Be your own barista: Making milk foam

Who needs Starbucks?

Nothing says "I'm treating myself" like sipping my morning coffee with huge clouds of poofy milk foam. OK that's a lie. There are lots of things that say "I'm treating myself", for example, Thrifty Ice cream in Chocolate Malted Crunch flavor, red velvet cupcakes with frosting, and sweet potato fries any time they appear on a menu. But this morning, I'll focus on easily making your own special coffee drink at home. No need to spend $4 or get out of your jammies.


The expensive way to achieve fabulous milk foam is to invest about $100 and buy an Nespresso Aeroccino foamer. The cheapest way is to spend less than $5 at Ikea on their frother. I have had wildly variable results with the Ikea frother: sometimes mindblowing foam, sometimes no foam at all. When my Aeroccino died, I wanted to see if I could make do without buying another one and it turns out I can!

Bust out your blender. It does not need to be a fancy one. Mine cost $20 at Target- nothing fancy here. Once I decided that I loved this Back To Basics Blender, I hunted it down on Amazon and bought the set that has different containers (big, small) and blades (for grinding coffee and nuts). I just spied it for $35 on the above Amazon link: a good deal in my opinion. I've had mine for years and it's a little trooper.

Part of the Back to Basics Blender Express set

Flat blade for grinding coffee, nuts and as luck would have it, for making foam

Big fluffy foam made with the flat blade and icy cold milk

So thick it almost needs help getting onto the coffee

The best foam is achieved by using a flat blade if you have one, although the standard shaped blade (four-pronged) works too. You just need to make sure that you have enough milk in the container to cover the blades while it blends. Ideally, you don't want the milk bouncing up and down- you'll know what I mean when you see it.

The next trick is to use very cold milk or even partially defrosted frozen milk cubes (totally optional). This isn't such the pain that you might think. Simply freeze some milk cubes (I have all types of cubes of milk in my freezer in ziplocks at all times to add to smoothies). Grab a handful of milk cubes and put them in your blender container (or any container) and leave in fridge overnight. By the morning, some of the milk will be defrosted. When you've finished with your foam for the day, add some more cubes and let them sit in fridge again. Note: almond/coconut milk does NOT fluff up like cow's milk does. Not sure on soy milk, as I haven't tried it.

This is the blade on most regular blenders- it works, but perhaps not quite as well

Regular blades produce bubbly milk and some foam (but not as much thicker foam as a flat blade produces)

Fluff from a regular blender blade- foam is pretty good.

Still festive even if the foam isn't huge.

And the finishing touch: a sprinkle of sweetened cocoa on top. I have a container on-hand with cocoa and stevia powder already mixed together.

Cocoa powder with stevia- at the ready.

Sweet cocoa atop milk foamy coffee

However, in my opinion, the most important part of the morning coffee routine, is having someone special with whom to share it:

Ellie is the head barista in our house.

Q: Do you drink coffee? Like foam? Do you freeze cubes (of anything? What?) What is on your "I'm treating myself" list?