Why is Dirty Coffee So Popular? How to Make Trendy Dirty Coffee and What Does It Taste Like?

Introduction to Dirty Coffee

It must be said that espresso coffee truly offers diverse possibilities. The combination of espresso and milk alone can create many coffee beverages. Dirty coffee is a very popular type of espresso beverage born from the collision of espresso and milk. With some understanding of espresso knowledge, it's not difficult to discover that Dirty coffee is actually a small-sized, no-ice version of iced latte.

Preparation Method

The preparation method for Dirty is quite simple. FrontStreet Coffee's preparation parameters are: prepare a 200ml chilled glass, pour 160-170ml of iced milk into the glass. If there are bubbles on the surface, use a spoon to scrape off the foam. Then place the cup directly under the brewing head and extract the espresso directly. Keep the cup as close to the portafilter as possible to avoid excessive impact force that might cause the espresso to blend into the milk.

History and Origin

The first appearance of this "layered coffee" in mainland China was in 2014 at a café in Beijing, inspired by practices from Hong Kong baristas, when it was still a niche beverage. Later, as independent specialty coffee shops gradually became popular in major Chinese cities, the practice of pouring espresso over milk began to spread widely among baristas, and it was given Chinese names such as "Amber," "Stain," "White Night," and "Dirty Coffee."

In fact, the original creator of Dirty is Katsuyuki Tanaka from Japan. In 2009, he opened a café called Bear Pond Espresso in Kitashinzawa, Tokyo, and Dirty was a specialty product he made from the beginning, listed on the menu as B.P Dirty. The most distinctive feature of the B.P Dirty produced by Katsuyuki Tanaka is his unique espresso—"Angel Stain." He specifically used a bottomless portafilter for extraction, observing and judging the espresso extraction状况 with his eyes, with the espresso leaving traces similar to teardrops on the cup wall.

With the combination of dark roast, large coffee dose, ultra-high concentration, and low extraction rate, the double "Angel Stain" allows the B.P Dirty's espresso to sink slowly, maintaining distinct layers even without pre-chilling the glass. However, B.P Dirty did not become widely popular in Japan but was instead learned and adopted by some cafés in Hong Kong and Thailand.

Reasons for Popularity

Why has such a small Dirty become so popular? FrontStreet Coffee has roughly listed the following reasons:

First, Dirty's birth was positioned as an internet-famous product from the beginning. It started to become popular around 2018-2019, when "dirty" food became trendy, with dirty buns becoming exceptionally popular. This refers to food that creates a "dirty" visual effect. Early "dirty" coffee was not standardized, and some used milk foam and cocoa powder to create a "dirty" visual effect. (The iteration of internet-famous products is so fast that the later "forgiveness green" matcha set has now become an outdated internet sensation.)

Later, major specialty coffee shops began to informally unify the definition of "dirty" coffee—freshly extracted hot espresso slowly permeating into pure white iced milk, creating the visual effect of "dirty."

Second, it fills the visual aesthetic deficiency of iced coffee. To put it bluntly, it looks beautiful. Hot coffee has lattes and other beverages that can feature latte art, while iced coffee, when poured into transparent cups, only shows a gradient effect from golden yellow to brown. The beauty of Dirty coffee is dynamic—the dark espresso slowly permeates downward, gradually staining the white, which is very visually appealing. It's also a popular subject for coffee photography.

Third, a multi-layered tasting experience. If Dirty coffee were limited to just its appearance, it couldn't achieve such viral popularity. Iced lattes served in coffee shops today can also achieve a layered effect, but when drinking, people still tend to mix the milk and coffee evenly.

With Dirty coffee, what you're drinking is its ever-changing layers. A small Dirty can be finished in 3-4 sips. When you take the first sip, it's rich and warm espresso (with a small amount of iced milk), allowing us to experience the robust coffee aroma;

The second sip brings you to the transition zone between coffee and milk, where part of the coffee and milk blend in an unsaturated way, allowing you to taste the rich milk chocolate flavor; the third sip is chilled milk with a faint coffee aroma. Without dilution from ice cubes, the overall mouthfeel is very full-bodied—from bitter to sweet, from hot to cold—it's a very rich and multi-layered experience.

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