Can Soy Milk and Coffee Be Mixed? Are Soy Lattes Delicious? How to Make Soy Coffee?

Actually, FrontStreet Coffee has always had a question about plant-based milk coffee.

Because plant-based milk contains no lactose, it allows many friends with lactose intolerance to enjoy the delicious taste of "milk coffee," so the popularity of plant-based milk coffee has remained high in recent years. To provide consumers with more choices, coffee shops have started using plant-based milk such as oat milk and almond milk as replacement options for milk coffee on their menus.

For example, adding 5 yuan to replace milk with oat milk~ That's not the issue. The problem is: among so many options, our national beverage - soy milk - is conspicuously absent! Plant-based milk is a grain beverage made from plant seeds (or fruits) rich in protein and fat with water as the base. In summary, soy milk also belongs to the category of plant-based milk. So why do basically no coffee shops choose soy milk to make milk coffee? Is it because the flavors don't match well? Or is it to prevent the combination of "staple with staple"?

as the material for latte coffee? (Because coffee is often joked about as "foreign soy milk," so soy milk plus coffee is equivalent to soy milk plus "soy milk"! But in reality, the only commonality between the two is that they both use "beans," and besides that, they are completely different, which is why it's a joke)

Speculation is pointless. Instead, let's directly test it in practice and see what kind of effect occurs when we use soy milk instead of milk to make latte coffee!

Can Soy Milk Be Used to Make "Latte Coffee"?

In terms of ratio, since soy milk has a very rich taste and its aroma is even more prominent than oat milk, FrontStreet Coffee chose to use the same ratio as regular latte coffee: 1:5, which means 40ml of espresso and about 200ml of soy milk. (Left is milk, right is soy milk)

The beans used for espresso extraction are still exclusively from FrontStreet Coffee's store: Warm Sun Blend, which is a medium-dark roast blend with whiskey aroma, butter cookies, and berry flavors. The extraction parameters are 20g of coffee grounds, 1:2 ratio of grounds to liquid, with a time of 30 seconds.

There are two options for soy milk. One is to go directly to a breakfast shop to buy freshly ground and freshly brewed soy milk, and the other is to choose soy milk products from major manufacturers. As a business, FrontStreet Coffee naturally chose the latter for product stability. This brand is... well, they didn't pay us, so no advertisement (advertising space available)! Because FrontStreet Coffee is making hot soy milk lattes, latte art is essential. Therefore, the soy milk not only needs to be heated but also needs to be frothed into "milk foam." In order to create better "milk foam," FrontStreet Coffee first chilled the soy milk before frothing it. When the temperature drops to a certain degree, we can start frothing the soy milk foam!

The frothing feel is actually very similar to oat milk, and during the frothing process, we can clearly capture the rich bean aroma emitted by the soy milk. The espresso was extracted while the milk foam was being frothed, so next, let's combine them!

It's finished! Mmmmm... I'd say it's a latte art pattern full of artistic atmosphere... Because the protein in the soy milk encountered acidic substances in the coffee and coagulated into clumps, the fluidity of the liquid surface gradually decreased, making it impossible to create a pattern. Although the surface looks somewhat unattractive, it doesn't matter. What if it tastes good? So FrontStreet Coffee tasted it!

Surprisingly! It's actually quite good! The aroma of soy milk and the flavor of the espresso match very well without being abrupt. The flavor profile is: bean aroma, whiskey, butter cookies. Then because sugar was added to the soy milk, the entire cup of coffee is not bitter but slightly sweet. However, here comes the key point! Because the protein in the soy milk became flocculent, the texture of the coffee changed significantly. There's no silky smoothness as imagined; instead, it has a distinct grainy texture, like tofu pudding, as if... drinking a cup of coffee-flavored tofu pudding (sweet version)...

Actually, from this, we can understand why very few coffee shops use soy milk to make espresso milk coffee. Because its protein clumps when it collides with coffee, affecting both appearance and texture. Although the soy milk latte made by FrontStreet Coffee tastes quite good, this is mainly because the Warm Sun Blend isn't lightly roasted and doesn't have excessive acidity, while its flavor is rich and prominent, matching well with the aroma of soy milk. If we used espresso made from light roast beans to pair with soy milk, it would not only accelerate the clumping process but also create an obvious abruptness in taste due to excessive acidity. Therefore, soy milk is not a suitable coffee companion~

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473