<p>It's not that <em>just heated</em> milk is wrong or tastes bad.
It's only that there are some (popular) coffee drinks that uses <strong>steamed</strong> or <strong>frothed</strong> milk (are not the same, read <a href="http://www.gaggia-usa.com/skills/steaming-vs-frothing/nav/60" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a>) by traditional way.</p>

<p>On those popular drinks you can find the cappuccino, latte, etc... (as you can see on this <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/PaN3b.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">infographic</a>), but at home you always can add regular hot milk to your coffee (but we all agree that it isn't feel and taste like the regular way).</p>

<p>Last, why are those techniques important for a coffee? I think that gives a different flavour and tasting to the drink, due to its consistency (and of course, that let you to do some pretty nice latte art)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-08T23:32:44.833Z
2015-07-08T23:32:44.833Z
Omar Miranda
<p>When heating milk with steam, aerating the milk (the process of drawing in air which creates foam) is essential to allow the milk to heat gently, without scalding. If you're using some other heating process, you'll have to take care of preventing scalding in some (other) way.</p>

<p>An extra benefit of foam &mdash; particularly <em>microfoam</em> where the bubbles are too small to see &mdash; is that it changes the surface tension of the liquid beverage, potentially allowing more taste-buds to come into surface contact. So you get <em>more flavor</em> bio-chemically. As (good) baristas know, tiny bubbles taste better than big ol' <em>soap bubbles</em>. This theory explains why.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-22T03:25:26.000Z
2015-07-22T03:25:26.000Z
luser droog
<p>Nearly every coffee machine has the milk go through this device which not only heats it up but causes it to froth up.</p>

<p>Why is this important for a coffee? What's wrong with just heated milk?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-05T13:50:36.827Z
It's an important component of the "mouth-feel" of coffee. It's why coffee from an Aeropress tastes different from say something brewed using an espresso machine.
seeker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-09T13:00:38.223Z
Have you ever tried a cappuccino with frothed milk and one with only heated milk side by side?
technical_difficulty
<milk>
Why must the milk be frothed?
Aequitas
# Why must the milk be frothed?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-07-08)

Nearly every coffee machine has the milk go through this device which not only heats it up but causes it to froth up.

Why is this important for a coffee? What's wrong with just heated milk?

**Tags:** milk

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It's an important component of the "mouth-feel" of coffee. It's why coffee from an Aeropress tastes different from say something brewed using an espresso machine.  
> **username_2**: Have you ever tried a cappuccino with frothed milk and one with only heated milk side by side?  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2015-07-22. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

When heating milk with steam, aerating the milk (the process of drawing in air which creates foam) is essential to allow the milk to heat gently, without scalding. If you're using some other heating process, you'll have to take care of preventing scalding in some (other) way.

An extra benefit of foam — particularly *microfoam* where the bubbles are too small to see — is that it changes the surface tension of the liquid beverage, potentially allowing more taste-buds to come into surface contact. So you get *more flavor* bio-chemically. As (good) baristas know, tiny bubbles taste better than big ol' *soap bubbles*. This theory explains why.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2015-07-08. Score: 5

It's not that *just heated* milk is wrong or tastes bad.
It's only that there are some (popular) coffee drinks that uses **steamed** or **frothed** milk (are not the same, read [this](http://www.gaggia-usa.com/skills/steaming-vs-frothing/nav/60)) by traditional way.

On those popular drinks you can find the cappuccino, latte, etc... (as you can see on this [infographic](https://i.sstatic.net/PaN3b.jpg)), but at home you always can add regular hot milk to your coffee (but we all agree that it isn't feel and taste like the regular way).

Last, why are those techniques important for a coffee? I think that gives a different flavour and tasting to the drink, due to its consistency (and of course, that let you to do some pretty nice latte art)


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