How To Clean Your Nespresso Aeroccino For Consistently Frothy Results

While a cup of black coffee may be enough to carry you through the morning drudgery, learning to use a milk frother can easily transform a dull routine into a daily luxury. Nespresso's Aeroccino is one of the best milk frothers on the market, but having nice things means you have to take care of them if you want them to last. The good news is that cleaning the Aeroccino is really easy, the slightly less good news is that it needs to be cleaned after every use to avoid coating the interior with burnt milk. There is an efficient way to clean burnt milk off your milk frother but it's not something you should rely on if you want the appliance to last.

There is more than one Aeroccino model on the market, so you'll want to be 100% certain which model you are attempting to clean because most of them are not dishwasher safe. Only the latest model, the Aeroccino 4, can be cleaned in the dishwasher. Previous models are not even entirely waterproof so be careful that you aren't submerging them in water or running the sink over the exterior as you could damage the electrical components on the bottom. Now that we have those disclaimers out of the way, we can dive into the actual cleaning process.

The official cleaning instructions from Nespresso are simple and easy to follow but could be more effective. We'll run through it before explaining what adjustments we recommend. You'll first want to make sure the machine is off. Ideally, you'll have let it cool down so you aren't shocking the protective coating with a sudden temperature change.

Remove the Aeroccino from the base and detach the lid and whisk. The lid has a seal which you should remove as well before rinsing the lid, whisk, and seal under water. Next, get a non-abrasive sponge and soak it with cold water. Use the soaked sponge to wipe any milk foam that has built up inside the Aeroccino. Now dry everything off with a towel and reassemble. This is supposed to be enough to set you on your way to creating thick, dreamy foam with your milk frother, but like we said, we have our doubts.

As you may have noticed, Nespresso doesn't recommend using soap to clean anything which is surprising since the leftover milk foam often clings to the surface quite tightly without it. It's a simple fix — just squeeze a bit of dish soap into the Aeroccino before wiping it down with the sponge and rinsing it out. Again, for earlier models, make sure you aren't getting water onto the exterior. Another trick would be to load the soapy water into the machine and turn it on.