Make A Rich And Foamy Flat White With Your Nespresso Milk Frother

Every now and then, you want to skip the foam and get straight into sipping your latte — and that's the perfect time to make a flat white. Flat whites are made with a ristretto espresso and steamed milk, giving them a slightly stronger flavor; the milk is steamed using a mico-foaming technique that keeps the milk from forming a thick layer of top froth. But, there is a way to recreate it with your Nespresso Aeroccino milk frother. 

To start, insert your coffee capsule into your Nespresso machine and press the ristretto button. If yours doesn't have one, you can play around with personalizing the brew on your espresso machine, just try to aim for between 25 and 40 mLs. Then, before pouring your preferred milk into your frother, look inside and find the whisk that's magnetically attached to the bottom and remove the metal coil from it. You can store the coil on the underside of the lid and place the whisk without the coil back onto the bottom of the jug. From there, pour your milk and froth it just like you usually would.

One tip is to fill your milk jug up to the highest line to further avoid forming froth. Also, with flat whites, you want to pour your milk over your espresso sooner rather than later, so as not to give time for the milk to separate, which would, essentially, defeat the purpose of swapping the whisks in the first place.

Depending on the Nespresso machine you own, you will have a few different milk settings to choose from. Most have the option to make a cold foam, which will froth and foam your milk without heating it up — making it the ideal option for iced coffee drinks that last. You won't really ever need to do anything to adjust the texture of a cold foam, because if you wanted something like an iced flat white you'd just pour in the milk as it is. Where you do get room to experiment, however, is in the hot milk foam options.

Most Nespresso milk frothers will come with multiple hot foam settings, such as latte, cappuccino, and macchiato. The difference between the milks for each is only slight, creating more or less froth for your drink. Taking out the coil on your whisk to make any of these wouldn't serve you well, as it will only inhibit the machine's ability to create the froth that makes these drinks what they are. The type of milk you use, on the other hand, can make a difference.

Nespresso recommends using cold cow's milk to get the best results. Other milk varieties like non-fat and plant-based milk alternatives will provide mixed results. It won't matter so much in iced drinks, but if you want the best foam without the dairy, your best bet will be a barista-style oat milk.