Estimated studying time: 7 minutes
Key takeaways
- Baristas now deal with milk high quality as severely as espresso high quality.
- Mixing dairy with plant milks creates new textures and flavours.
- Competitors methods equivalent to milk mixing slowly filter into cafés.
- Grocery store dairy-plant blends go well with flexitarians and normalise the idea.
Specialty espresso has spent a long time refining each variable for extraction. Milk has traditionally obtained far much less scrutiny.
On competitors levels, nonetheless, baristas now deal with milk as a key ingredient, specializing in elements equivalent to temperature, sugar focus, and mouthfeel.
From this renewed consideration, mixing dairy with plant milks has emerged as a well-liked pattern, permitting baristas to create new textures, flavours, and experiences.
The observe has but to achieve many espresso retailers. However as curiosity within the flexitarian food regimen grows, plant-milk dairy blends are showing extra typically on grocery store cabinets
You may additionally like our article on whether or not it’s time to standardise milk drinks.
Espresso’s give attention to milk grows
The standard give attention to espresso high quality is the clearest path to a greater cup. But in milk-based drinks, which dominate most café gross sales, espresso is the minority ingredient.
Extra baristas are subsequently listening to the place their milk comes from, and to its protein and fats content material, which decide how properly it produces steady microfoam for high-quality latte artwork.
“I imagine the standard of milk is simply as necessary as the standard of the espresso itself,” says Jason Bathroom, the 2025 Malaysian Barista Champion and co-founder of Yellow Brick Street Café in Kuala Lumpur. “In a milk-based beverage, milk makes up nearly all of the cup, so it performs an enormous position within the last sensory expertise.”
Every part in milk does a selected job. “Protein offers texture and construction; it creates steady microfoam,” Jason explains. “Fats enhances physique and carries aroma, whereas lactose offers pure sweetness that balances the espresso.”
Completely different plant milks even have their very own variables. “Oat milk provides sweetness and a creamy texture, carrying refined malt-like flavour, whereas almond and coconut milk every contribute their very own distinct nutty flavour profiles,” Jason provides.
On the identical time, baristas need extra variables to experiment with, and milk has change into the brand new focus.
Competitions present this pattern most clearly. Freeze-distilled milk, as soon as a novelty, has change into customary observe amongst rivals. Now, a rising variety of World Barista Championship rivals are mixing dairy with plant milks, formulating “signature” milks that put a private stamp on their routines.
Milk blends: Higher than the sum of its components
Mixing is a pure evolution for the WBC, notably since plant milks have been permitted in 2023. However in comparison with dairy, most plant milks nonetheless underperform when steaming and pouring latte artwork, so combining them lifts efficiency. It additionally produces textures and flavours that particular person elements can’t provide alone, which rivals can match to particular coffees.
“I don’t see dairy and plant milks as rivals; they’re instruments with totally different strengths,” Jason says. “Dairy has a pure sweetness and full physique that’s very onerous to copy. Mixing permits you to take the construction and sweetness of dairy and add a flavour accent from the plant aspect.
“It isn’t important for everybody, however for a barista who desires extra management over the ultimate flavour, it opens up a variety of vary,” he provides. In his 2025 WBC routine, Jason blended seven components freeze-distilled dairy to a 30% discount, two components coconut milk, and one half oat milk.
Wanting extra broadly, shoppers seem like reaching the same conclusion.
Blended oat and dairy drinks have began showing on grocery store cabinets in nations just like the UK and the US. These merchandise provide a center floor that balances style, diet, and sustainability with out asking shoppers to surrender dairy fully, a proposition that fits the rising variety of flexitarians – individuals who eat a principally vegetarian food regimen however sometimes devour meat or dairy merchandise.
Dairy can be staging a comeback as extra shoppers pivot in the direction of entire meals for well being causes.
“In the end, there isn’t one milk that’s finest for each espresso,” Jason says. “My objective is all the time to decide on a milk that enhances the espresso’s flavour profile quite than overpowering it. Simply as we fastidiously choose origin and roast profile, we must always give the identical consideration to exploit, as a result of each substances work collectively to create a balanced cup.”
Why milk mixing will keep in competitions
Strategies that succeed on competitors levels are likely to unfold, and Jason expects milk mixing to comply with the identical path as freeze distillation and change into customary competitors observe.
“I feel it’s right here to remain, however it should evolve,” he says. “Competitions are the place these concepts get stress-tested first, and the robust ones filter down. We’ve seen that occur time and again with methods and recipes.”
Whether or not it reaches most espresso retailers is much less sure. Making ready customized plant milk and daru blends takes time that the majority cafés don’t have, and with out room to experiment, the outcomes are unlikely to justify the hassle.
Jason believes cafés could make it work, however solely with a special mindset. “On the competitors stage we’re chasing one very particular, optimised profile with limitless prep time. In a café, the priorities are consistency and pace. So a mix solely earns its place if it solves an actual drawback; say you need the creaminess of dairy however a decrease sweetness, or a nutty word from a plant milk.”
He’s optimistic about demand. “As clients get extra interested by what’s of their cup and extra open to customisation, considerate blends will change into an even bigger a part of specialty menus quite than a contest novelty.”
For baristas able to experiment, Jason presents sensible recommendation: “Begin easy and style consistently. Take one dairy and one plant milk you already know properly, and alter the ratio in small steps; you’ll be stunned how a lot a small shift modifications texture and sweetness.
“Pay shut consideration to how every mix steams, as a result of dairy and plant milks behave very in a different way below the steam wand, and the ratio impacts foam stability.”
Freeze distillation went from some extent of differentiation to prerequisite inside a number of competitors cycles.
Milk mixing seems to be set to repeat that journey, and as grocery store blends normalise the idea for shoppers, the hole between the stage and the café will preserve narrowing.
Want extra leads on your espresso enterprise? Get in contact with PDG Media, our advertising and marketing company devoted to specialty espresso, right here.
Mixing milk FAQs
Why are baristas mixing dairy and plant milks?
Plant milks typically underperform dairy when steaming, so mixing improves texture and microfoam stability. It additionally creates flavours neither ingredient presents alone, letting baristas match a mix to a selected espresso’s profile.
Will milk mixing change into frequent in espresso retailers?
It’s changing into customary in competitions, however café adoption faces limitations. Making ready customized blends takes time, they usually should be constant and repeatable.
How ought to baristas begin experimenting with milk blends?
Begin with one dairy and one plant milk, then alter the ratio in small steps whereas tasting consistently. Take note of how every milk steams individually and collectively.
Picture credit: Jason Bathroom, Specialty Espresso Affiliation
Excellent Day by day Grind
Need to learn extra articles like this? Join our e-newsletter!
