Steaming technique for the Chris' Coffee 4 hole tip?
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Bob_McBob
- Posts: 2324
- Joined: 15 years ago
I bought what appears to be one of these 4 hole steam tips with a no burn wand from CC a few years ago. Anecdotally, they seem to be quite well liked by forum members. I must be doing something horribly wrong, because I've steamed hundreds of pitchers of milk with this tip, and I've never got anything but fluffy collapsing bubbles. It's slow, doesn't swirl the milk very well, and makes godawful screeching and tearing noises at any insertion depth before it's anywhere close to a reasonable temperature.
I am steaming 4.5-5 fl oz of milk in a small 12 oz pitcher. I've tried different pitchers (Rattleware, Espro Toroid), different angles, different locations, different depths, different boiler pressures, and blocking one of the holes (which made the most difference). I've studied Youtube videos. I've even tried it on four completely different machines. If I were learning to steam milk with this tip, I would probably have given up on achieving microfoam long ago. I keep coming back to it because it's the only tip I own that fits one of my machines, and it bothers me I can't work out how to use it properly.
I have a collection of tips for other machines, and while they all have pluses and minuses, none of them produce results that are anywhere close to this bad. I've steamed milk with numerous home and commercial machines; I'm not going to win latte art competitions against pro baristas, but I generally have no issues unless the tip is completely mismatched to the machine (e.g. large bore commercial tip on a domestic machine). And then there is this tip.
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here? I'm well and truly stumped.
I am steaming 4.5-5 fl oz of milk in a small 12 oz pitcher. I've tried different pitchers (Rattleware, Espro Toroid), different angles, different locations, different depths, different boiler pressures, and blocking one of the holes (which made the most difference). I've studied Youtube videos. I've even tried it on four completely different machines. If I were learning to steam milk with this tip, I would probably have given up on achieving microfoam long ago. I keep coming back to it because it's the only tip I own that fits one of my machines, and it bothers me I can't work out how to use it properly.
I have a collection of tips for other machines, and while they all have pluses and minuses, none of them produce results that are anywhere close to this bad. I've steamed milk with numerous home and commercial machines; I'm not going to win latte art competitions against pro baristas, but I generally have no issues unless the tip is completely mismatched to the machine (e.g. large bore commercial tip on a domestic machine). And then there is this tip.
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here? I'm well and truly stumped.
Chris
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Beezer
- Posts: 1355
- Joined: 17 years ago
I have that same tip, but attached to a "burn me" wand, not the no-burn wand. I found it was incredibly easy to use with a "burn me" wand, instant microfoam every time. With a no-burn wand, not so much. I think the no-burn wand has wetter steam or something, but I was never able to get good results with it. My solution was to switch back to the "burn me" wand, and now it's easy to steam again.
My technique with this tip is nothing special. I use a 12 ounce pitcher with a spout, half full of 2% milk. Purge the wand of any water. Point the wand straight out from the machine. Place the pitcher so it's angled slightly toward yourself, with the wand on the side near the three o'clock position in the pitcher and slightly below the surface. Turn on the steam to full power and start incorporating a bit of air into the milk. A standing wave or whirlpool should form immediately. Once the milk expands a bit, raise the pitcher a bit to drop the tip below the surface of the milk and keep spinning. Turn off when the pitcher starts to get hot to the touch. Tap and swirl the pitcher on the counter, then pour into the espresso. This should produce nice "wet paint" microfoam pretty much every time.
I have to ask, if you get decent results with other tips and you can't get good results with the four-hole tip, why bother using it? Why not just use one of the ones that works for you?
My technique with this tip is nothing special. I use a 12 ounce pitcher with a spout, half full of 2% milk. Purge the wand of any water. Point the wand straight out from the machine. Place the pitcher so it's angled slightly toward yourself, with the wand on the side near the three o'clock position in the pitcher and slightly below the surface. Turn on the steam to full power and start incorporating a bit of air into the milk. A standing wave or whirlpool should form immediately. Once the milk expands a bit, raise the pitcher a bit to drop the tip below the surface of the milk and keep spinning. Turn off when the pitcher starts to get hot to the touch. Tap and swirl the pitcher on the counter, then pour into the espresso. This should produce nice "wet paint" microfoam pretty much every time.
I have to ask, if you get decent results with other tips and you can't get good results with the four-hole tip, why bother using it? Why not just use one of the ones that works for you?
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