How to Steam Milk with Espresso Machine | Perfect Coffee

My name is Mike Jones, and I'm a barista at Third Rail Coffee right by Washington Square Park in New York City. I'm going to teach you some basic coffee-making skills.

Alright, I'm going to show you how to steam milk with an espresso machine. The wonderful thing about espresso is that besides just a straight shot and an Americano, there's a multitude of milk drinks you can make. But first you have to know how to steam it right, which is a little bit tricky. So this is the steam wand, and this turns it on. Some machines will have a button that you push, or a level that you pull, this one is a knob that rotates. You want to start out with high quality whole milk that's cold as well as a pitcher that's also cold. So we have that in there. Now there's a few motions that you're going to want to go through when doing this. The first is to submerge the tip of the steam wand just below the surface of the milk. Start off with the pitcher straight up, and then angle it, this way when you turn it on you'll create a whirlpool. The first thing you do when you turn it on is let a little bit of air in, but you only want to do this for a few seconds, otherwise you'll end up scorching the milk. Once you've let the air in, you sink the tip of the wand in and just let it whirlpool until it gets to the correct temperature. So now I'm going to steam this and show you how it should look. The first thing you always want to do is purge. There can be buildup of milk or water in the tip and you don't want that going into the milk. Alright, so again, I'm just going to let some air in. It's going to make a slight hissing sound, and then I'm going to make a whirlpool. Then again, always purge afterwards to get that milk out of there. So once you've steamed it, you can give it a couple knocks. You'll see that there's just a few bubbles in there. And then swirl it around to incorporate all that foam you just made. You'll see it's nice and glossy. This is called micro foam. If you see too many spidery bubbles, that means that you've either let too much air in, or not enough. Alright, that's perfect. And that's how you steam milk.

[shwanelkenani]

*We just retired a 10 year old Keurig, similar to the new one **MyBest.Kitchen** the old one had a LCD display, but this new one seems like it is a little better as far as features. Turn it on, load it up, press the button and wait for the cup to fill. Much quieter than the old one. The amount*

[beauxcottle]

purge without covering the wand. Wipe then purge. tip from an espresso machine mechanic. When covering while purging not all the milk comes out and gets trapped inside.

[Positivevibesonly-]

its so cool to watch your videos, im a barista at starbucks in south america im going to be a trainer now and never even thought in my life id be so involved with coffee lol but here i am, love to see your method...great vids

[dictionaryofwords]

It'd be nice if we saw a close up of the foam

[JoeNguyenx]

REmember watching this vid 2 years ago now I'm a barista :)

[AftershockPS]

I’m watch this guy for learning, and now I can make latte art :D heart

[j.bproductions]

I've learned it at the Grind's Coffee Shop to show them how to steam the milk for every latte that you've and they enjoyed the most!

[Testing-kxvs]

Good, but there are gaps in the instructions. How much milk is in the pitcher? How long (in seconds are you doing each phase). Technical directions need to be explicit in even obvious areas.

[Dirkdigglerdan]

Mike Jones!  WHAT?  Mike Jones!  WHAT?  Mike Jones!

[jreden]

you're instruction is well thought out. perhaps it would be a bit better if we could see the milk in thanks

[merdj]

ok thank you for the video, was helpful but i have a question.the steamer on your machine is very powerful comparing to the one i have at home(brevile barista), so how long or to what temperature do i have to steam it?

[ChillGamingUK]

He can make my coffee any day if he wants lol.

[Lady.B]

Do you have a video on foaming the milk for lattes and cappuccinos?

[moundhir]

when i steam the milk with my home espresso machine, there is only bubbles coming out the milk double size but its not thick as the video, i want it to be thick so how can i do that, is there any trick ?

[ZoeMarcus]

this is so hard for me i keep hearing the sound and by the time i place it correctly milk boils and goes everywhere

[airena]

Bro just got a job at a caffé and noone brothers to explain me that shit, just judge me and remake it, glad I found someone to explain it ffs

[Olga_in_IAH]

on this kind of espresso machine, how do you know what is the current temperature of the steaming milk?

[huntingrounds]

I don't know why this is the first video that comes up, they are not showing the actual steaming process. The guy is knowledgeable but still, it would be god to see what is happening

[abcpl]

I have a silvia and when I try to steam skimmed milk the milk whirlpools and comes and out and everything's a mess. What am I doing wrong. The Tetra pack full fat milk does work okay though

[ACJWJ]

So the tip of my machine's wand is one of those old-fashioned teflon cylinders with two tiny circles opposite each other, halfway. Should I employ the exact same method we learn in this video? i.e. Start by placing the tip of the wand on the surface of the milk and gradually go deeper? One mechanic said that with those old-fashioned wand tips, we should do the exact opposite. All suggestions welcome. Thanks!