Help: Problems with frothing milk - quick video inside

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nikarwong
Posts: 1
Joined: 4 years ago

#1: Post by nikarwong »

I'm trying to make layered milk tea that looks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWhFCaEBTl0 (watch from 1:16). I thought it was going to be easy. You know, froth the milk, steep the tea, then pour the tea into the milk and magic right?

This video shows my attempt:
I don't get it. When I pour the tea into the milk, there's no 2 layers; the tea just goes into the milk and they merge together.

Another issue is with the frothing of milk : wtf are there so much bubbles and so thick??!!!

I don't have white milk with me now so in the video, I'm using cold chocolate milk (folks say cold milk = more stable).
For the tea, I've tried rooibos tea, green tea etc. But results are all equally sh**ty. I thought that when I pour the tea in, it should gentle all sit at the top like what all these youtube videos show.

Wtf is going on?!

Nunas
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Joined: 9 years ago

#2: Post by Nunas »

I've never tried this layered tea thing, but do froth a lot of milk. I suggest that the roatary frother is part of the problem. I have one of these and it does not make stable foam. When I male layered coffee drinks, I pour the coffee carefully using a spoon (very similar to your video link, but I invert the spoon and pour between it and the edge of the glass.

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mckolit
Posts: 435
Joined: 16 years ago

#3: Post by mckolit »

You need to try again with a spoon. The careful pour seems to be one of the keys to keeping the tea from going through the milk. And there was also a note on the video about making sure the tea was hotter than the milk. I don't know about the microfoam being as important. He was just pouring milk back and forth to get foam and it looked like the tea pushed the bubbles up when he was pouring.

belegnole
Posts: 440
Joined: 13 years ago

#4: Post by belegnole »

It's been awhile since I did layered drinks. But, I see two things working against you in your video. One; you're pouring too fast. I always got the best results from a SLOW pour, almost a trickle. Second; That spoon. The spoon is key and even professional bartenders use them when doing layered drinks. You want the tea to ooze or creep off of the spoon.

So try this...
  • get something you can pour your tea slowly with. Like a small pitcher or something
  • forget about the froth until you get the layering down
  • put cold milk into the glass
  • then using a spoon pour hot tea very slowly into the spoon
Hopefully that will turn out better for you.
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