You have to drink it to know whether coffee is good or not; but black coffee is just a cup of dark, unknown liquid at best, so how can it attract people who don’t drink coffee to want to taste it? We don’t think about anything else but making a fuss about coffee. Among milk coffees, latte art may be the first trick that captures people’s attention among all coffee drinks.
Many friends who are interested in Italian style have a desire to draw beautiful latte art, and the prerequisite for being able to draw beautiful patterns is to be able to create delicate and dense milk foam. Of course, the delicate and dense milk foam is not only for good looks, but also adds a better taste to a cup of milk coffee. In this issue, Front Street Coffee teaches you how to froth milk!
Choose the right coffee beans and milk
If you want to easily draw beautiful flower shapes, Front Street believes that good coffee beans and milk are both important. To make latte, we recommend the Front Street Classic Italian Blend Coffee. This is a recipe made from three origins: Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam. It uses deep roasting, which can highlight the mellow aroma of the coffee to the greatest extent, and also allows everyone to easily extract the rich and dense coffee oil. It is very suitable for making an American style diluted with water or a latte with milk. You can buy it at the Front Street Taobao store or the Front Street Tmall flagship store.
As for milk, Front Street recommends giving priority to fresh milk. This type of milk has a higher protein content, so it is easier to create smooth and dense foam, which in turn helps us draw the desired pattern. The Front Street store uses Guangming Fresh Ranch, and you can buy it according to your own taste and budget.
1. How to froth milk
There are many ways to foam milk, but they are roughly divided into two categories: one is to beat and foam at the same time, which is to combine the stages of beating milk and foaming milk. The other is to separate the stages of whipping and beating, that is, whipping the milk first and then foaming the milk. This time, in order to better explain, I will share the form of separating the stages of whipping and beating, so that everyone can better understand. Preparation for frothing milk.
First of all, we have the steam wand. Most semi-automatic coffee machines are equipped with a steam wand. Secondly, there are containers that need to be filled with milk, such as milk vats or latte art vats (professional appliances will do twice the result with half the effort).
Finally, it comes to the choice of milk. Whether it is room temperature milk or low-temperature milk, whole milk or skimmed milk, milk can be frothed. However, if you want better texture, taste and stability of milk, Front Street still recommends using low-temperature refrigerated whole milk.
2 The principle of frothing milk
Open the button of the steam wand and you will find that there are 4 air outlets (different brands and models will have different holes, single hole, 2 holes, and 3 holes). If we open the button of the steam wand when it is half buried in the milk liquid surface, air will enter to froth the milk; if it is fully buried in the milk, the milk will not be frothed, but the milk will only be heated by hot steam!
Three steps to froth milk
1. The optimal volume for whipping milk: For whipping milk, you need a reasonable whipping capacity. Front Street recommends using 40-60% of the total capacity of the milk tank. Too little milk and too much milk will test your whipping skills. Of course, in addition to this factor, it also depends on the actual amount of milk you use for a cup of coffee to avoid excessive waste. The capacity of the milk tank used in the past was 550ML, and the amount of milk injected was 250ML (just reaching the bottom of the tank mouth).
(The solid line is the amount of milk, the dotted line is the capacity after whipping)
2. Dispatch position: Before preparing to send, turn on the steam wand switch to release the condensed water vapor (turn off the switch after releasing). Then pull out the steam rod at a 45-degree angle, and use the cylinder nozzle to firmly fix the position of the steam rod. This time the steam vortex is counterclockwise, and the position of the steam rod is to the right of the cross in the center of the liquid surface. The steam rod is half buried.
3. Passing stage: Turn on the steam switch, and you will hear a "squeak-squeak" sound. This is the whipping stage. Depending on the required thickness of the milk foam, the whipping time will be different (the longer the whipping time, the thicker the milk foam will be). Generally, it takes about 3 seconds to beat 50% of the milk to 60% of the amount (the thickness of the latte milk foam). The milk rotates in a unified direction to form a vortex.
4. Cotton making stage: At this time, the steam hole needs to be completely buried, and only heating is performed, no more sending. Do not bury the steam hole at the bottom. It is recommended to put it in the milk foam layer, which is helpful for flossing (making rough milk foam into a fine texture). When does it stop? This depends on the temperature of your milk, which is generally between 55-65°C. Excessively high temperatures will denature proteins (generally speaking, thermal denaturation of proteins in food occurs at about 60°C).
The delicate and dense milk foam takes on the shape of solidified yogurt when shaken, and the delicate surface is like a reflective mirror, which is extremely smooth.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
