What's the Difference Between Dirty Coffee and Latte? Why Should You Drink Dirty Coffee in Large Sips? How to Make Dirty Coffee?

Why Dirty Coffee is the Perfect Summer Milk Coffee

There's nothing more perfect for summer than Dirty coffee! If there were, FrontStreet Coffee would be the one to know!

Compared to iced lattes, the contrast created by Dirty coffee is more impactful and shocking to the senses. With one sip, you can experience distinctly different contrasts, which is absolutely wonderful. That's why many latte enthusiasts, since the year Dirty became popular, have switched to the Dirty camp. However, FrontStreet Coffee isn't saying that iced lattes are inferior to Dirty—each has its own advantages~ The preparation of Dirty coffee is also very simple. Just as its layered appearance suggests, all you need to do is let the espresso float on top of the milk.

The Secret to Perfect Dirty Coffee

That being said, many friends still can't make Dirty coffee properly at home, and the drinking experience doesn't have the same impact as when drinking it in a coffee shop. The reason is actually quite simple: during preparation, they haven't fully captured the soul of Dirty coffee.

The soul of Dirty? Contrast—that's the soul of Dirty coffee. It's not just体现在 in appearance; the temperature and taste of the milk and coffee need to have distinct contrasts. Therefore, to make a good cup of Dirty, you not only need to layer the milk and coffee but also create huge differences in their temperature and taste. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share how a delicious Dirty coffee should be made!

Espresso Requirements for Dirty Coffee

Dirty coffee's contrast is primarily introduced by the espresso. Because when we drink Dirty, we first encounter the espresso, then the milk, so the taste of the espresso is extremely important.

A crucial factor determining espresso taste is the coffee beans used. The lighter the roast, the more acidic the coffee tastes; the deeper the roast, the more bitter the coffee tastes. The main taste of milk is one word: "sweet," so we should choose beans whose main taste is the opposite: "bitter." FrontStreet Coffee recommends using medium-dark roasted coffee beans. This way, the extracted espresso won't have obvious acidity nor excessive bitterness—just the right amount of bitterness to create a strong contrast with the milk while not making you frown when tasting the espresso due to too much bitterness.

Milk Requirements for Dirty Coffee

Milk is one of only two ingredients in Dirty coffee, so the choice of milk is also very important. To create a distinct contrast with the coffee, the milk needs to move toward another "extreme."

Espresso is bitter, so milk should be sweet! The amount of substances in milk determines its richness. When substances like protein, fat, and lactose are higher in content, the milk tastes more fresh and sweet, while also having higher density, making it better able to maintain the layered effect with the espresso. Therefore, when choosing milk, richer milk will produce a Dirty coffee with more contrast—in other words, the Dirty will have a better performance effect. Of course, we don't recommend being too extreme. When the substance content in milk is too high, a cheese-like salty taste will appear. When combined with rich espresso, the taste can be too intense and burdensome to drink.

Temperature Requirements

Next is temperature. Temperature difference is a very important sense of contrast in Dirty coffee. This is easy to solve: espresso is hot, so milk should be cold! Milk placed in the refrigerator perfectly meets this requirement, so we don't need to put too much thought into this aspect. But maintaining the milk's temperature requires attention! Besides density difference, temperature is also an important factor determining how long the layering lasts. If we don't want the Dirty to lose its layered effect too early, then the choice of cup is crucial.

When the cup is at room temperature, the milk will continuously absorb heat from the cup due to its lower temperature, until its own temperature matches that of the cup. In other words, using a room temperature cup will accelerate the milk's return to warmer temperature. Therefore, we should chill the cup before making Dirty coffee to allow it to maintain the contrasting effect for a longer time.

Preparation Tips and Techniques

When we've prepared all the materials, we can start combining them! Though it's called combining, it's really just extracting the espresso onto the milk, but this also requires skillful technique.

If the impact force of the extracted espresso is too high, it will cause the coffee liquid to directly penetrate into the milk, mixing together and evolving into an iced latte. Therefore, to prevent this situation, we need to reduce the distance between the espresso and the milk surface, decreasing the impact force, which will form a clear layered effect! Bringing the milk surface close to the espresso outlet or using a spoon to rest on the milk surface to eliminate the espresso's impact force are all feasible methods. The specific approach depends on your own choice!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473