This video shows how I make a caffe latte at home using a french press, a kyocera ceramic burr grinder and a bodum hand operated milk frother. This is part two of two. Part one is located at this URL: www.youtube.com
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
How to make a caffe latte at home (without an espresso machine) using a french press - part 2 of 2
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Home use machines steam wands are crap! they leak hot water into the milk because the boilers don't get hot enough and are not large enough to get real steam pressure. The hand frother is a much better way of frothing milk at home as you can control the temputure and get a nice tight foam. Totally agree with you on the espresso though making coffee in a pan is worse than instant. The aero press is like 20 bucks and make a really good coffee or the mypressi twist is only 100 bucks.
ReplyDeleteReally like your detailed attitude and the diy logic because most people are bored to do things, pay much extra for that and learn nothing. Learned some things, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI love your style dude, very entertaining
ReplyDeleteand here is the coffee ... and it only took 20 minutes ! hah good video though
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcome! :-)
ReplyDeleteguess ill just have buy one. thnx for this wonderful tutorial video. finally i can whip up a good latte without buying the actual machine.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe so. I have successfully used a whisk to whip cream, but it's a long process. You also have to start by chilling everything. It takes about 20 minutes. They do sell a little mini whisk that vibrates very quickly. I used to have one, but I didn't really like it all that much. It does work, but the foam you end up with is more along the lines of what you'd see on a cappuccino than a latte (i.e. dry foam more than micro foamed milk). The bodum in the video really works best.
ReplyDeleteim just going to follow up the question of mimphf, can we use whisk for the frothing?
ReplyDeleteI pretty much only drink Fiji, pellegrino or crystal geyser water. I have filtered water for the plants and like boiling, but as far as actually drinking, I try to be super careful about what I put into my body (aside from coffee mate, of course :-) You can read about RO water systems, but there are pros and cons. On the milk, it's not beating so much as getting air into the milk (micro foam). Steam or the hand frother work best in my experience.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply! Am thinking about the milk and the water for the coffee. Would it also work if I use an egg beater or a whisk to do the frothing? Agree with you tap water isn't that healthy these days. But I find bottled ones aren't exactly v healthy too. Am still looking into equipment that clarifies water from Taiwan. Any other clues here?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I have a love hate relationship with coffee mate. It's full of chemicals, but it makes the coffee (at least the lattes). I've tried everything you can think of to replace it, from stevia, to sugar in the raw mixed with the milk before steaming, etc, etc. So far I haven't really been able to duplicate the flavor we like with coffee mate. But yeah, I agree that it's not something you want to consume a lot of as far as your health goes.
ReplyDeleteI find both videos to be very interesting to watch as it is very educational. Rarely would I find people choosing to study coffee, experiment it with different settings and show patience to manually brew a cuppa. But I like the mechanical process of coffee brewing. It is very carefully thought out. Clearly you have a sweet tooth! What bothers me is the coffee mate. I think health conscious people would question the use of coffee mate as a sweetener. I wonder if raw honey could be used?
ReplyDeletego for the couches and wifi, bring your own coffee :P
ReplyDeletei'll have to agree with ray5961 - milk heated in a microwave actually does taste quite good. it features the slightly sweetened toasty flavor you get from caramelizing the milk sugars. it's not bad.
ReplyDeleteYeah, starbucks is pretty marginal. The people they have working there just don't know much about coffee. If you go into 10 different star bucks, you will end up getting 10 different shots of espresso. Some are okay, some are horrible. I've never had an amazing shot of espresso from starbucks. That tells me their employees probably don't get any instruction on dialing in a shot or their beans are no good. You can't make good coffee from bad espresso. That's the bottom line.
ReplyDeletestarbucks sucks all around the globe, not only on the states.
ReplyDeleteThe coffee mate is unhealthy for sure. Like you say, it has sugars and chemicals in it, etc. I don't drink much of it just for that reason. I stay pretty slim for riding the motorcycle, so my waist line is top notch (I'm 5'8 and 155# with six pack abs, etc.) But if I drink a bunch of lattes and pizza, then yeah, I might get up to 160. Part of that is always coffee w/ milk and coffee mate, so you definitely gotta be careful with that stuff.
ReplyDeleteAll well and good and I understand the appeal of the CoffeeMate - but how's your waistline? I've gone low-carb numerous times with no trouble shifting flab, until I gave up smoking and started drinking a lot of coffee. Even really low-carb couldn't shift the fat and I finally found the culprit - that CoffeeMate stuff is basically just sugar and transfats! That's what got me frothing normal milk instead, for a creamier texture and the lbs fell off my waist once I got rid of that artificial gunk.
ReplyDeleteAgain, you are simply uninformed. If you search on-line, there are companies which rate your county's water supply and list the chemicals which are present, as well as the overall quality of water, etc. Some locals have very good tap water, while others have very poor. Ours county's tap water is rated 8 or 9 something on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the worst); that's why I don't drink it. I've also worked on plumbing in the past and seen the inside of too many water pipes to drink tap water.
ReplyDeleteIs the cost of your equipment and the time taken to make your latte really worth it? Also if you're so concerned with me talking out my ass, might I point you in the direction of your choice of bottled water over tap water. There is nothing wrong with tap water. No I haven't tried microwaved milk I would probably heat it in a pan. I guess working in a cafe has just made me a lover of espresso machines over your hand frother. Heating and then frothing the milk just doesn't sit well with me.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me like you have never tried it - so really you are just talking out of your ass here with no real experience. I have an espresso machine also (see my other videos). This method is for people who have no espresso machine or equipment. And as far as the hand milk frother vs. steaming/stretching milk using a steam wand - again, you don't know what you are talking about. If you had tried both methods, you'd know the hand frother actually works pretty well cf. a steam wand.
ReplyDeleteMicrowaved milk sounds horrible I don't know how you can drink that. This whole method of making a latte seems like a horrible mix of techniques that I'm just not comfortable with. I can't see how you can drink a latte without proper espresso anyway. Moreover drinking a latte is not drinking coffee; it's just milk. The effort you've gone into is impressive but there is no comparison to steaming milk with a steam wand and this long drawn out process just doesn't seem worth it.
ReplyDeleteI've only had their coffee a few times and it was terrible. I will say, however, they sometimes actually pull a half way decent shot of espresso. Not always, but sometimes. Peet's is way better in my experience.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to check out my videos on the La Pavoni also. You might want to consider getting yourself a little used espresso machine if you love coffee. A french press is a very good method as well, but nothing beats good espresso. The milk frother in this video does a surprisingly good job though - I have to say it's nearly on a par with a steam wand on a real espresso machine for the foaming part.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of gear is definately going in my apartment when I move out! I am turning 18 in about a month so I am among the younger in the coffee enthusiast crowd. Right now I'm using a little press I picked up at Value Village.. It gets the job done, but looking forward to the art of the latte! Thanks for the video Ray.
ReplyDelete