What Dirty Coffee Milk Ratio Works With Concentrated Milk?

Concentrated milk, often called ice bock, can be substituted one-for-one in a dirty latte, so a typical 1:1 milk-to-espresso ratio still applies. The freeze-distilled milk is thicker and sweeter because water is removed, which means the same volume carries more fat, protein and lactose. Pour it cold over the shot and the layers hold.

For blended drinks such as a latte, flat white or cappuccino, reduce the milk slightly or the richer texture masks the coffee. Make ice bock at home by freezing a bottle of fresh milk solid, then thawing it and keeping the first run-off. Knowing how to drink dirty latte is easier once the milk ratio is fixed.

Front Street Coffee has recently been sharing a lot about ice bock (concentrated milk), and many friends are curious about how it differs from regular fresh milk when used in milk coffee. Simply put, concentrated milk has a richer flavor and a thicker mouthfeel. Without tasting it yourself, it's hard to imagine the texture, so why not make a cup and experience it firsthand. Besides buying it online, you can also make ice bock at home with just two steps: freezing and thawing. In this article, Front Street Coffee will break down the principles of freeze concentration, the key operational points, and explain the ratio strategies for making Dirty and other milk coffees (such as latte, flat white, and cappuccino) with concentrated milk—Dirty can be directly substituted in equal amounts, while blended milk coffees require adjusting the milk quantity to avoid masking the coffee flavor. We also retain recommendations for Front Street Classic Blend, Queen's Estate SOE, and other products.

Recently, Front Street Coffee has frequently discussed ice bock, also known as concentrated milk, so many friends want to know: what exactly is the difference between milk coffee made with this kind of milk and that made with regular fresh milk? In short, concentrated milk has a stronger milky flavor and a richer overall texture.

But mere description probably won't let those who haven't tried it recreate its true tactile feel in their minds. So why not make a cup of concentrated milk coffee yourself and personally experience the difference in flavor and mouthfeel.

Besides buying ice bock online, you can actually easily make it at home. The steps are extremely simple—just two actions to get high-concentration milk. Below, Front Street Coffee will first teach everyone how to make concentrated milk.

Making Ice Bock

As Front Street Coffee just said, the method is super! simple! Just two steps: first, put a bottle of fresh milk in the freezer until frozen solid.

Second, take out the milk and let it thaw naturally. Done.

Why is it so simple? Everyone knows that ice bock is essentially milk with less water and a higher proportion and concentration of protein, lactose, fat, and other components. To get this high-concentration milk, you need to remove some water. Freezing and then thawing happens to achieve this.

Because pure water freezes at 0°C, while substances in milk other than water have freezing points lower than water, during freezing, water freezes first, while protein, fat, etc. remain liquid until the temperature continues to drop and they gradually solidify. During thawing, because these substances have lower freezing points, they melt before the ice.

In other words, the non-water components in milk thaw first. As long as we separate them before the water fully melts, we can remove some water and complete the concentration. This is the "freeze concentration method" using the difference in freezing points of different substances, and many other liquids can also be concentrated using the same idea.

So to what extent should it be thawed? There is actually no hard standard; it all depends on the concentration you want. The more liquid thawed out, the lower the final concentration. Front Street Coffee usually thaws to about one-third of the original volume, for example, 900ml of milk thawed to 300ml, giving a concentration about 50% higher than the original. (Different freezing and thawing methods will lead to variations in concentration; this is only a rough reference.)

This concentration tastes just right, with the milk's aroma and mouthfeel significantly improved, without an obvious salty taste. When using it to make milk coffee, the parameters hardly need major changes, and the taste is not likely to become cloying.

(Left is regular fresh milk, right is concentrated fresh milk)

Once you have the concentrated milk, you can start making concentrated milk coffee. Among all milk coffees, Dirty is the easiest to make. As Front Street Coffee has always introduced, Dirty's characteristic is that the milk and coffee remain layered and do not blend, so the milk's flavor and texture do not overly interfere with the coffee. Therefore, when making Dirty with concentrated milk, you can directly substitute it in equal amounts.

Making Dirty with Ice Bock

For example, the original ratio Front Street Coffee used for Dirty was 1:4, 40ml espresso with 160ml fresh milk. When switching to ice bock, you can also use 1:4, that is, 40ml espresso plus 160ml ice bock.

To make ice bock Dirty, prioritize medium-dark roasted blend beans or SOE single-origin beans. They have a fuller caramel aroma and a rich, heavy character, which can form a sharp contrast with the sweet milk and leave a long-lasting aftertaste. For stability and value, you can choose Front Street Classic Blend and Front Street Dark Cocoa Base Blend, which are rich in crema and have a strong aroma of butter and roasted chestnuts;

If you prefer the unique aroma of single-origin beans, we recommend Front Street Queen's Estate SOE and Front Street Sumatra · Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling SOE. The extracted espresso has a strong caramel and chocolate tone, creating a clearer contrast with the concentrated milk;

If you want a smaller contrast and a fresher coffee flavor, you can choose medium or medium-light roasted beans, such as Front Street Strawberry Candy Espresso and Front Street Huakui SOE, which are specifically roasted for espresso in Front Street Coffee's bean list. Both can extract a fruity, rich espresso, and making Dirty with concentrated milk gives a unique flavor.

If using concentrated milk to make other milk coffees...

But if you want to use concentrated milk to make milk coffees other than Dirty, such as latte, flat white, and cappuccino, you need to pay attention to adjusting the ratio. Why? Because these milk coffees require full blending of milk and coffee, and concentrated milk itself tastes much stronger than fresh milk. If you use the same ratio, the milk flavor can easily overpower the coffee.

Take Front Street Coffee as an example. When using Front Street Classic Blend to make a latte, the ratio is 1:5, 40ml espresso (20g grounds extracted to 40ml coffee liquid in 30 seconds), 200ml fresh milk. The resulting latte is rich and fragrant, with coffee and milk balanced and the flavor prominent;

But once you switch to concentrated milk and still use the original ratio, the latte becomes milk-dominant with coffee as a supporting note, the flavor expression is slightly weaker, and it easily becomes cloying because the milk flavor is too strong and the mouthfeel too thick.

To avoid this, you need to adjust the ratio. According to Front Street Coffee's tests, reducing the milk amount by 20ml from the original is most appropriate, that is, using a 1:4.5 ratio.

Using 40ml Front Street Classic Blend espresso as the base, then steaming 180ml milk for blending, you finally get a delicious super-concentrated latte. Compared with before, the coffee flavor is no longer masked, and the concentrated milk instead brings a richer mouthfeel and more prominent milky aroma. The effect is excellent.

Of course, you can also choose to increase the coffee concentration, such as increasing the dose but extracting the same liquid weight. But doing so not only makes the overall taste stronger and the drinking burden heavier, making it easier to become cloying, but also makes parameter adjustment more troublesome and the cost higher.

Therefore, when using concentrated milk to make milk coffee, it is best to adjust the ratio of coffee to milk, especially by adjusting the milk side. Whether it is latte, flat white, or cappuccino, this applies to all milk coffees that require milk and coffee to blend.

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