# Steam wand depth?



## Beemer (Jun 19, 2012)

I have a Duetto that has a two hole wand tip. Plenty of steam but my technique leaves a lot of plain milk underneath the microfoam. I fill my 12oz toroid jug to 1/3 and insert the wand tip about 20mm under the surface. The milk is always swirling fast and I steam to 150F before shutting off. The result is approx 50/50 milk/foam.

The only way i can get microfoam into my cappuccino cup is to spoon it otherwise only milk comes out. What am I doing wrong?


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## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

If you have to spoon it, it's not microfoam!

Start with your wand tip just sub surface and off centre, crack the steam open so the milk starts spinning immediately and you are surfing the tip just into the surface in the sweet spot where you should get a nice 'tick-tick' sound with no screaming or loud slurping, this part is called the stretch where you are gently incorporating air into the milk, if you are too deep you won't add any air and if you are too high and get lots of slurping then your air bubbles will be too big and you'll get at best meringue foam and at worst soap suds! Once the milk has got to a warm temperature around body temp or very slightly warmer, sink the wand tip a few centimetres into the milk, deep enough that you aren't adding any more air but not so deep that you make it scream and slow the speed of the milk spinning, this period incorporates the microfoam right through the milk, steam until the pitcher is too hot to hold but no hotter and you're done. Your milk should resemble shiny wet paint. Keep the milk moving in the pitcher until you pour so it doesn't start to separate and form in the pitcher, this happens very quickly so keep your swirl on!

It takes a fair bit of practice to perfect and watching YouTube vids will help. Tell you what, buy me a duetto and I'll come and give you some lessons!


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## Beemer (Jun 19, 2012)

Sorry Outlaw333,

I forgot to thank you for your advice and then four weeks later I posted virtually the same question. Does coffee make me senile!!


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