Can You Use Milk to Brew Coffee Powder? How to Make a Delicious Cold Brew Latte?

The fascination with cold-extracted coffee lies in its ability to effectively reduce the release of bitter substances that typically accumulate in the aftertaste, while the prolonged extraction brings out unique fermented flavors and rich coffee aroma.

What is Milk Brew Coffee?

In our traditional understanding, cold brew coffee is made by directly adding cold water to coffee grounds and letting it steep to create a cup of black coffee. As people have developed more interesting methods, a new trend called "milk brew" has emerged in the coffee community in recent years. This involves replacing the water in cold brew with milk or plant-based milk. So, how does it taste?

Why Use Milk to Brew Coffee?

Compared to the bitter-sweet profile of black coffee, many people prefer milk coffee with its smooth texture, such as the well-known caffè latte. It's easy to drink while maintaining the robust aroma that coffee should have, and it adds a touch of milk's sweetness to the coffee.

However, in cold brew, milk no longer plays the role of merely balancing and diluting espresso. Instead, it takes on the function of extracting flavor compounds through prolonged contact with coffee grounds to create a milk coffee with moderate concentration. Additionally, because milk contains rich proteins, milk fats, and other components, it further slows down the release of certain sweet substances, resulting in a lower extraction rate and a smoother-tasting milk coffee.

How to Make Cold Brew Latte? What Parameters to Use?

Although FrontStreet Coffee couldn't find the exact origin of this milk cold brew coffee, there are numerous tutorials online that we can reference for preparation. As long as you choose the right ingredients, the entire process from grinding to filtering consists of just five simple steps, making it truly a technique that "anyone can master."

To avoid making the milk coffee too sour or bland, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using medium-dark roast beans with caramelized aromas. Look for products with descriptions like chocolate, hazelnut, caramel, cream, spices, or cocoa on the packaging. Examples include Papua Paradise Bird, Brazil Queen Estate, Colombia Huila, or espresso beans with descriptions of fermented wine notes, butter cookies, or dried fruits. For instance, FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Blend is suitable for milk cold brew.

To achieve a richer aroma in your milk coffee, the coffee-to-milk ratio needs to be just right. FrontStreet Coffee has conducted multiple comparisons and found that a coffee-to-milk ratio between 1:10 to 1:13 provides the most balanced flavor, with a robust texture similar to a well-stirred Dirty coffee.

Additionally, it's best to grind the beans fresh before extraction to maximize the retention of aromatic compounds. For milk, we recommend using fresh milk with higher lactose and milk fat content, such as brands commonly found in coffee shops like Bright Dairy, Meiji, Kowloon Dairy, or Wei Chuan, which can all create silky-smooth milk coffee.

Two Methods for Milk Extraction

Similar to regular cold brew, milk extraction can be done using either direct steeping or tea bag methods. You can choose based on the tools available to you.

Direct steeping is most convenient, requiring only a clean, sealed container and filter paper. It also allows soluble substances from the coffee to fully infuse into the milk, completing extraction in 5-6 hours. The biggest drawback is the long waiting time during filtering. Using a filter bag to hold the coffee grounds is much more convenient, but since the coffee grounds are separated, milk has more difficulty penetrating to extract compounds compared to water, so we need to extend the steeping time accordingly to allow the coffee to "release its flavor."

Materials and Parameters

Materials needed: Fresh milk, coffee grounds, a clean sealed container, a tea bag.

Parameters: 20 grams of Elida Estate Catuai coffee beans, 1:10 coffee-to-liquid ratio (add 200g of milk), fine sugar grind (EK43s setting 10/80% passing through China #20 standard sieve), 8 hours of low-temperature steeping time. Let's begin!

FrontStreet Coffee first grinds 20 grams of Elida Estate beans to a consistency similar to coarse sugar and places them in a tea bag.

After tying the string tightly, place it in the container. (This step must ensure the filter bag is tightly secured to prevent coffee particles from escaping.)

Then take fresh milk from the refrigerator and pour in 200ml. Use a spoon to ensure the coffee bag is fully submerged. Finally, cover with a lid or seal with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 8 hours.

After steeping, simply remove the coffee bag, and you'll successfully have a rich, chilled milk coffee. At this point, the coffee enters the mouth with a rich, thick texture, featuring flavors reminiscent of peach cookies. The overall profile is quite concentrated, so you can add some ice cubes to enjoy. (Considering that milk is a perishable beverage, FrontStreet Coffee recommends consuming the milk brew coffee on the same day it's made to avoid digestive discomfort.)

Drip Coffee Bags Can Also Make Milk Brew Coffee

If you have drip coffee bags and a bottle of fresh milk, you can make milk brew coffee even more easily. Using the ratio determined by FrontStreet Coffee above as reference, one 10-gram drip coffee bag corresponds to 100-130ml of fresh milk. So if you buy fresh milk in 250ml bottles and want a richer coffee flavor, you can use 2 drip bags.

The operation is very simple: take out the drip bag without opening it, and place it directly with the filter bag into the milk. Tighten the bottle cap and shake gently up and down, then place in the refrigerator to steep overnight. The next morning, take it out and shake again, discard the drip bag, and your coffee is ready.

Special attention should be paid to removing the cardboard packaging from drip coffee when making cold brew, keeping only the "naked" filter bag when placing it in milk to avoid affecting the coffee's taste.

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FrontStreet Coffee

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

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