Advanced Milk Frothing Techniques

Troubleshooting milk churning problems

In this article, we will discuss several topics related to whipping milk, which are frequently asked questions. First: it doesn't work out well, what is the reason? This is one of the most difficult questions that I can't give a clear answer to. There can be a number of reasons. It's the coffee machine, something with the steam: its power, the nozzle, the wrong pitcher or the wrong milk. We beat the milk, and it bubbles, loose.

In fact, it should take a long time to work with different milk and on different equipment. How to quickly understand what needs to be done and what is not - you will not be able to answer. The path is different for everyone. After working on different equipment, with different coffee and milk, you will begin to understand what is what and what may be the reason specifically in your case.

The best thing you can do when you don't understand the reason is to invite a professional to work on your equipment and give feedback. If you can beat it well on your coffee machine, on your milk, and on your coffee, then your whipping technique is probably the reason. Ask yourself the question: can someone - in the same conditions as you-cool milk and make a beautiful latte art? It is very important to understand whether this is about you or the equipment.

Another hint. Try to go to one of the coffee shows, if there are similar ones at hand (for example, PIR), walk around different stations with your pitcher and drink milk on other coffee machines. Or in coffee shops in your city, where this will be treated without problems, ask for a bar, just compare your coffee machine and theirs. Check to see if you can't beat it either, or if it's already working better. So, is it the coffee machine or something else?

If you think that something is wrong with the steam, you are convinced of this, take several types of milk, about five different, and try to beat them all. The reason remains, or did you beat some milk better? First, check the coffee, milk, and pitcher, rule out these factors, and then sin on the nozzle.

Is it possible to improve the steam in the coffee machine

‍Is it possible to improve the steam on the coffee machine? Difficult question. On some coffee machines yes, on others no, depends on your situation. You can try to play with the water level in the boiler or with the steam power, with its pressure. This often helps, but in many cases, no matter how hard you try to adjust the pressure or water level, if the coffee machine gives you a loose texture , it always will.

In general, this may work with the water level. Most often. the less water in the boiler, the drier the steam is, and this can help you get a good milk texture, although not by much. I don't know if it's autosuggestion or not, but it seemed to help me.

Most often, little depends on the power of the pressure. You can beat at 0.8 bar and the milk will be perfect, and you can also beat at 1.2, the milk will come out just as excellent. This is the case in the nozzle and in the size of its nozzles. If the steam is powerful, but the nozzles are small, the milk will be perfect, tested and proven. Low power in synergy with large nozzle openings often has a bad effect on the texture of milk.

It also happens that the barista can not cope with the power of steam, so whips up the steam engine unscrewing only half. In this case, the milk can also turn out to be loose precisely because of this. Try to unscrew the nozzle to the maximum during whipping and still cope with the flow of steam. A larger volume of pitcher and milk can help you do this, so try taking a little more than usual. Check if the result changes. From experience, I can say that if you have a powerful steam engine, it is better to take more milk, then the result will be better. 

Coffee machine price and steam quality

‍Does the steam quality depend on how cool the coffee machine is? Unfortunately, I have never been convinced that these two things are absolutely not related to each other. There are small, fairly cheap coffee machines-conditionally, from hundreds of thousands of rubles-on which it is a pleasure to beat milk. There are even cheaper home coffee machines in the price segment, for twenty thousand. Most likely, it will be difficult to beat on such coffee machines. Although even here there are babies who perfectly cope with this task.

Well, on the other hand, there are also expensive cars for millions of rubles, which are much more difficult to beat just because they have too powerful a steam engine. Therefore, there is absolutely no direct dependence of the steam quality on the price of the coffee machine.

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Types of injectors

‍Question about the number of holes in the nozzle. Types of injectors on different coffee machines.

There are standard nozzles with four holes - the best option. There are also three-hole versions, five-hole versions, two-hole versions, and even one-hole versions. With five, they are less common and usually the fifth hole is located in the center of the nozzle. And, having worked on this one, I can say that, as if, it is superfluous.

As for the three holes, we can say that on large, powerful coffee machines, this option will be much better than four. Due to the lack of a fourth hole, the steam engine will heat the milk 25 % slower. The idea is that the smaller the holes, the slower the milk heats up. However, twisting may be disrupted if there are fewer than three of them. On three, everything is fine. Exactly the same funnel is formed. The main difference, as already mentioned, is that the whipping takes a little longer, and the milk heats up more slowly.

Regarding injectors with two and one holes, they are usually installed on coffee machines from the home segment, for 15-20 thousand rubles. On these, it is extremely difficult to beat the milk properly. The nozzles with one hole are directed strongly downwards and it is difficult to adjust the funnel to them.

Nozzle hole sizes

‍I'll tell you about the size of the holes themselves, in terms of 1.2 and 1.5 mm. There are many legends and rumors that there are some magic nozzles that have smaller holes and they supposedly beat milk perfectly. And yes, that's the way it is, they exist:)

Such nozzles are really on the wide market, they are inexpensive and beat milk perfectly. Nuova simonelli, with four 1.2 mm holes. 

Often this problem applies to Simonelli, including Appia, these coffee machines often initially have very powerful and large steam engines and it is difficult to get good whipped milk over and over again. But as soon as a magic nozzle appears on such a typewriter, all problems disappear. This is the best investment you can make in your equipment to improve your latte art.

The problem persists in the fact that there are several thread standards. The nozzle has external and internal threads, from 8 to 10 mm. Simonelli injectors are suitable for a huge number of coffee machines. But there is another standard, mainly found on La Marzocco coffee machines - I call it that, Marzocco-it is extremely rare and it is extremely difficult to find suitable small nozzles on them.

For the sake of experience, if you have several coffee machines of different brands, you can try rearranging the nozzles, swapping them, and beating like this. Experience suggests that the nozzle - and most importantly its holes-are very important when whipping milk.

Let's summarize. Try to play around with the nozzles, order a few different ones with smaller holes and choose the right one for you. This should help. 

What should I do if I have overzipped my milk?

‍The next no less frequent question is: what should I do if I have overzipped my milk? What are your recommendations?

First, I will say this: all is not lost. You need to understand how much you have overzipped the milk. If the milk is very bubbly, you can try to knock out the bubbles. But, if even for 5-7 strokes you could not knock it out, is it possible to use such milk? We understand.

Yes, you can try to get rid of the excess foam. Another question arises: how much do you need to lose? The answer is as much as possible, so that the top layer of pomp is gone. The easiest way to do this is to pour some of the foam into another container with a sharp movement of the hand from side to side.

Watch how the top layer leaves your milk and focus on it. To know if you can throw more, you need to know your bowl and pitcher very well. You should clearly understand how much whipped milk you should have left in the pitcher for exactly one drink. 

If you see that you still have a little extra in the pitcher, you can throw it off as well. The main thing is that all movements should be sharp in order to lose the foam. 

If at the beginning, before whipping, you poured a little more milk into the pitcher than you needed and re-beat the milk, then this is even in your favor. You can skip a little more froth and leave enough to make you have enough milk for a cup. Then it will be slightly more liquid and, most likely, will have the consistency you need.

How to draw with fluffy milk?

‍If you have dropped the foam, but the milk is still quite fluffy, you can use the following tips.

 First, try to work higher on the cup. Do not draw directly over the cup, pour the milk a little higher. The more lush the milk you get, the higher it costs to work.

Secondly, when drawing, work as fast as possible, and don't stop for a single moment. This foam is very easy to lay out and the slower you draw, the more likely it is that the latte art will get worse. Puffy milk very quickly peels off and turns into a cap. You need to hurry with it. The slower you draw, the more likely it is that the foam will simply fall out of the pitcher onto the surface of the drawing. You can and should work faster with this milk, because it is easy to spread out and does not sink.

Let's talk about the infusion. If we work low, our background will turn out worse, not so contrasting. The foam is thick and will create a lot of streaks and drops. Therefore, it is worth lifting the pitcher a little higher, so that the milk and espresso are better mixed together. Just make the milk sink more rather than stay on the surface. The height should be proportional to the puffiness of the milk.

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How to draw with liquid milk?

‍Now let's look at where to move at the time of drawing, if the milk came out too thin. If the milk is more liquid, work lower, everything is simple.

Here everything is the opposite, not like with puffy milk. Most importantly, the more liquid the milk, the more smoothly you can lay out the drawing. Slow down very much, no sudden movements. Slowly and smoothly draw latte art.

With such milk, it is more likely that it will sink, and not spread out on the surface. Our task is not to add more movements to the milk, but to make the pressure less. Equally important is the pitching angle of the pitcher's nose to the cup. The lower it is, the better. Try to draw as low as possible to the cup. 

Amount of milk per cup

‍How do I know how much milk to pour on one drawing? For a standard 350 ml cup, from 220 to 230 ml of milk is suitable. Maximum-240. The amount of milk depends on the puffiness.

Conventionally, I have a 300 ml cup. First I have to understand: will I make a single espresso or a double one? I choose on a double. A double espresso is about 40 ml. I still have 260 ml of the cup volume left. And, in this case, I need to pour about 210 ml of milk. The remaining 50 ml will be filled with foam.

If I take a single espresso, I'll need 10-20 ml more milk. In total, there should be 280 ml of whipped milk, which means that 230-240 milk will be quite enough.

Other volumes are calculated in the same way. The main thing is to take into account the volume of espresso and the amount of foam-40-50 ml.

Stability when whipping milk

‍How to achieve stability and repeatability of the result when whipping? There is only one answer-with experience. You should get used to your coffee machine, your pitcher, and your milk. Take the process consciously. Try measuring your own results. How much milk you poured and how much you got in the end. This can help you improve your own results. However, it is unlikely that you will be able to draw it with milk poured back and forth from the measuring cup to the pitcher.

Differences between foam on cappuccino, latte and flat white

‍Last point: differences between foam on cappuccino, latte and flat white. This opinion may vary, but there is no clear concept. In different coffee shops and in different countries, everything is different.

What can be said for sure. Flat white 100 % has less foam than the other two. In it, it is more liquid, in terms of lattes and cappuccino. As for them, I, for example, in my coffee shop make the same amount of foam in both drinks. This may not be right, but it can be done for the sake of convenience for the barista and simplicity. They will differ, conditionally, in the amount of espresso. Latte goes on a single espresso, and cappuccino on a double. The amount of milk can be the same for both drinks.

Often, a cappuccino has a little more foam than a latte. There's a little more milk in a latte than in a cappuccino, and less foam. These are probably all the differences.

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