Much Ado About Foam

Foam. It's the one little word that has plagued me during my existence as a barista.

In order to make a latte, you must steam milk. You can make the milk pretty foamy by barely pulling the steam wand out of the steaming milk. This is called aerating and it must be done at least once when heating the milk. In order to make a cappuccino, you would aerate the milk for a longer period of time. The only difference between a latte and a cappuccino is the amount of foam. On the foam spectrum, cappuccinos are more foamy,while lattes are mostly milk, topped with an inch of foam. Some people are very particular about the amount of foam on their drink and it can be quite frustrating at times.

Almost every latte will have some foam. It's inevitable, because you have to put some air into the milk when steaming it. People will come in and order a latte with no foam and will literally watch and make sure I get every single last bubble off the top of their drink. When someone scrutinizes your actions for a bubble of foam, you wonder what that person must be like in social situations. Are they a person who micromanages everything everyone does? Or do they just feel a sense of power when they smell coffee? Foam is pretty much an area of personal preference. Unlike syrups or whipped cream, foam doesn't add any calories to your drink. It's just airy milk, yet some people really don't like the inch of foam we put on top.

The WORST combo you can ask for, in my opinion, is an extra hot no foam drink. When the milk gets steamed we have to aerate it at least once, but when we make it extra hot we have to aerate it a little more. Even if you don't aerate the drink, the milk will naturally become foamy once it hits the extra hot temperature of 180 degrees. I don't think people who order this combo understand what a pain it is to make. Half the time I have to let the milk sit for a minute and tap the pitcher with my spoon so that the foam can all rise to the top. It is so wasteful because I have to use more milk than needed.

Also, we use foam as a barrier because it prevents the drink from spilling out of the little hole in the lid. So technically, customers should thank me for preventing them from burning their hand as they carry their coffee back to the office. I consider the extra hot no foam combo to be lethal. Think about it...you ask me to heat your drink to a temperature so hot that the milk goes bad, and you ask me to take off the protective layer. I guess some people are risk takers, I just hope they takes risks outside the realm of their espresso drink.

I have had to remake many drinks because of foam. Usually it's because some one's cappuccino isn't light enough.When it comes to foam, there is so much variation. So, if a customer is really particular about how they want their drink to be, you could make it several times before you please them. I think about all of the drinks I've had to remake because of foam and it makes me angry, especially when I imagine the amount of drinks dumped out on a national scale.I hate being wasteful. There are starving people in the world and I have to waste milk to please people who have enough disposable income to spend $5 a day on coffee.

I've seen some people get really angry at baristas because they have too much or too little foam. I just have to laugh at the people that get so worked up over coffee. With all of the bad things that go on in the world, should you really let a little bit of foamy milk ruin your day? And if you do, I think you might have some deeper, unresolved issues that you should tend to.