starbucks barista forum
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Starbucks barista. Why don’t you foam milk correctly?
Only answer if you are a Starbucks barista or former Starbucks barrista or someone with this knowlege. Please don’t guess at the answers
This is not to bash any Starbucks barista. I’m just curious of the reason.
Starbucks baristas don’t foam their milk correctly. Even coffee experts on coffee forums say this. They say that it taste like card board.
To me, it looks like your foam bubbles are too large. When I go to a local espresso coffee house, their foam is perfect and made correctly.
Why don’t you foam milk correctly?
Steph, I appreciate your answer but I wan’t an answer, not a guess.
Also, the foam goes away too quickly at Starbucks so it’s more like a latte than a drink with foamed milk.
At the coffee shop that I go to, their foam is silky and lasts a while.
We are not STEAMING our milk incorrectly. Starbucks Baristas steam fresh milk for each drink or grouping of drinks, the steamed milk doesn’t sit there settling so foam does not condense and get thick. Which, unless you are drinking a dry cappuccino, is of no concern. It sounds like correctly steamed milk, in your opinion, should be all foamy? In actuality, a pitcher of correctly steamed milk (unless made specifically for a cappuccino, which would be comprised of half foam half milk) should be mostly steamed milk with 1/4-1/2 inch of foam on the top. Whenever I go to little coffee shops I watch them use old steamed milk, or re-steam (appalling!!) milk. That is why their milk may seem “perfect” to you…because it sits there and the foam condenses. But this is a disgusting practice, fresh milk should be freshly steamed for each drink.
Bubbles form when the steam wand is close to the surface of the milk (but this is the process in which to create foam, so it is necessary). When a barsita steams milk, they leave the tip of the steam wand 1/4 inch below the surface of the milk to create foam, then they plunge it to the bottom to heat the rest of the milk thoroughly. When the wand is only 1/4 inch below the surface, ofcourse bubbles are going to form, that is how the foam is made! If the bubbles appear too large that is due to the air pressure in the steam wand, not barista error.
You don’t sound like you even know how to steam milk correctly, especially seeing as you called it “foaming”, or what correctly steamed milk looks like. So how would you know or judge which coffee shops do it correctly and which do not? And, as far as I have ever noticed, all coffee shops steam milk the same way…the only difference is how long they let it sit around before putting it into your drink. I have never had a latte at Starbucks that tasted like “cardboard”. I am thinking these “coffee experts” are attacking Starbucks because it is a big corporation. There drinks do not taste like “cardboard” and they do not improperly steam their milk, which any unbiased coffee expert could tell you.
May I ask, what is your drink of choice?
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