HOW TO STEAM MILK FOR LATTE ART (featuring 2x Latte Art World Champion Lance Hedrick)

what's up my name is lance hedrick and i've been working in coffee for about seven years now during that time i've done a lot of competing from latte throwdowns to brewers cup championships and uh also during that time i've trained hundreds of people throughout the united states and outside of the country as well i've won a couple of water world championships and have done a lot of training for other people who have been competing as well uh that's something i've been wanting to do is start a youtube channel where i'm able to take my experience and coffee and make it accessible not only to home enthusiasts but beginning baristas as well it's difficult in the coffee world to find really accessible knowledge regarding anything with extraction or steaming or anything like that typically you have people who are trying to profit off of low-paid baristas and that's not what i'm about i want to make this education as accessible as possible for utilization by home breezes or breezes and cafes that don't have the resources to train so let's get started today i'm going to do some milk steaming techniques i truly believe that there's no such thing as a good or a bad steam one all of them are equal they just have different pressures and once you find the right technique to steam you'll be able to steam any type of milk whether dairy or non-dairy on any machine regardless of it being a stovetop steam wand or a really nice commercial steam one you'll be able to make incredible microphone regardless of the steam one that you have once you have this technique if you're watching this video and your machine has an automated steam wand you can override that on most machines especially with brevilles you'll be able to override that function by just pulling the steam wand out and i would highly recommend using this tutorial to work on your steaming without the automation because you'll actually get better milk quality manually steaming your own milk and the reason is because the automated foamers they don't spin your milk so the foam sits on top with the dense liquid below so when you pour it you're not getting a full integration in a harmonious drink instead if you use this this technique and override your automated steam one you'll be able to integrate it by getting a whirling a whirling function in your picture which i'll show you how to do with the steam wand and steam position uh in this video so today we're going to go over milk steaming and how i've been teaching barrisses how to steam milk and what's interesting is i've actually been able to increase my ability to teach milk steaming over a virtual communication because of kovind starting last year i began offering classes with breville through the zoom format so i've been able to teach people from afar how to steam milk and more times than not these people are able to get on steam milk and their first try they have incredible microphone that rivals that of a local cafe so let's begin i'm going to use this tool as a as a visual help this is going to be our steam one so imagine this is your steam one with the steam one tip down here and down here we have the steam tip holes and then we have a milk pitcher i'm using a handleless but any pitcher is going to work you can use a anything from a small pitcher with a handle to a big starbucks pitcher it doesn't matter anything's going to work we're going to use the same positioning and the same steam wand technique for anything as well as any milk i can't be redundant enough this will work for anything all right so first thing that we're going to do is we're going to get the perfect wand position all that means is we're going to take the wand on your machine so if you have a machine nearby go up to it you're going to take that steam one and you're just going to pull it out perpendicularly 40 degrees like so you're just going to take it walk up to it and go 40 degrees so from a side angle it'll look like this you'll walk up to your machine you're going to grab it make sure it's perpendicular and you're going to pull it back to 40 degrees so one more time super simple but just want to make sure it's clear we're going to pull that out to about 40 degrees and on this machine that's as far as it goes your machine may go higher but let's make sure it stops right about here and once we have that steam one position that is going to be the end-all be-all that is where our steam wand is going to live through the duration of the steaming process we're not going to move that steam on we're not going to change it at all that is perfection all right so once we have that we're going to take our steam pitcher and we're going to just slide that steam pitcher up on the 40 degree steam wand insert it where the spout is we want that steam wand to be touching the spout and the back part of your pitcher just like so all right so it's touching the back wall of the pitcher it's in the spout and on the back wall of the pitcher that is our first move all right then the first thing we're going to do to get our perfect pitcher position is we're simply going to rotate that picture while maintaining contact between the steam one and the pitcher we're going to just rotate it until that steam one is halfway from front to back so you see halfway from front to back we're just rotating it but if you notice i'm keeping contact between the steam one and the spout that's very important we want to keep a hinge there all right so you're taking that picture and you're just rotating it till it's halfway front to back now we're halfway front to back and all you're going to do is you're going to tilt it to the side until the steam one is a quarter to the side all right you can do either side here it doesn't matter so we're going halfway and a quarter halfway and a quarter whichever side you want to do so from a side position it'll look like this you walk up you take that steam one out 40 degrees make it perpendicular and the perpendicularity is just so that it's easier for you you can steam perfectly well on the side it's just easier if it's in front of you so let's make things easy we're going to slide that picture up we're gonna go halfway and a quarter now from an overhead view we're gonna do the same thing we're pulling it out we're sliding it up and it's on the back this is just our starting position you're gonna tilt till halfway and then tilt till it's a quarter to the side not all the way to the side and not in the middle in between the middle and the side all right halfway quarter halfway quarter it might help if you pause the video here and do some of this do practice this over and over again to ensure you have that perfect one position just slide up halfway in a quarter slide up halfway in a quarter do that over and over again until it's like second nature i promise you this will be a game changer for you all right now that we have that steam one position we'll need to discuss uh steam tip depth where do you start with the steam wand as far as the milk or the liquid in your pitcher so i'm going to use my hand to represent the surface of the milk and this is the steam one all right so if you watch the starting position that steam tip should just be barely submerged under the level of your liquid in your pitcher whatever liquid you're using the steam it should just be barely submerged and the idea here is those holes which are creating the force to create foam right so that the the steam one what it's doing is it's ejecting steam into the milk and when those holes are exposed it's able to rip apart the milk and inject air molecules into the milk and what's happening is those proteins are wrapping around the those air molecules and creating foam so what we're trying to do is to begin with we don't want that stretching to occur and again just to be thorough stretching is the addition of milk of air to milk so when i say stretching i'm talking about that sound you'll hear that's like ripping paper it'll sound like that is stretching some people call it kissing uh aerating if it's all the same thing it's stretching so before we begin stretching we want to have that those tips just fully submerged we're the ones that are going to control the stretch so they should be smurged submerged just enough so that when you actuate the steam wand the stretching doesn't begin automatically so i'm going to say that again we want the steam hole tips the steam tip holes barely submerged just enough to where when we actuate the steam wand it does not start stretching automatically we are the ones who will control the stretch the initiation of the stretch is on you it should not happen automatically so we start with those tip the tip just barely submerged after we actuate the steam wand you're going to take that hand that actuated the steam one and you're going to hold the pitcher with both hands all right so if you have a handleless pitcher like me i'm holding it with this hand i turn on the steam one this hand comes and grabs it so i have full control and then i will slowly pull down while keeping my angle of halfway and a quarter i'm going to slowly pull down the steam one while also the steam one is in the tip still remember it always touches that that spout i'm going to slowly pull down until that light stretch that light kissing noise occurs that's stretching we want to be very controlled and very uh very soft we want to sound like a if you pull down too aggressively or you jump the gun and you didn't have the steam tip deep enough into the milk you're gonna have a really aggressive stretch and it's gonna inject a lot of air that's gonna be difficult to whip out of your milk it'll sound like a and that's not what we want we want a really nice gentle stretch that will be constant while we control it we are the ones to dictate when the stretching begins and when the stretching ends and the way that we do that is by going up and down vertically so first thing that we do go up to the steam one 40 degrees ride the steam one halfway and a quarter then we're gonna turn the steam wand on after and only after we have the steam tip fully submerged all right not all the way down fully submerged as little as possible that sounds very difficult it's very contradictory sounding we want that steam tip just barely submerged but it's submerged enough to where it won't start stretching automatically then we're going to turn on the steam wand grab the pitcher with both hands slowly while keeping contact with that steam one in the spout ride down the steam one until that stretching begins lightly and we're going to let it stretch in that position until the temperature of your pitcher matches the temperature of your hand now stretching is ideal up to 100 degrees not past 100 degrees since our body temp sits around 98 degrees it's a good test to feel it and once it hits the temperature of your hand you're good to stop stretching now once the stretching is done once that temperature matches the temperature of your hand you're going to slowly return to your original position and when i say original position it might be a little different now because that milk has increased in volume so if you went back to the original position whereas originally it was this far under the surface if you went to the original position because there's now an addition of foam it would look like this that's not what we want the original position i'm referring to is having those steam holes just barely submerged so you may not really need to move much at all but that's the movement we're going to do after we hit about 100 degrees don't panic don't turn the steam the steam wand off just slowly go back up the steam wand keeping your same position of halfway and a quarter and submerge the tips once more we're just going to submerge it just enough to where the stretching stops all right and so once we do that you're just going to let that whirling continue until the temperature is to your liking now for cappuccinos that's typically around 130 degrees latte is closer to 140 145 i know if you don't have a thermometer that's difficult this is going to sound really vague but it actually works with most every barista or home enthusiast i've ever worked with once that pitcher gets too hot to the touch where you're going whoa and i say you're doing the michael jackson you're going oh when you get there stop steaming all right so if you can hold it for more than five seconds you're not hot enough if you're getting to the point where just touching it is hot and you hear a pitch change which that's a little bit more advanced but if you hear a pitch change then it's time to stop steaming all right so just going over all that one more time from the side and above angle we're going to walk up to the machine we're taking that steam wand and do this with me if you're in front of a machine you're going to take that steam one pull it out perpendicularly 40 degree angle take your pitcher that has milk in it and we're going to just ride the steam wand up while keeping connection with the spout and then we're going to tilt halfway and a quarter now that we have that perfect positioning we're going to look into the picture we're going to see where that milk level is and we're going to make sure that steam one is just barely submerged the tip of it the very tip okay then we're going to actuate the steam one both hands on the pitcher slowly pull down until that stretching begins once it's a nice light gentle stretch we're going to live there and we're going to let it stretch and stretch and stretch and stretch until the temperature of the pitcher matches the temperature of your hand then we're just going to slowly ride it right back up until the stretching ceases and we're going to live here until michael jackson hits you all right when that when that happens turn the steam wand off pull the pitcher off have a rag you're ready to wipe the steam wand push it back so it's going to be scalding hot clear out your steam wand because milk because of that temperature change that happens so rapidly milk will shoot up into the steam one so you want to shoot it out by clearing it wipe it one more time and you are done with steaming milk you have your steamed product now i'm going to now steam a whole milk and some oat milk to kind of show you what's going on there and i want to address this real quick because i know a lot of you are thinking well when i steam milk and i try to steam alternative milk it's two completely different textures there's a different way you have to steam for alternative milk to that i say whole milk is super easy to stretch it's very forgiving i could literally and i say literally literally i could literally put it in there at whatever angle i wanted and make it so i would get good texture for latter and for whatever you want alternative milks need a perfect wand position that's what this is going to do this will elevate your game to where you can just reproduce this on every type of milk you use from skim milk to whole milk to half and half to oat almond soy whatever it be you can use this to to replicate and get perfect shiny glossy texture on all of them the only differences are oat and almond regardless of bran you'll need to be a little bit more aggressive during that stretching stretching time and you'll see that when i do the oatmeal you have to make the the stretch a little louder but you're still going to stop at 100 degrees now before we steam the whole milk and the oat milk i do want to hit one one more thing uh the amount of milk you can put in a pitcher so in every picture i've ever used and i've used dozens of different ones it's the same thing if you look at the bottom of the spout you have about half an inch below and half an inch above that you can fill the the pitcher to all right half inch below half inch glove so you have about an inch margin of error if you go above that you'll have too much milk in there once it starts to spin it's going to fly everywhere making a mess in your kitchen if you go too much below that you're going to have an issue where you're not able to control the milk because how deep it is and that steam one's going to have some difficulties really getting a good motion there and it'll tin because the volume is so low to ride the walls and it won't give you really really nice foam that's really textured well instead it's going to give you a big separation of the foam and the liquid which is what we don't want all right so now that you know how much milk we can put in our pitcher i'm going to put it below the spout all right so i've got my milk and i'm going to come up and the first thing i'm going to do just some steam wand etiquette is the first thing you do is clear it because obviously that steam is going to condensate into liquid so we're going to get rid of that liquid i want the milk as sweet as possible i don't want to add any water to it that i don't need 40 degrees let's get that perfectly perpendicular we're going to go right up the steam wand we're going to go halfway and we're going to go a quarter and i'm going to make sure that that steam tip is just barely submerged now i'm going to actuate the steam wand and immediately after grab with both hands and actuate see there's no stretching until i say there is see there was no stretching no kissing until i pulled down as you see that world is getting more and more aggressive now i'm just gently stretching keeping a very light kiss now it matches the tip of my hand so i just barely submerged it once more as you saw that that movement was very very slight was not a big movement now the temperature of the pitcher is getting too hot to the touch i'm going to just turn it off now as you see from this overhead view look how shiny that milk is there's virtually no bubbles which you should be able to get immediately i'll wipe that steam one wipe it really thoroughly push it back using the rag so you don't burn yourself clear out the milk so now we have this milk and i didn't even have to tap for no bubbles and it looks like glossy white paint all right so what you'll see a a little a little tip when you see baristas tapping the pitcher what they're doing is tapping bubbles as you can see if you have a really great steam texture a really great steam procedure you shouldn't really get any bubbles and then the swirl is to reintegrate foam that has separated from the taps so there's a little tip for you at home if you're wanting to groom milk if you have bubbles tap it on a solid surface and then swirl the foam back into the homogenous hole now this is a test that i like to do to check my uh milk my milk texture i'm going to take my milk and i'm going to give a nice meniscus into a mug so as you see as i'm pouring it looks like it's thin and this is what we want we want it to seem thin we want the appearance to be thin and we get that one little bubble out all right so bubbles can obviously occur as you're pouring so we want the texture to look thin because that thickness is what's going to allow us to fully integrate with espresso and i'll pour them with espresso at the end of the video but now that we have this in the cup as steamed milk sits the foam begins to separate which will give you that more classic look of that really nice thick creamy velvety smooth delicious on the tongue type of texture and as you see from this side angle i'm going to take it and this is the test that i like to give my milk textures if you can do this you've got some solid texture you ready we're going to lift off in three two one there's my sound effects for you so we have very marshmallow cream type foam and i'll just take my fingers is a little unsanitary but it looks like marshmallow cream you see how there's a peak that's coming down and there you go so that's how we're going to steam our whole milk or any other milk for that matter with the exception of almond and oat all right so now i'm going to steam some oat milk to show you the small difference that there is which is just stretching a little more aggressively than i did for the whole milk right all right so now i'm going to do some oat milk to show you the difference in the stretching everything's going to be the same though all right so i'm going to shake it really well this is something that a lot of people don't remember is shaking super well on all alternative milks i'm going to fill the same fill level all right now i'm going to walk up to my machine do the same thing i'm going to clear it out i'm going to take 40 degrees i'm going to go up the wand halfway in a quarter and then i'm going to make sure the steam tip is just barely submerged and remember when i stretch with oat or almond i'm going to be a little bit more aggressive all right so i'm going to actuate no stretch yet until both hands are on slowly come down and if you hear that stretching is much more aggressive but i'm maintaining my steam wand angle and i'm allowing it to whirl aggressively that temperature matches my hand so i've resubmerged the tip and i'm just letting it whirl now this whirling's just taking all the foam we had made and it's evenly dispersing it throughout the whole beverage so that when we're done we have an extremely evenly evenly saturated evenly dispersed texture what all right so what i'm gonna do is tap those bubbles out give it a nice swirl and then we're gonna do our mug test so take a look at that from the overhead shiny then we're gonna do our mug test so i'm just pouring until there's a nice meniscus we're gonna let it sit for just a second as that foam separates fill all the way gotta have that nice meniscus when i pour a little bubble occurred so there we go let it sit for like three seconds and then we'll do the shake test so again this is oat not dairy and we're still able to get that really shiny foam you ready lift off in three two one [Applause] marshmallow cream all right all right so now what i'm gonna do quickly is just for the last bit i'm gonna make a quick cappuccino with both oat and whole milk so you can see what that texture looks like in a in an espresso based drink [Music] so [Music] and that's it that's milk steaming 101 i hope it was helpful if you enjoyed what you saw and want to see some more free education free master classes different things like that please give this video a like and a subscribe maybe share it with friends that would be super helpful as i'm trying to really invest in this to really help everybody out there so give the like and subscribe and maybe leave a comment if you have any questions regarding milk steaming or what you might like to see in future videos and while you have time maybe go check out my beatboxing video that i posted previously anyway cheers i'm gonna enjoy this really deliciously uh harmonious beverage thanks

Channel: Lance Hedrick

Views: 1,022,939

Keywords: milksteaming, milk steaming, barista, home barista, espresso, coffee, coffee tutorial, milk tutorial, steaming tutorial, latte art, alternative milk, oat milk

Id: gTC3dJvwgUI

Length: 21min 1sec (1261 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021