Estimated studying time: 7 minutes
Key takeaways
- Baristas now deal with milk high quality as critically as espresso high quality.
- Mixing dairy with plant milks creates new textures and flavours.
- Competitors strategies akin 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 acquired far much less scrutiny.
On competitors phases, nevertheless, baristas now deal with milk as a key ingredient, specializing in components akin to temperature, sugar focus, and mouthfeel.
From this renewed consideration, mixing dairy with plant milks has emerged as a well-liked development, permitting baristas to create new textures, flavours, and experiences.
The apply has but to achieve many espresso retailers. However as curiosity within the flexitarian weight loss program 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 deal with milk grows
The same old deal with 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 due to this fact listening to the place their milk comes from, and to its protein and fats content material, which decide how effectively it produces steady microfoam for high-quality latte artwork.
“I imagine the standard of milk is simply as vital as the standard of the espresso itself,” says Jason Lavatory, 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 function within the closing sensory expertise.”
Every element in milk does a particular job. “Protein supplies texture and construction; it creates steady microfoam,” Jason explains. “Fats enhances physique and carries aroma, whereas lactose supplies 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 grow to be the brand new focus.
Competitions present this development most clearly. Freeze-distilled milk, as soon as a novelty, has grow to be commonplace apply amongst opponents. Now, a rising variety of World Barista Championship opponents 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, significantly since plant milks had 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 supply alone, which opponents can match to particular coffees.
“I don’t see dairy and plant milks as opponents; they’re instruments with completely different strengths,” Jason says. “Dairy has a pure sweetness and full physique that’s very exhausting to copy. Mixing enables you to take the construction and sweetness of dairy and add a flavour accent from the plant facet.
“It isn’t important for everybody, however for a barista who needs extra management over the ultimate flavour, it opens up loads of vary,” he provides. In his 2025 WBC routine, Jason combined seven components freeze-distilled dairy to a 30% discount, two components coconut milk, and one half oat milk.
Trying extra broadly, customers look 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 supply a center floor that balances style, vitamin, and sustainability with out asking customers to surrender dairy totally, a proposition that fits the rising variety of flexitarians – individuals who eat a largely vegetarian weight loss program however sometimes devour meat or dairy merchandise.
Dairy can also be staging a comeback as extra customers pivot in 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 reasonably than overpowering it. Simply as we rigorously choose origin and roast profile, we must always give the identical consideration to take advantage of, as a result of each elements work collectively to create a balanced cup.”
Why milk mixing will keep in competitions
Strategies that succeed on competitors phases are likely to unfold, and Jason expects milk mixing to comply with the identical path as freeze distillation and grow to be commonplace competitors apply.
“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 strategies and recipes.”
Whether or not it reaches most espresso retailers is much less sure. Getting 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 unique 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 prospects get extra interested by what’s of their cup and extra open to customisation, considerate blends will grow to be an even bigger a part of specialty menus reasonably than a contest novelty.”
For baristas able to experiment, Jason gives sensible recommendation: “Begin easy and style continually. Take one dairy and one plant milk you already know effectively, 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 otherwise beneath the steam wand, and the ratio impacts foam stability.”
Freeze distillation went from a degree of differentiation to prerequisite inside a couple of competitors cycles.
Milk mixing seems to be set to repeat that journey, and as grocery store blends normalise the idea for customers, the hole between the stage and the café will maintain 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 gives alone, letting baristas match a mix to a particular espresso’s profile.
Will milk mixing grow to be frequent in espresso retailers?
It’s turning into commonplace in competitions, however café adoption faces limitations. Getting ready customized blends takes time, and so they 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 continually. Take note of how every milk steams individually and collectively.
Photograph credit: Jason Lavatory, Specialty Espresso Affiliation
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