My friend and I pictured here were playing a little April Fools joke, but really I enjoy a lot of coffee-milk drinks. And, the importance of milk to the coffee industry is no joke. Other than chocolate I can think of no other milk and… combination that plays better with consumers. As we considered various international classes for this year’s CoffeeCon consumer coffee festival it amazed me how many presume milk as a necessary ingredient. This might seem like a no-brainer to us who also take refrigeration for granted, but I can’t imagine that ready access to milk is something that’s always been easy. I simply think milk adds a natural taste counterbalance. It’s also true with wine, as cheese has been called “the winemaker’s friend”.
In my video “Coffee Brewing Secrets” famed author Kenneth Davids stated that although as a connoisseur he eschews sugar as an unnecessary addition to any coffee drink, he thinks milk is a natural and reasonable coffee partner. Can you imagine a coffee bar in Italy minus textured milk? How about a Paris Café without café au lait?
In coffee’s Third Wave, as much as I enjoy the emphasis on brewing perfection using maximum acidity leading-edge of Sushi light roasting and pourover methods on equal par with espresso I confess wincing at the suggestion that adding milk or cream disfigures the perfect cup. Some years ago I had the honor of cupping (professionally tasting) coffee at one of the longstanding coffee trading firms in Amsterdam. I realized I was at table with a half-dozen of the world’s more respected coffee cuppers. The cupping was of course done sans anything for purposes of analysis. But, when we took a break I noticed that these, the world’s top assemblage of coffee taste experts, were passing around a small milk pitcher and adding copious amounts of cream to their coffee for their pleasure.
I like to think that every cup of coffee I consume is for pleasure, so when I want that ultra rich cup I don’t hold back on adding cream, milk or whatever to make my own liquid coffee bliss. Remember when you’re at CoffeeCon, feel free to enjoy your coffee with milk if you wish. Your coffee is your own and that’s no joke.
Tell ’em Daisy sent you.