How to Make Milk Brew Coffee at Home: What Is Milk Brew Coffee and Which Milk Works Best?

Since water no longer satisfies the curiosity of coffee enthusiasts in their brewing experiments, players have developed many unusual extraction media. Among these, milk has become one of the playable mediums. This has led curious friends to ask FrontStreet Coffee: What happens when you brew coffee with milk?

Can milk be used to brew coffee?

For pour-over coffee, FrontStreet Coffee believes it's not feasible. This is because milk itself has a relatively low saturation level, making its extraction power significantly weaker compared to water. The second reason is that milk cannot be heated to high temperatures. Under normal circumstances, when milk is heated above 70 degrees Celsius, its proteins will undergo qualitative changes. Therefore, using it as a substitute for water in pour-over coffee brewing is merely for entertainment purposes.

What about using milk to steep coffee grounds for a cold-brew milk coffee?

This might actually be feasible. Unlike pour-over coffee, cold brewing doesn't require high temperatures, so the milk won't spoil. Additionally, steeping differs from drip filtration – while milk has lower extraction efficiency, this can be compensated through time.

Without further ado, let's immediately verify (experiment with) this. Regarding coffee bean selection preferences, FrontStreet Coffee would choose medium-dark roasted coffee beans. This is because milk has a relatively rich and full-bodied flavor that can easily overpower the delicate floral and fruity notes of light-roasted coffee beans that we particularly enjoy. Therefore, you can select coffee beans with flavor descriptions like dark chocolate, caramel, or maple syrup to make milk-extracted coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee chose Sunflower Warm Sun Blend Coffee, which is also the espresso bean used in FrontStreet Coffee's stores. Its flavor profile includes vanilla cream, sherry wine, brown sugar, and chocolate. FrontStreet Coffee hoped the extracted milk coffee would be rich and aromatic, so we selected Bright Dairy Fresh Farm Fresh Milk, which has a full milk flavor. The extraction ratio was smaller than regular cold brew, approximately 1 part coffee grounds to 8 parts milk.

FrontStreet Coffee's specific procedure was as follows: First, grind 25 grams of coffee beans to the size of coarse sugar, with an 85% pass-through rate using a #20 sieve. Place the ground coffee into a filter bag – this step is crucial. Because during FrontStreet Coffee's first attempt, we made it like regular cold brew coffee by directly pouring coffee grounds into the milk, which resulted in very slow filtering when straining. To save trouble, using a filter bag to contain the coffee grounds eliminates the frustrating filtration step later.

Place the filter bag containing the coffee grounds into a bottle, then pour in 200ml of fresh milk. You can use shaking or tools to ensure the coffee grounds are thoroughly soaked. Finally, seal the lid, check for proper sealing, and place it in the refrigerator for cold storage. This step is also very important because milk is a beverage that spoils easily. If not sealed tightly or stored at low temperatures, it will quickly deteriorate.

Let it steep in the refrigerator for 12 hours. FrontStreet Coffee doesn't recommend steeping for too long due to concerns about milk spoilage. If you want to enhance extraction, you can roll the filter bag during the steeping period.

After steeping is complete, you can remove the filter bag or directly pour out the milk coffee. Observing the color, it's similar to that of an iced latte, and it has a pleasant sherry wine aroma along with the fragrance of lactose. Taking a sip, a wave of chocolate milk flavor washes over your palate. The overall concentration is moderate.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473