foam will form. If you use a fattier milk, you might be able to stem some of these foam problems, but it won't do much if the milk isn't cold.

The following are the steps you take once you have cold milk inside of a cold steam cup. You first want to bring the steam wand as far down into the cup as you can. Turn on your steam wand. Now, slowly bring the cup down so that the tip of the steam wand nears the surface of the milk. As this happens, you will start to hear some hissing noises. If the hissing is sporadic and choppy, you won't be steaming your milk properly. What you want is one consistent hiss. Continue to bring the steam cup down to get that sound. You have to do this because, in the foaming process, you are continually transforming the milk at the top of the cup into foam. You have to go lower to get more foam.

As soon as the milk reaches about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, you will want to get it to start swirling around the cup. Position the wand more towards the side of the steam cup, pointing at an angle so that the steam it makes pushes the milk around the steam cup in a circular motion. Watch for any indication of a circular motion. If you see it, great! Keep doing what you're doing.

You will want to stop steaming your milk once it gets to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the temperature at which you are actually doing damage to the milk. Now, take your steam cup and set it aside. Your milk will probably have three layers. At the bottom, you will find regular milk that has no foam. In the middle, you will find your rich velvety foam. And, at the top, you will a kind of super foam that is too light for making Latte art.

It's a good idea to mix these layers and pound out some of the thicker bubbles. This process tends to yield more of the good kind of foam that you will be using later. Get your long milk spoon and begin to stir your milk while stopping occasionally to tap of the side of the steam cup. Do this for about thirty seconds, and you should have the kind of foam you're looking for. We know it's complicated, but almost all of the process of making great milk foam hinges on having cold milk to begin with. If you take care of that one variable, the rest is very easy. Here's to making your first piece of Latte art!

Learn more about making Latte Art in our Latte Art How To!