What's the Difference Between Oat Latte and Regular Latte? How to Make a Delicious Oat Latte Coffee? What is Plant-Based Milk?

Introduction to Plant-Based Milk Coffee

Many people experience adverse digestive reactions after consuming dairy products due to lactose intolerance, preventing them from enjoying regular milk coffee. However, there's no need to worry—if you're lactose intolerant, you can simply choose "milk coffee" that doesn't contain lactose! For example, oat milk latte is a special "milk coffee" made with lactose-free plant-based milk instead of regular milk.

The reason FrontStreet Coffee puts quotation marks around "milk coffee" is not to emphasize these two words, but because plant-based milk is not truly a dairy product. Therefore, "milk coffee" made from them cannot be considered genuine milk coffee!

What is Plant-Based Milk?

Plant-based milk is a grain beverage made from plant seeds (or fruits) rich in protein and fat, with water as the base. Due to the presence of protein, the beverage appears milky white, similar to milk, hence earning the name "plant-based milk" (think of soy milk for reference

The popularity of oat milk is not just due to the contribution of a certain chain brand, but also benefits from its unique texture. When tasted directly, we can feel the abundant grain aroma and rich layers of mouthfeel, which complement coffee perfectly. Coupled with its zero-lactose property, the popularity of oat milk lattes has been thriving in recent years. However, many friends have given feedback to FrontStreet Coffee that their homemade oat milk lattes not only fail to meet expectations but also have a very obvious bitterness, completely inferior to lattes made with regular milk.

Key Considerations for Making Oat Milk Latte

Actually, just as making lattes with milk requires attention to many details, making oat milk lattes also requires attention to many details. Take lattes as an example—if we directly apply the regular latte formula to make oat milk lattes, the resulting coffee performance will indeed be much inferior. However, if we can slightly modify our approach and redesign a formula specifically for oat milk lattes, then oat milk lattes might be even more delicious than you imagine~ So next, FrontStreet Coffee will share what details are worth paying attention to when making a delicious oat milk latte.

Consideration 1: Choosing the Right Oat Milk

To make a delicious latte, we specifically look for the most suitable milk that complements the current coffee performance. The same principle applies to oat milk lattes! Different manufacturers produce oat milk with significant differences in taste and texture, so the first step to making a good oat milk latte is choosing the right oat milk!

Take FrontStreet Coffee as an example—we currently use Warm Sun Blend for our espresso beans. The espresso produced with them has prominent flavors and excellent body! If we use an oat milk with a very heavy texture, the resulting oat milk latte will be rather cloying; whereas if we choose an oat milk with weaker flavor expression, it will easily allow the coffee flavor to overpower the "milky aroma." Therefore, to make a good oat milk latte, we need to pair it with an oat milk that has prominent aroma expression and appropriate body!

Consideration 2: Ratio Adjustment

After selecting the oat milk, the next issue is ratio. Although the aroma of oat milk is not weak, its sweetness performance is inferior to milk. If we make oat milk lattes using the same ratio, the coffee flavor will be more prominent.

Therefore, we can appropriately increase the proportion of oat milk in the entire coffee. This way, the coffee flavor won't easily cover up the oat milk, and it naturally won't taste as bitter~ Also, because oat milk will separate after long periods of standing, we need to shake it to restore its consistency before use. Many friends fail to make good oat milk lattes because they overlook this point.

Consideration 3: Latte Art Challenges

This is the last detail to pay attention to! Due to the lower protein content in oat milk compared to regular fresh milk, it is more difficult to foam. If we use the method of frothing milk to froth oat milk when making hot milk coffee, it's highly likely that the milk foam thickness of oat milk will be insufficient, causing latte art patterns to drift or fail to form properly.

Therefore, when frothing oat milk, we can slightly increase the thickness of the milk foam. For example, if the milk foam thickness for regular lattes is about 1cm, then when making with oat milk, we can increase the foam thickness by 0.5cm~1cm on this basis. This makes patterns easier to form and positions less likely to shift~

- END -

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473