Barista Milk Vs Regular Milk: What's The Difference?

If you recently bought an espresso machine or a milk frother to up your at-home coffee game, you may be standing in the dairy aisle, wondering if you really need to buy the barista milk over the regular milk. If you're aiming to make some good-looking latte art, the milk you buy is important. Skim milk is difficult to get a smooth microfoam with because of how little fat it has, while whole milk gives you that luscious foamy goodness atop your flat white. Barista milk is formulated specifically for baristas to use and takes milk to another level of creaminess. Plant-based barista milk often adds oils, gums, maltodextrin, and/or emulsifiers to make the milk thicker and easier to steam. These fats and additives hold the tiny bubbles better and make the microfoam creamier. Dairy barista milks are often also expressly homogenized to keep the cream from separating and make the fat in the milk even throughout. This makes it easier to steam and keep its foam rich.

Most cafes will use whole milk in their lattes, cappuccinos, and flat whites unless you specify otherwise as it's the easiest to use for frothing. Higher end shops will sometimes get a specially homogenized dairy milk from a local supplier. If you order a plant-based milk it will often be a barista version of that milk. And remember, if you want less milk, different drinks require different amounts of milk, as our handy guide to different coffee drinks showcases. 

Other drinks aside from coffee benefit from the creamier barista milk. You can make rich, delicious hot chocolate with it, thanks to the extra time spent on making the milk creamier, or use it in dairy-based cocktails to create a thicker mouthfeel. If you want to make this mocha White Russian recipe vegan, you can replace the cream with a barista oat milk and you won't miss a thing. A regular oat or almond milk might not have the same luscious quality a dairy milk or barista milk would provide. Make a dirty soda at home extra creamy with barista milk. Yes, you can add milk to your Pepsi. In fact, it's popular in states like Utah. Using barista milk would make it almost akin to an ice cream float.

You can also make your own barista quality milk. A common variation used in championship level coffee drinks is freeze distilled milk. This will create an intense milk perfect for drinks. All you have to do is freeze it. Then, once it's frozen, flip it over and let it thaw in the fridge into another jug. Due to food safety issues (you don't want the milk going bad!) you have to keep it cool while thawing, so it can take a while. The water will thaw slower than the rest of the milk, leaving you with a thicker milk. Make sure you don't freeze it in a glass bottle.