Short Cafe Lattes. Caccionis. drowned hot wet Flat white.
Two of those six drinks are fake, but that shouldn’t stop you from ordering one and expecting the barista to give you a polite nod and a few whippings to avoid falling behind schedule. Cafes in tourist areas of Italy began adding milk to coffee more than three centuries ago, and simple lattes and cappuccinos have been the most popular American coffee shops since the late 80s. Yet the obsession with tinkering and renaming subtle variations on this winning formula scans as a very third-wave development that feels less like innovation and more like annoying “riffing” for riffing’s sake. It happens.
The market for electric milk jugs is booming. A mechanical pitcher that automatically heats and froths milk isn’t a new concept, but a recent spate of boutique options that claim to create the type of microfoam needed to lather with little effort. Can is an interesting development. To borrow an aphorism my local barista grunts daily while pouring a flawless roséta without batting an eye, “Big if it’s true!”
Over the course of a month, I tested eight milk frothers to see if any one of them could turn a cup of whole milk into the silky-smooth microfoam that sparkles under ceiling lights before hitting the counter, and Pour it over a shot of espresso. It turned out to be an almost impossible task, but a few pleasant surprises gave me hope that one day dairy milk might become an indispensable part of the coffee kit in my home. Nouveau riche cortado fanatics won’t find much to like on this list, but Gen Xers who relished the days of second-wave casual shops serving frothy cappuccinos in soup bowls while an Ani DiFranco clone hunkered down in the corner. Salim sings poetry. Almost every item here is fully stocked. Busy moms with cocoa-slurping kids will also find a worthy addition to their Christmas list, bar none!
To further refine your home espresso artistry, check out our guides to the best espresso machines, the best latte and cappuccino machines, the best coffee grinders, and the best nut milk makers.
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With each unit I used 8 ounces of organic whole milk that had been taken from the refrigerator at 45 degrees Fahrenheit. I haven’t tested any non-dairy milks because the fat and sugar content, viscosity and availability of each vary wildly. Also, by the time this is published we’ll probably be done with the hip replacement milk of the hour, rendering my extensive testing with bird-safe macadamia milk useless.
I followed the instructions or quick start guides that came out after shaking the box, and aimed for “wet foam” or “chapette white” if the instructions clearly pointed to that result. I offer I swirled the milk in a frothing pitcher to get a better sense of the foam’s texture, cleaned it up in a Brewista Precision Frothing Pitcher, and tried pouring an 8-ounce cappuccino with latte art. I did this three times with each and noted its average frothing cycle time, the final temperature of the milk, and the consistency and texture of the frothed milk.
