So this is sold as a cafetiere, not as a milk frother, but it shares most of the features of the Bodum milk frother, including the fact that it's short enough to fit in a microwave with the plunger removed and that without the plunger it's microwave safe. As I mentioned earlier, you can make microfoam stiffer simply by stretching (injecting air) for longer, so what most cafe's will serve these days for cappuccino vs flat white, isn't the old school cappuccino foam, but is instead a stiffer, more dense microfoam. These kinds of milk frothers are a step up from the manual version above in terms of convenience. They aerate the milk in a very similar fashion, to a similar degree, but they heat the milk at the same time, saving you the additional step of heating the milk. If you're undecided about purchasing a milk frother, there is another way to achieve frothy cappuccino milk using a cafetiere. We tested it out. Most milk frothers only do one thing – froth milk – but that doesn’t mean we can’t put them through their paces. With single button frothers, what we look for is consistency. We test each frother multiple times using 200ml of cow’s milk and oat milk straight from the fridge. As plant-based milks tend to froth a little differently to dairy milk, we don’t expect our frothers to achieve identical results with each milk. Instead, we’re looking for consistency between each batch. A good frother will give you a relatively consistent texture and level of foam every time you use it.

Now to get onto the electric frothers, and while these don't usually give you the same kind of control over the foam as you'd have with manual frothers, they're more convenient, especially since they heat the milk as well as frothing it for you, while with the manual options you need to warm the milk manually. If you don't have an espresso machine, and you're not interested in buying one – then you'll need either a manual milk frother, which are cheaper but involves heating the milk separately, or one of the automated milk frothers which froth your milk and heat it at the same time. If you're just getting into the home barista thing, including steaming milk via the steam wand on your coffee machine, grabbing a temp control milk jug is a good idea. Sure, you can get a separate thermometer instead, but it's just something else to have to buy, clean, and find each time you want to make a cappuccino or latte.OK let's be honest, this isn't just loosely based on a cafetiere ;-), it's basically a modified cafetiere, and good on Bodum for seeing the opportunity and acting on it. The modification Bodum has made to what would otherwise be a cafetiere may be small, but it's important. The mesh used for cafetieres is of course intended to separate coffee grounds from the coffee liquid, it's not intended to froth milk. Again, old school latte was made with bigger bubbled froth, these days you'll usually find that it's more like a taller less intense flat white, being made with microfoam. If you're making your own flat whites from home, though, you can play around until you've got your latte exactly how you want it, and then just try to remember exactly what you did so you can repeat it over & over again. It’s worth noting that since the lid is attached to the whisk rod, resting it down on a counter may result in messy drips. In addition, this also prevents you from taking off the lid to monitor the frothing process. However, given the overall quality of the frother and excellent frothing results, this can easily be overlooked. As this study shows, the results via agitation and steam injection are actually very similar, but when it comes to agitation the fat percentage appears to make a bigger difference, and skimmed milk actually appears to react better in terms of more stable milk foam, via agitation than with steaming. How to choose a milk frother

So if you want a “new age” cappuccino, or “third wave” cappuccino, then just focus on producing smaller bubbles, by introducing less air, but do it for longer than you would if you were wanting a flat white, and what you should end up with is a stiff dense foam which piles up into a mountain on the top of your coffee. Perhaps the only downside is it only has one preset temperature, which may not necessarily be hot enough for some. However, this can be overlooked by the professional results and its sleek, modern design. This is a milk frother, not a shirt, and I'd be amazed if a shirt was available in 80 colours, even 36 colours, even 8 colours – but why make a milk frother available in so many colours? Are people that bothered about exactly matching a milk frother with their kitchen colour scheme? Removable Whisk– Uses magnetism to give a fully sealed drive for better results, and it’s easy to clean.If you’re after a small yet stylish milk frother, this illy Electric Milk Frother is perfect. Its contemporary brushed, stainless steel jug, buttons and chunky base looks great in any kitchen. Take your cappuccinos to the next level with this high-performance milk frother, with a patented dual-speed motor from Dualit, the cordless DA4135 produces hot milk, hot frothed milk or cold frothed milk in just two minutes. It's perfect for making a latté, cappuccino, hot chocolate, milkshakes or simply livening up an instant coffee. A compact and invaluable addition to any kitchen, the milk frother is a great partner for all Dualit coffee machines. Features and Benefits Andrew James is a brand that has been around for a while now, they have a LOT of products, and they seem like a brand that is here to stay, so I'd be more confident sinking a few quid into their products than the many similar unknown brand products you'll find. The main thing to consider is how much control you need over the milk texture. If you need little or no control over the type of texture (meaning the size of the bubbles) and how wet or dry the texture is (meaning how long it's streamed or agitated for) then most of the electric milk frothers which heat the milk while frothing it using an integrated whisk will be fine.

Value for money: Looking at the price point and quality of results, we evaluated whether the milk frother felt like a good investment. They make this milk frother in 80 different colours, apparently, although at the time of writing, there are 36 colours available. I nearly wrote “only”, but I then realised that to plop the word “only” in front of 36 when exclaiming how many colours this is currently available in, would be a bit daft. Cordless Design– Allows you to take the Milk Frother straight to the table for maximum manoeuvrability. You would be forgiven for making the very obvious yet wrong assumption that the Kapuziner is the Austrian version of the Cappuccino, but it's actually the other way around. Believe it or not, Kapuziner was first created in Vienna, where the Italian word for hood (of the robes of Capuchin monks) was used to describe this coffee, the recipe for which was first printed in 1790.Caffe macchiato or espresso macchiato is an espresso with a small amount of milk added. Macchiato means “stained”, and it's thought that this spot or “stain” of milk was used as a way to simply highlight to busy baristas which were straight espressos and which were espressos with a spot (stain) of milk. We bought the most popular milk frothers and hot chocolate makers and put each through these tests. Frothing The illuminated touch buttons are user-friendly and lets you know what each setting means. A red light signals when it’s on and ready to prepare warm frothed milk, while the blue light indicates cold frothed milk. The second button is to heat milk which is perfect for those frothy, hot chocolate beverages. Perhaps the only thing it could benefit from is an auto shut-off after each setting, but this isn’t a major deal-breaker. True to its name, the impressive results produced creamy, frothy foam, perfect for milky lattes. We tested each milk frother on how easy it was to operate, pour from, clean and how much noise it made while working. Then plunge the filter up and down until the milk looks as though it's grown significantly in volume.

This is the newer version of the Lavazza milk frother, and unlike the one-piece original version, this is a different design, incorporating a detachable jug and magnetic induction. It looks a bit classier, but I think the main benefit of this slightly pricier version is the fact that it's a 2 part affair, so you're just pouring from a jug into your coffee. Cortado is a small espresso-based intense milky (around 3-4 ounces or 85 – 120ml) with somewhere along the lines of 1:1.5 – 1:2 espresso/milk, with a very small amount of foam, usually served in what is referred to as a cortado glass. Despite its premium price, this attractive frother makes a worthwhile investment for serious coffee lovers. We also measured how long each milk frother takes to heat up 180ml of oat milk and semi-skimmed milk, and if it heated to an appropriate temperature for drinking coffee and hot chocolate.

Microfoam, which as I mentioned earlier is smaller protein covered bubbles than the bigger bubbles created for cappuccino foam, was invented along with the flat white, as far as I can ascertain, and came to the UK with flat white.