What is Milk-Extracted Coffee? How to Make Cold Brew Coffee with Milk?

Recently, while browsing the internet, FrontStreet Coffee discovered a coffee preparation method called "milk brew," which some have described as "a gospel for cold brew milk coffee lovers." Today, we're going to recreate this method together~

What is Milk Brew Coffee?

As the name suggests, milk brew involves replacing the water in cold brew coffee with fresh milk. In a low-temperature environment, coffee flavor compounds are extracted over several hours, and finally filtered to obtain milk coffee. Since the entire extraction process is completed at low temperatures, bitter, astringent, and miscellaneous flavors are less likely to be released. Moreover, the original colorless and tasteless solvent—water—is replaced with rich and smooth milk. Layered with the aroma released by the coffee grounds, the coffee not only has a smooth texture like chocolate milk but also possesses the aromatic characteristics of the selected beans.

Which Coffee Beans and Milk to Choose?

Unlike regular cold brew, milk brew coffee introduces milk as an important and unignorable element. If you use light-roasted beans with refreshing characteristics, the coffee aroma will likely be overpowered by the milk flavor, resulting in a relatively thin mouthfeel, much like milk with just a hint of fruit acidity.

Therefore, when it comes to coffee bean selection, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using medium roast or darker beans with flavor descriptions such as chocolate, hazelnut, caramel, and cream, or coffee beans with fermentation and wine-like aromatic characteristics for making milk cold brew. For this demonstration, FrontStreet Coffee selected a medium-dark roast Brazil Queen Estate and an anaerobic natural medium roast Colombia Flower Moon Night—one tastes like hazelnut cream dark chocolate, while the other resembles nutty dried cranberry milk chocolate.

How Fine Should the Coffee Be Ground?

For making cold brew milk coffee, FrontStreet Coffee believes that fresh milk is more suitable. Fresh milk has higher lactose and milk fat content, which can make the coffee texture smoother and fuller. Here, we used Guangming Fresh Ranch. (FrontStreet Coffee also tried using OATLY oat milk to make milk brew coffee, but the texture was quite jarring.)

When FrontStreet Coffee first attempted this, we directly used the same grind size as for cold brew (80-85% passing through a #20 sieve). The resulting filtered milk coffee did have rich aroma characteristics, but the bitterness was relatively high, leaving some discomfort in the mouth. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee adjusted the grind to be coarser, approaching the requirements for hot pour-over (75-80% passing through a #20 sieve), thereby reducing bitterness. To achieve better aroma in the milk coffee, it's best to grind the coffee beans fresh before extraction, which can preserve aromatic compounds to the greatest extent.

What's the Appropriate Coffee Bean to Milk Ratio?

To find the optimal brewing ratio, FrontStreet Coffee used Paradise Bird as an example, maintaining the same grind size (EK43s setting 10.5), and experimented with three different standards: 1:8, 1:10, and 1:12. Each batch used 25g of coffee grounds, meaning we added 200g, 250g, and 300g of iced fresh milk respectively.

After comparison, we found that the 1:10-1:12 ratios had moderate concentration, with coffee and milk complementing each other perfectly, tasting like an iced latte without ice. The 1:8 ratio had the darkest coffee color, with both coffee flavor and milk taste being more robust. Drinking it directly felt similar to a latte made with concentrated milk, suitable for consumption after adding ice cubes.

Direct Steeping or Bag-separated Extraction? How Long to Steep?

The steeping method depends on what tools we have on hand—in other words, whatever is most convenient. If you have both a cold brew pot and tea bags, you can wrap the coffee grounds in a bag and simply discard it after steeping, making the operation much easier. However, because the coffee grounds are separated, they don't fully contact with the milk, so you need to steep for more than 10 hours to "release the flavor," during which you also need to occasionally stir the coffee bag to improve extraction efficiency.

If you're like FrontStreet Coffee, with a pot, dripper, and filter paper but no filter bags, you can use the simplest and most straightforward method: directly steep the coffee grounds with fresh milk, then filter out the coffee grounds with filter paper after steeping. Direct steeping allows soluble substances in the coffee to more fully dissolve into the milk, requiring only 5-6 hours to complete extraction. The biggest disadvantage is that the waiting time during filtering can be quite long.

Drink the Coffee Immediately or Refrigerate It?

FrontStreet Coffee first tasted the freshly filtered Queen Estate cold brew milk coffee. In appearance, it had a rich milk tea color, with aromas of hazelnut and roasted peanuts. It was fragrant, rich, and smooth in texture. However, after being left to ferment overnight, the coffee texture remained similar, but the aroma noticeably diminished. Considering that milk is a very perishable beverage, FrontStreet Coffee suggests consuming the prepared milk brew coffee on the same day to avoid gastrointestinal discomfort.

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