Does milk work as a brewing medium for cold brew coffee?

Milk can be used for cold brew, but not for pour-over. Milk is highly saturated, so its extraction power is weaker than water, and heating it above roughly 70 C changes the proteins. Cold immersion avoids both problems, and 12 hours at low temperature lets milk slowly extract the grounds into a creamy cup.

Choose medium or medium-dark roast beans with notes like dark chocolate, caramel, and maple syrup, since lighter floral and fruity lots get lost under milk. The same logic explains why types of sugar for coffee and the coffee milk ratio latte recipes use matter: both change body and sweetness. Store the finished brew sealed in the refrigerator and drink it within a few days.

When water can no longer satisfy coffee lovers' desire for exploration, milk has become a new extraction medium. Is it actually feasible to use milk instead of water to brew coffee? The pour-over method is difficult to achieve due to milk's high saturation and limited heating temperature, but the cold brew immersion method offers new possibilities. This article will verify in detail the feasibility of milk cold brew coffee, starting from Front Street's practical experience, sharing coffee bean selection preferences, home brewing steps, and storage precautions. Choose medium-dark roast or medium roast coffee beans, pair with fresh milk and soak at low temperature for 12 hours, and you'll get a rich, creamy coffee with a chocolate milk flavor. Want to know how to do it specifically? Let's take a look.

Water can no longer satisfy coffee enthusiasts' curiosity about brewing coffee, so everyone has started trying all kinds of strange extraction mediums. Milk is one of the subjects that has been experimented with. So curious friends came to ask Front Street: What happens when you brew coffee with milk?

Can you brew coffee with milk?

If it's pour-over coffee, Front Street believes it's not feasible. There are two reasons: First, milk itself has relatively high saturation, so its extraction power is considerably weaker than water. Second, milk cannot be heated to too high a temperature. Generally, when milk is heated above 70 degrees, the protein will undergo changes. So using it to replace water for pour-over coffee is just for fun.

What if you use milk to soak coffee grounds to make cold brew milk coffee?

This might actually work. Unlike pour-over, cold brewing doesn't require excessively high temperatures, so the milk won't spoil. And unlike drip filtration, immersion works differently — milk has low extraction efficiency, but time can make up for it.

No time to waste, let's verify (play with) it right away. As for coffee bean selection preferences, Front Street would choose medium-dark roast coffee beans, because milk's flavor is relatively rich and full-bodied. Light roast coffee beans that we really enjoy with floral and fruity notes are easily overpowered by milk's flavor. So you can choose coffee beans with flavor descriptions like dark chocolate, caramel, and maple syrup to make milk-brewed coffee.

For example, Front Street. Front Street Classic Blend with chocolate and butter flavors; Front Street. Queen's Manor featuring creamy nutty aromas; Front Street. Golden Mandheling dominated by caramel, spice, dark cocoa, and toasted bread aromas.

If you don't like coffee with heavy bitterness and want more fruity notes, you can buy medium roast beans described with ripe tropical fruit, dried fruit, and fermented flavors, such as Front Street. Sidra highlighting passion fruit flavors; Front Street. Blackberry with raisin and pineapple notes are both suitable types.

Home method for making milk-brewed coffee

Front Street hopes the extracted milk coffee will be richer and more aromatic, so the milk chosen is Bright Fresh Pasture fresh milk with a relatively strong milky taste. The extraction ratio is smaller than the original cold brew ratio, approximately 1 part coffee grounds to 8 parts milk.

Front Street's specific procedure is as follows: first grind 25 grams of coffee beans to the size of fine granulated sugar, with a No. 20 sieve passing rate of 85% as the standard.

The freshly made milk coffee can actually be drunk directly, but you can also continue to seal and refrigerate it for 1 more hour, allowing the soluble components to better penetrate into the milk, giving the coffee a better taste.

Place the filter bag filled with coffee grounds into a bottle, then pour in 200ml of fresh milk. You can use a shaking motion or a tool to ensure the coffee grounds are fully saturated. Finally, cover with the lid, check the seal, and store in the refrigerator at low temperature. This step is also very important, because milk is a beverage that spoils very easily. If it's not tightly sealed or not stored at low temperature, it will spoil quickly.

Leave it in the refrigerator to soak at low temperature for 12 hours. Front Street does not recommend soaking too long, because there's still the concern about milk spoiling. If you want to improve the extraction effect, you can tumble the filter bag during soaking.

After soaking is complete, you can pull out the filter bag or simply pour out the milk coffee. By observing the color, it's similar to the color of an iced latte. It smells of nice sherry and lactose aromas. Take a sip, and a wave of chocolate milk flavor rushes into your mind. The overall strength is moderate.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.