What are the best ways to make milk coffee?

Coffee with milk is a popular beverage around the world and India is no exception. There is a sizeable Indian population who love their daily cuppa with milk. A quick trends analysis of milk coffee vs black coffee on Indian Google trends throws the following interesting trend data:

As soon as COVID lockdown was announced in India, there was a sudden surge in search for milk coffee on Google; Milk coffee sure is a comfort beverage!

The good news is that milk can be added to all possible methods of brewing coffee at home - from the humble French Press to the classic Italian Moka pot. From a drip coffee machine to an espresso machine as well as south Indian stle filter coffee or popular pour over methods such as Chemex or V60 and the very popular new kind on the block - the Aeropress.

Milk can be added to both hot and cold versions of the brew. A few points to note about making tasty milk based coffee beverages:

Use fresh milk to prepare your coffee beverage.

A general rule of thumb in choosing your milk: the more fat that exists in the milk, the richer and creamier it will taste. Which makes whole milk the go-to option for most coffee bars.At about 3-4% fat content, it achieves an ideal balance of taste and texture when mixed with coffee. - Urnex

Boling milk to 100 degrees permanently destroys the full taste of milk. Milk should be heated to a maximum temperature of between 65-70 deg C for adding to coffee beverages. An easy way to detect that temperature is to stop heating milk when small bubbles start forming on the sides of the vessel containing the milk.

Foaming the milk through an espresso machine steam wand or using a milk brother will not only expand the volume of milk and make your coffee beverage lighter, it also brings out a tiny amount of inherent sweetness of milk.

We leave you with this ready reckoner for popular milk based coffee beverages:

Source: Which kind of milk should you choose for coffee? - Urnex Corporation