What Sugar Goes in Coffee and Does Milk Choice Matter?

Milk has a decisive effect on cappuccino, yet it often gets less attention than the espresso shot. Many milks used in cafes are modified milk, made by blending other ingredients into milk, and they tend to taste thin and separate from the coffee. Pure milk with a short shelf life, such as Vip, is unadjusted and foams with a rounder texture.

In a side-by-side test, the pure milk produced foam with a finer texture and a sweeter, more integrated flavor next to the espresso, while the modified milks left the two components apart. Sugar is a separate question: if a sweetener is wanted, plain white sugar dissolves cleanly, and words to describe coffee taste such as sweet, nutty, and creamy help compare results.

When making cappuccino, most people only care about the espresso extraction but overlook the decisive influence of milk on flavor. The Nestlé, Baxi, Mengniu, Yili, and others commonly used in domestic coffee shops actually belong to the category of modified milk, with a thin taste and insufficient milk aroma, and they easily become disconnected when paired with espresso. WBC contestants often bring their own milk to improve quality. Front Street Coffee noticed that Vip pure milk produced by Asahi Green Source, with a shelf life of only half a month, is truly unadjusted pure milk. Through actual testing, this article uses Vip milk to make cappuccino, compares its performance with other milks from aspects such as milk foam texture, sweetness, and integration with coffee, and gives advice on whether it is worth switching for shop owners, while also covering practical information such as cost and purchasing channels.

When making cappuccino, the vast majority of people put their effort into espresso extraction; as for what milk to choose to make the flavor more complete, probably very few people in China seriously think about it. This is not surprising—the current situation of China's dairy industry is what it is, and it is already lucky if nothing goes wrong, so how could one ask for too much. At present, the milk commonly used in coffee shops is none other than Nestlé, Baxi, Mengniu, Yili, and Bright coffee modified milk. Strictly speaking, none of them count as pure milk; they belong to modified milk—made by mixing various other ingredients into milk, and as for what is mixed in, it is really hard to guess. Although this kind of modified milk can handle cappuccino production, its mouthfeel is thin and its milky taste is weak, and when paired with espresso the flavors often go their separate ways. For this reason, many contestants in WBC competitions personally select and blend the milk used in competition in order to achieve a better cappuccino performance. In addition, long-term consumption of modified milk may also have potential health effects (I hope the manufacturers won’t come after Old Xu because of this sentence, haha).

A few days ago I heard that Old Xu’s shop was using a milk with a quite good taste but a shelf life of only half a month. When I was shopping in the supermarket, I deliberately paid attention and indeed found it: Vip pure milk produced by Asahi Green Source (note, this really is genuine pure milk). Today I tried making a few cups of cappuccino, and the result was excellent, so I am writing this especially for reference by those who run shops.

Information about the producer of Vip milk: Asahi Green Source Vip pure milk

Judging from the introduction, the quality and taste of Vip milk should be good, but talk alone is useless; it only counts if you try it yourself.

The test used a 500ml pack of Vip pure milk bought from the supermarket, with a production date of September 15, 2011, priced at 12.6 yuan (more than double the price of ordinary milk).

See the packaging in the picture below:

The production date and shelf life are printed prominently at the top of the front of the package, and the words "unadjusted ingredients" are marked on several sides, showing that Vip focuses its promotion on the currently popular selling point of "all natural." From the ingredient list, the protein and fat contents are close to those of other modified milks, at 5% and 6% respectively. For additive-free pure milk, reaching 5% protein is already quite good.

The coffee beans used for the test were provided by "Qingdao Maison Roasting" and are an espresso blend, also roasted on September 15, 2011. This bean blend is mainly Colombian coffee, with another 5 kinds of coffee from different origins added: slightly acidic, creamy, with prominent nutty notes, rich layers, and good sweetness, suitable for milk coffee:

Production equipment: Mazzer Major grinder, Rancilio Epoca espresso machine (pump pressure 7.4 bar, water temperature about 90 degrees)

With sufficient flushing in the early stage (I personally prefer a lower water temperature, so that the extracted coffee has clearer layers), fine grinding and light tamping (tamping pressure about 8 kg), extract about 22 ml in 21 seconds (the extraction amount depends on the specific situation; it does not have to be extracted to 30 ml, and everything should be based on the best taste).

For steaming milk, use a MOTTA 350ml milk pitcher; the milk expansion rate is about 40%, and the milk foam finishing temperature is about 65 degrees. The coffee cup is a 180ml standard cappuccino cup, and I casually poured a heart, but no matter how I looked at it, it did not really look like one, hahaha.

After the coffee was made, I first tasted the milk left in the milk pitcher. The milk aroma was rich and the foam was fine (like stuffing a big marshmallow into your mouth), and after swallowing there was still a hint of clear sweetness left in the mouth. My apprentice Shaojun said it was very much like the kind of fresh milk in glass bottles drunk in childhood. The taste is indeed first-rate!

Then I tried the coffee. The aroma of the milk and the aroma of the coffee blended very well, smelling a bit like Cola Cao. After entering the mouth, the texture of the milk and the texture of the coffee intermingled, giving a strong sense of dimension (this is just a description; it does not matter if readers cannot understand it). Compared with the thin, watery texture with a milky gamey smell when making coffee with other milks, it is really much better. The mid-palate had strong nutty notes, plus a strong sweetness in the finish (referring to the sweetness, Old Xu does not add sugar to coffee). It is indeed better than any milk coffee I have drunk before (I cannot describe it anymore, I can only say it is good, hehe).

Finally, the conclusion: if you are a coffee shop owner pursuing the ultimate taste, I suggest switching to Vip milk. This milk is indeed the highest-quality milk currently available in China. Although the price is higher (for a 180ml cup, the cost per cup of coffee increases by about 2 yuan), it can raise the quality of your cappuccino by a level, and paying this little extra cost is worth it.

In addition, Vip milk is currently sold in China only in a few cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao. If friends in other regions want to use it, they will have to contact the manufacturer directly.

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