Why foam milk? Because everyone else is doing it? Because you can’t drink straight espresso all the time? Because without pouring latte art you feel strangely unfulfilled… ?

No, milk is foamed and steamed for one reason and one reason alone, to enhance and elevate the sensory experience of coffee, and espresso in particular.

Let’s start there, the sensory experience. Coffee IS a sensory experience. We therefore want to do anything we can to maximize it. That thought, that thread of truth will be our manifesto on our journey to prepare the finest foamed and textured milk your kitchen has ever seen. (That includes attending to all the little details when pulling our shots of espresso but extends of course into taking the time to create beautiful milk to accompany and encompass the espresso in our macchiato or cappuccino)

It will be both the easiest and the most difficult (or is it easily the most difficult?) thing you have yet encountered. Hot milk with coffee is OK. It gets you somewhere but does not at all compare to the texture and full rich mouthfeel of properly steamed and foamed milk. Handled correctly the milk can be transformed. This is the direction we are heading. The achievement of this fabled foam is our reason for being.

Where Do We Go From Here? Or How to Use this Guide?

There are a bunch of different avenues you can travel along within our Guide to Steaming Milk.  Depending on your level of experience etc. you may want to jump straight to a particular section or meander along going from front to back, leaving no stone unturned on your journey to becoming a milk steaming superstar.