# Nespresso Aeroccino milk frothing / milk quality in general



## spark001uk (Nov 19, 2017)

Hi all,

Question I couldn't see as asked yet (forgive me if I'm wrong).

I've recently started off my at-home brewed coffee journey with a Nespresso Inissia and their "Aeroccino 3" milk frother. Now, the frother works very well, heats it and produces plenty of nice stiff silky microfoam. Usually.

However - it seems where I get the milk from, and possibly even the size, is yielding variable results. So my aim here is simply to find out what froths best?

I've so far found semi-skimmed (green/2%) to be about the best, which many seem to agree. As for brands:

Iceland 4pt 2% - excellent.

Tesco 4pt 2% - fairly good.

Tesco 6pt 2% - not good.

Tesco Pure 4pt 2% - fairly good. (Pure is their version of Cravendale filtered milk)

So far the Tesco 6pt seems for some reason to be a bit disappointing (and their 4pt to a lesser extent), it's producing a somewhat watery, flimsy foam.

I'll add to this if I find any more - and your suggestions too of course. I'd also like to know if this general idea holds true for steam frothing, or whether it's a bit more forgiving in this aspect?

I've tried to discount other factors, like checking milk temp is consistent throughout, machine is cold, clean, working properly etc.

Any help or advice would be gratefully received, thanks.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Hard for us to say , as the vast majority of people on the forum will use a steamer on their machine to steam milk as opposed to the one you have.

Personally when i drank alot of milky drinks , I was full fat all the way , gave a sweeter taste . I think any differences you are attributing to the same milk but bought in different qty could just be down to how your thing steams and what mood you are in .

If you really like the 4 pint better, stick to buying 4 pints and enjoy your coffee.


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

Different milk from different places can vary. Also with the season. There is no straightforward correlation between pack size and foaming, more likely coincidence. However one factor is freshness. As milk ages, long before it becomes detectably "off" the natural bacteria will have started to break down the proteins and change the chemistry of the milk which might account for the variances you have observed. By the end of a 6 pint container it might be less fresh - or was maybe on the shelf longer before purchase.

As Boots says, most of us are using machines with steam wands for steaming, which gives much more control. That is not to say that there aren't several here who have had Nespresso machines or have them at work etc, but you won't find much posted on here about them, because there's not much to say: insert capsule, press button, add milk, press button. It is what it is. The 'froth' generated by Aeroccino and similar (ours is Andrew James I think) is just not the right consistency for latte art, and there's not much you can do about that. But you can of course experiment with different milk to see which gives you the best consistency and flavour. Personally I don't bother with the filtered milk like Cravendale any more. They do foam and keep well due to having had the bacteria filtered out, (see above my point about proteins denaturing), but to me they have a strange, super-clean "signature" taste that I found to be distracting and noticeable over the coffee taste (although not unpleasant). Once I was happy steaming good pourable microfoam from Tesco full fat or semi, I stopped buying the filtered stuff. Hope that is of some help.


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## BlueCoffeeBean (Nov 28, 2017)

Unfortunately, when it comes froth it tends to be the the fatter the milk the better the result.

You might want to consider a different way of frothing the milk as you have little control over an Aeroccino. It takes a bit of practice but I think the results are better and can be more to your preference. A good little tutorial here. You could also consider a handheld milk frother like an Aerolatte which will give you more control but it won't the milk at the same time like a steamer.


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## spark001uk (Nov 19, 2017)

OK, as there seems to be a limited number of pod machine users on here as mrboots says, I'll just try and share my experiences and see who drops by.

Right so eliminating the brand issue - which does indeed appear to have been a coincidence - I've done a few temperature experiments with the frother, and so far I'm finding that if I superchill a cup of milk for between 5 and 10 mins in the freezer (gets the milk to approx 0.5 - 1°C), I do get a much better quality foam, and more of it. This compared to using it straight from the fridge, which although the fridge says it gets down to 2-3°C, the milk itself only ever seems to reach about 6°.

What I would like to know from the 'steamers' is, does it matter this much when steaming? Does it really need to be at the brink of freezing? Do any of you have a preferred starting temperature, those of you that check it that is!


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## hotmetal (Oct 31, 2013)

Interesting question. So, when steaming milk with a steam wand, some people like to start off with the milk as cold as possible because this means you have slightly longer to incorporate the air before the milk reaches 65°C. I'm not sure exactly how this would relate to an Aeroccino - the principle might be the same, but I thought the Aeroccino was timed rather than actively monitoring the temp. If it is actually thermostatically controlled then a colder start point might make for smaller bubbles due to longer time whipping. On the other hand if it's done on a timer then I have no explanation. I'm not aware of any science behind cold milk, fats and proteins being whipped, other than that which applies to how much you can do before the high temperatures cause the foam to break down again (about 70).


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