THE CAPPUCCINO: STEAM MILK BEFORE OR DURING THE EXTRACTION?

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THE CAPPUCCINO: STEAM MILK BEFORE OR DURING THE EXTRACTION?

Postby canto » Mon May 09, 2016 10:28 am

A question for all the baristas: if we have to prepare two cappuccino, probably decorated with a stunning tulip that could linger in our clients' mind and hopefully also be captured in picture and then shared on the social network through their smartphones. Where to start from? Shall we whip milk and then prepare the espressos or would it be better to “cook” the espressos and whip our milk cream without any invisible micro bubble in the meantime?

In most barista courses is suggested to always froth milk first, and then to prepare the espressos, and the theory was confirmed also in professional books about the cappuccino world.

A coffee school http://aprireunbar.com/corsi/courses/ in Florence, Italy has also sustained that during their courses, until they tried to experiment if that was true or not, if the milk was better when, waiting, tends to “oxygenate” and become more “compact”.

The test was run in the test and training area of the school, that woriks into the historical roasting company Mokaflor http://www.mokaflor-italian-coffee.com/ )

The test was started frothing a 0,5 cl milk jug ( we will call it jug A) in which we poured 250ml of milk; then four espressos were extracted and in the meantime we frothed another milk jug (we will call it jug B) as we did for the first one.
The milk of the first milk jug (A) rested therefore about 55/60 seconds and we had to rotate it quite a lot in order to avoid to pour just the milk or just the foam into the cappuccino cup. In the meantime the milk of the second jug (B) that rested about 25/30 seconds was more elastic and only a little rotation was needed to pour the milk in the cup and to create our “Rosetta” in latte Art.
Effectively , beyond the time saved, by leaving milk to rest we'll have a drier cream that we'll have to reamalgamate energically and with often disappointing results, while the milk just steamed and poured within 20/30 seconds from whipping will improve sensitively your latte art. thanks to a more elastic cream.
What do you think?
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Re: THE CAPPUCCINO: STEAM MILK BEFORE OR DURING THE EXTRACTI

Postby bruceb » Mon May 09, 2016 1:42 pm

It seems to me it is a matter of personal choice, and I have been asked by a few baristas whether I prefer my milk froth dry or moist. The barista's personal preference should probably be secondary.
Three Francesconi (CMA) espresso machines - Rossi, San Marco, LaCimbali, Faema and 2 Mazzer Major grinders- CoffeeTech Maggionlino, Hottop, Alpenröst and HW Precision roasters.
I decided I needed a bit of a change so I roasted some Monsooned Malabar. That was a change!
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