How to Make Milk Transparent? Is Clarified Milk Latte Delicious?

Clarified milk, which made a splash at the 2021 World Coffee and Spirits Championship, is clearly an essential dairy product for coffee, yet it hasn't swept the coffee market as expected. You can only find it in a handful of coffee shops.

So, believe everyone is curious like FrontStreet Coffee: what kind of flavor would a latte made with it taste like? No problem! Today we'll make a "transparent" latte and see what it really tastes like.

Milk Clarification Technique

The principle of making clarified milk mainly uses acidic substances to alter the protein particles in milk. The proteins in milk are divided into large amounts of casein and small amounts of whey protein. When casein comes into contact with acidic substances, it separates from the whole, forming independent flocculent particles that precipitate. At this point, using filtration tools to filter them out yields a clear and transparent milk. In fact, this technique has existed since the late seventeenth century, and it even has a professional term - "milk washing."

What's the Difference Between Clarified Milk and Regular Milk?

The filtered milk has only removed most of the proteins. Essentially, there's no difference, because the separated translucent liquid contains whey protein, water-soluble vitamins, lactose, minerals, and the additionally added acidic substances.

As everyone knows, the filtered transparent milk contains additional acidic substances, so it will have a certain sour taste. Therefore, in this experiment, one portion of the transparent milk we make will have 30g of white sugar added to neutralize its sourness, and we'll see what difference it makes.

How to "Wash" Milk

Good question! First, pour it into a washing machine... and then...

Just kidding! First, we can take any acidic fruit, such as lemon, orange, pineapple, grapes... and juice them.

Then, heat the milk. (Heated milk can better cause the proteins to form flocculent precipitates)

Mix milk and lemon juice in a 10:1 ratio (this experiment uses 200ml milk and 20ml lemon juice), pour it into a prepared container, and then place it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to allow the casein to fully separate.

Use filter paper to filter out the protein that has become "tofu pudding"

Looks like Ahua next door wants to try too? Time taken approximately 20 minutes, filtering about 150ml of transparent milk.

Production complete~

Tasting Time

Let's first taste the clarified milk directly: it has a faint milky smell, and as expected, due to the presence of acidic substances, the overall taste is sour, with a body slightly thicker than water.

Then there's the transparent latte made with added espresso: it tastes very full of acidity, almost like a sour Americano.

Finally, there's the transparent latte with added white sugar: thanks to the balancing effect of sugar, the sourness and sweetness achieve equilibrium, and the taste is like coffee with lemon tea flavor.

Overall, clarified milk is not suitable for directly mixing with espresso or for direct consumption. It needs certain formulation to become a beloved specialty drink. (It's also possible that FrontStreet Coffee used lemon, so everyone can try using other fruits to make it)

Finally, here's a very satisfying espresso moment~

PS: This high-value latte will not be available at FrontStreet Coffee stores

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FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473