(And I don't just mean the first I ever MADE, it's also the first I ever TASTED )

I fell out of bed this AM and decided to descale the machine... leading to a sort of re-discovery of the HX mechanism. So I decided to try something new.

The result was as follows: double shot of Brazil yellow bourbon (great stuff, BTW) plus (poorly) steamed skim milk, all in a 3-oz package. I've never been a milk drink drinker (obviously), but this thing tasted pretty darn good!







A quick Q: is there a minimum amount of milk that can be successfully frothed? I am the only coffee drinker in my family of one

Two ounces of espresso and one ounce of milk/froth, sounds like a macchiato. 1/3 espresso, 1/3 milk, 1/3 microfoam would be a cappuccino, ¼ espresso, ¼ foam and ½ milk, I would call a latte. There are many variations on these themes, but that would be a close approximation.

For more reading, check out Cappuccino vs. Latte

If you think it tasted good with skim milk, wait till you try it with half & half. Yumie!

scottyg514 wrote:wait till you try it with half & half. Yumie!

That would be called a Cafe Breva (if it were a Cappuccino with half & half instead of whole milk).

CambodianBeast wrote:all in a 3-oz package.

A quick Q: is there a minimum amount of milk that can be successfully frothed?

I'd call that a short capp. I used to call it a dry capp 'cause there were a lot {I mean a lot} of places that would just pour less milk in if you asked for it dry, and then I went to Blue Bottle and they said that they don't do dry and so on, suddenly I started running into a lot {again, a lot} of baristi that referred to a dry capp as one with stiff, fluffy foam instead of microfoam.
That there looks like about an ounce of foam, if that's a three ounce package. If you've got a two ounce pull, and an ounce of foam, the math doesn't quite seem to be working out. Didja mean that you've got an ounce of milk in that two ounce pull and there is an ounce of froth on top of it? What size cup izzat?
I'd call a macchiato an espresso with a bit of microfoam as a 'hat', but that might just be me. There have been conversations like this before, and it just reinforces the need to have some sort of standardization, in the lexicon.
Anyhoo, the smallest amount of milk that I've been any good at has been about three ounces. I could probably do less on the Silvia, but one of the Astoria's steam wands has already got four of the holes in the tip blocked for the three ounce foam gig, and that's still a bit too much steam. I might be able to do as little as an ounce, depending on your definition of 'successfully'.

scottyg514 wrote:If you think it tasted good with skim milk, wait till you try it with half & half. Yumie!

crap, half & half is too much for me. I like my organic whole milk cappas.

CambodianBeast wrote:A quick Q: is there a minimum amount of milk that can be successfully frothed?

Mike documents his macchiato with one ounce of milk in No milk waste home macchiato:

miKe mcKoffee wrote:Here's my first attempt at making one zero milk waste macchiato using ~1oz milk steamed in 3oz SS pitcher. Double shot using LM standard ridged was pulled into 3oz demi.... {snip}



For first mini pitcher steaming attempt not too bad but should have stretched the milk more. Ran a demi spoon through from the edge to center and very weak and thin. But hey, sure tasted good!

That's out of my league. With four boys, we go through gallons of milk every week, so I feel no guilt splurging on 6 ounces in a 12 ounce pitcher and tossing half of it.

Psyd wrote:That there looks like about an ounce of foam, if that's a three ounce package. If you've got a two ounce pull, and an ounce of foam, the math doesn't quite seem to be working out. Didja mean that you've got an ounce of milk in that two ounce pull and there is an ounce of froth on top of it? What size cup izzat?

The double was ristretto-ish at no more than 1.5 oz. There's ~0.75 oz milk and 1 oz foam, and the cup is 3 oz.


I'll finish off this gallon of skim working on my frothing, and go for at least 2% next time. Thanks for the reference Dan... I don't have a 3 oz pitcher but I'll find a way.


Now to unplug Anita before it gets fried in this storm...

It looks like Chicago is getting pounded. We have sever warnings out in Dayton, it is heading right for me, about 4am.

But back to the drink. That is a little short on the espresso portion of the drink. In those portions it is more like a mini cappa. A three ounce cup makes a nice single shot cappuccino.

I picked up a thermometer and a gallon of whole milk... besides having enough milk for a year, I can now make decent entry-level microfoam (yesterday's were more like soap bubbles).

Went for a cappuccino this afternoon, and got this (please excuse the container):




I scooped up some excess milk when going for the foam leading to >1/3 milk, I'll watch that next time. It tasted phenomenal... the foam is to die for!