What Is a Milk Frother?
With the increasing rise in popularity of coffee drinks such as cappucino, people want to make these beverages at home. One tool they can use is a milk frother. Cappucino, breves, lattes and mochas all have a nice foamy topping of frothed milk, so it stands to reason that a milk frother would do the job.
There are several different kinds of milk frother: the hand-pump variety, a whisk type, a propeller type, a steam frother and a closed electric frother. Every milk frother does the same thing: it aerates the milk by rapidly agitating it to introduce as much air as possible. The result is a foamy mixture well loved by all barista patrons.
What kind of milk frother a shopper buys will depend on his budget and how often he will need it. The average milk frother is a small device which can be stored almost anywhere in the kitchen, so space is usually not a priority. The avid cappucino drinker will probably have a cappucino maker, and many of these machines have a steam-operated milk frother already attached. These frothers produce a stream of hot air that froths the milk and makes the characteristic hissing noise associated with cappucino and coffee bars. They can be tricky to use, however, and it may take some practice to get the amount of steam exactly right.
A hand-pump milk frother has a plunger attached to a fine mesh screen and usually comes inside a stainless steel cup. These frothers are easy to use, but the shopper must be willing to spend some time pumping the plunger to get the amount of froth he wants. These usually run about US$25.
Whisk and propeller milk frothers get at the job in essentially the same way as the hand-pump version. They are hand-held and either electric or battery-operated. A small whisk or propeller is attached to the end of the device and when it is turned on, the attachment turns rapidly to froth the milk. A propeller-type milk frother must be used with care, since it can scratch or chip the inside of a porcelain cup. These may be purchased for anywhere from US$10-$20.
A newer milk frother on the market looks a lot like a small food processor or blender. These frothers are electric and self-contained. If someone routinely makes several cappucinos at once, this may be the optimum choice, since it will froth 2-3 cups of milk at one time. This type of milk frother is fast, but costs about US$40-$50, so the shopper may want to consider whether he will get enough use out of it to justify the cost. As with most any appliance or kitchen gadget, some comparison shopping will help the cappucino drinker find the best option.
Written by A Kaminsky
