Can You Add Milk to Pour-Over Coffee? What's the Best Milk Ratio for Delicious Taste?

When you brew a cup of coffee and hand it to a guest, only to hear them say, "Can you add some milk to it?" What would you think?

Of course, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the coffee community is very inclusive. Many friends often switch between the five types of coffee shown in the image. This chart is more for self-deprecation and entertainment within the coffee community. What appears to be a "snobbery chain" is actually the evolution process of a coffee novice.

When you first don't know what coffee is, the easiest to access is instant coffee, which has the highest sales and widest distribution. Then you discover that some coffee powders don't completely dissolve, and that type of coffee has a more pronounced aroma, so you switch to drip bag coffee. Later, you find out that coffee powder is ground from coffee beans, and grinding fresh and brewing immediately is more fragrant, so you step into the world of pour-over coffee.

The process from milk coffee to Americano is mainly about returning from coffee drinks to pure coffee, similar to how tea lovers don't consider drinking milk tea the same as drinking tea.

Milk in Pour-Over Coffee: A Historical Perspective

Today, milk coffee is typically made using espresso as a base mixed with milk, and everyone is accustomed to this way of drinking. However, pour-over coffee with milk seems novel in people's perception and might be considered baffling. But in fact, this way of drinking coffee has a longer history than today's lattes.

In 17th-18th century France, there was a very popular coffee called "Café Au Lait," which is actually French milk coffee. Directly translated, it means "coffee and milk," and in China, the latter part is transliterated as the name of this coffee—Au Lait Coffee. The coffee base of Au Lait Coffee is very similar to pour-over coffee, using immersion or drip brewing to extract coffee liquid. Immersion involves directly pouring coffee powder into hot water to soak or boil, then filtering out the coffee grounds with flannel. Drip brewing involves putting coffee powder in flannel and repeatedly flushing the coffee powder in the flannel with hot water. Then coffee and hot milk are poured into the cup simultaneously in a 1:1 ratio, and it's complete.

Later, this milk coffee was also brought back to Japan by the Japanese, and after a series of artisanal modifications, it evolved into using flannel for slow-drip pour-over to extract high-concentration coffee liquid, then made according to the Au Lait coffee method.

Therefore, adding milk to pour-over coffee is not a strange practice; it has historical basis.

The Case for Milk in Pour-Over Coffee

Some people might think that pour-over coffee is meant to taste the original flavor of coffee, and adding milk would ruin the coffee's flavor...

FrontStreet Coffee first wants to clarify some concepts. The main purpose of pursuing the original flavor of coffee lies in the coffee beans, which depends on the coffee beans, not pour-over coffee. Pour-over coffee is just a simple and effective extraction method that showcases the flavors of these specialty coffee beans. Those coffee beans with good flavors can also extract "the original flavor of coffee" using French press, siphon, and other methods—it's not exclusive to pour-over coffee. So we need to distinguish between the relationship between pour-over coffee and specialty coffee beans.

Secondly, what we should discuss is not whether pour-over coffee can have milk added, but how to make pour-over coffee with milk taste good! The most important thing about drinking coffee is that it tastes good, which mainly depends on the coffee roast level. For example, medium-dark roast coffee has a flavor profile dominated by bitterness, and adding milk can neutralize the coffee's bitterness, while the richness of milk also enhances the overall texture of the coffee. However, most light roast coffees today are dominated by acidity, and their compatibility with milk is quite low.

Finding the Perfect Milk Ratio

Finally, the question of how much milk to add is actually the same principle as FrontStreet Coffee's discussion of how much milk to add to lattes—everything depends on whether the flavor is appropriate. For example, using Matsuya-style high-concentration extracted coffee liquid, you can add milk in a 1:1-1:1.5 ratio to achieve balance between coffee and milk. For coffee extracted with the usual 1:15 powder-to-water ratio, adding about 20ml of milk per 120ml of coffee liquid would yield better results.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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