What is Pour-Over Coffee with Milk Called? What is Café au Lait? How to Make It Delicious?

With the Chinese New Year approaching, I'm sure everyone has already stocked up on coffee beans for the holiday season. I wonder if our fellow coffee enthusiasts who are returning to their hometowns are troubled by too much luggage, only able to fit pour-over equipment, making it difficult to enjoy a milk coffee. That's why today FrontStreet Coffee would like to share with you how to make better-tasting pour-over coffee with milk.

Pour-over Coffee + Milk = Café Au Lait?

Perhaps everyone is familiar with adding milk to espresso to create lattes or cappuccinos and other specialty coffee drinks, but long before espresso appeared, Europeans already had the practice of adding milk to black coffee. This is "Café Au Lait," which literally translates from French as "coffee with milk." Since the mainstream coffee extraction methods in Europe at that time were drip brewing (similar to flannel pour-over) and immersion (similar to French press), the original Café Au Lait was primarily made by adding milk to black coffee prepared using these two methods.

After hundreds of years of development, the definition of Café Au Lait has become more inclusive, referring to any coffee beverage made by adding milk to black coffee. Therefore, the practice of adding milk to pour-over coffee actually has historical precedent.

What Coffee Beans Are Suitable for This Method?

Compared to espresso extracted under high temperature and pressure, drip-brewed coffee has a concentration far lower than espresso, and when tasted alone, pour-over coffee is noticeably much "lighter" in body. As pour-over coffee is an extraction method that showcases the flavor characteristics of beans, after adding milk, the flavors can easily be masked. Therefore, to make a good cup of Café Au Lait, special attention must be paid to bean selection.

At this point, some of you may have already guessed what kind of beans to select. FrontStreet Coffee suggests choosing medium to dark roast coffee beans. Generally, darker roasted beans will enhance the intensity of the coffee flavor, and adding a small amount of milk can make the coffee smoother while still allowing you to taste the milky aroma. If you're unsure about the roast level of the beans, you can choose beans with flavor descriptions like chocolate, nuts, cream, or cocoa. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's bean selection as an example, Brazil Queen Estate, Mandheling, Tian Tuan Niao, and Yunnan Xiao Li are quite suitable.

Of course, medium-light roast beans that display floral and fruity acidity characteristics can also be chosen. However, according to FrontStreet Coffee's trials, when traditionally processed pour-over coffee has a small amount of fresh milk added, the flavors become extremely difficult to distinguish, and it ends up tasting like diluted milk. But it was also discovered in the experiments that coffee beans with fermentation, wine-like aroma descriptions, when tasted with a small amount of milk added, the overall flavor remains relatively harmonious and somewhat discernible. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's beans as examples, Colombia Chiroso and Honduras Sherry are excellent choices.

What Needs to Be Changed in Brewing?

To ensure that the coffee flavor remains perceptible after adding milk and doesn't get lost due to dilution, the concentration of pour-over coffee as the "base" for milk coffee must be adjusted and increased, and the amount of milk added must be appropriate, with a small proportion.

Lower the Coffee-to-Water Ratio

To extract a pour-over with rich flavor and full layers, we need to appropriately lower the coffee-to-water ratio to extract the main aromatic compounds from the coffee. According to FrontStreet Coffee's trials, a ratio between 1:8 to 1:10 is quite suitable. FrontStreet Coffee uses 15g of coffee to brew 1-2 servings as a reference, with a 1:10 coffee-to-water ratio requiring 150g of hot water to be poured.

Adjust to a Finer Grind

Due to the reduced coffee-to-water ratio, we need to appropriately adjust to a finer grind to extend the extraction time. When the coffee powder is finer, the water flow rate slows down, which can lengthen the extraction time. FrontStreet Coffee suggests using a #20 sieve with 80% pass rate (store's EK43s setting 10) for medium-dark roast beans, while medium-light beans should use a #20 sieve with approximately 85% pass rate (store's EK43s setting 9).

(Left: EK43s setting 9 grind, Right: EK43s setting 10 grind)

Multi-Stage Pouring Technique

With the same coffee-to-water ratio, more pouring stages means more stirring and washing of the coffee grounds, which can release more aromatic compounds. To achieve more complete extraction of flavor compounds, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a three-stage pouring technique.

What Kind of Milk to Use? How Much to Add?

In terms of milk selection, FrontStreet Coffee prefers to use whole fresh milk, which not only harmoniously pairs with the aroma of medium-dark roast beans but also gives the coffee a richer, fuller mouthfeel, making it taste more abundant and satisfying. (FrontStreet Coffee also has a few bottles of oat milk left from a few days ago, and after multiple attempts, the aroma of oat milk is difficult to harmoniously blend with coffee, and we haven't quite figured it out. Interested friends or those who are lactose intolerant can try it and then tell FrontStreet Coffee about your experience.)

As for how much milk to add, this actually needs to be adjusted according to personal taste. FrontStreet Coffee tried the several beans mentioned above, and after brewing 15g of coffee powder with a 1:10 ratio to yield approximately 130g of coffee liquid, adding about 60-80g of milk can maintain a balance between the two, allowing you to taste the fresh sweetness of the milk while still experiencing the coffee aroma.

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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