Photo: Chaval Brasil, flickr
Enjoy a little moo juice in your coffee? Yeah, so does much of the rest of the world. But when did we all start making that delicious black liquid brown?
According to the (amazing, and available for free download) 1922 volume "All About Coffee" by William H. Ukers, it was a Dutch ambassador in 1660 who first had the bright idea to mix nature's liquid candy with the life-giving elixir we know as a cuppa joe. French doctors did one better 15 years later, when they started prescribing the following combination as medicinal: "Place on the fire a bowl of milk. When it begins to rise, throw in to it a bowl of powdered coffee, [and] a bowl of moist sugar, and let it boil for some time."
Okay, that actually sounds kind of gross. But milk's natural sweetness remains the obvious counterpart to coffee's inherent (and, hopefully, pleasant) bitterness. Read on after the jump for some other international historical takes on the light-two-sugars revolution.
While a traditional black brew is still the norm in major coffee-drinking cultures like Ethiopia and Turkey, the blend of milk and coffee has been going strong elsewhere for a large part of the last century. Italians naturally have the edge on the cappuccino (a harmonious blend of espresso, steamed milk and foam), while the Spanish enjoy something called a cortado, which is a roughly a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of coffee to milk.
In Java, the birthplace of one of coffee's many nicknames, Ukers said "a favorite method is to make a strong extract by the French drip process and then to use a spoonful of the extract to a cup of hot milk." When the French brought their coffee-loving ways to Vietnam in the late 19th century, the mixture of strong, dark-roasted coffee and sweetened condensed milk quickly became common. And, naturally, we Americans have our own variations.
What do you think: Does milk belong in the coffee mug or should it be relegated to the cereal bowl? Let us know in the comments.
Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is part of a series for the caffeine-addicted.
1-27-2010 @9:13AM Baron said... Milk please! Actually, half and half or heavy whipping cream. I really dig on some condensed milk too, but that really needs a strong cup like I can get at a Vietnamese place down the road. If I am making some at home, I will first (usually anyway) try a little bit w/o any type of dairy, but I've been drinking it with cream/milk and sugar since I was 3 or 4 (my grandpa drank three things, for the most part, milk, coffee, and root beer so I was an early adopter).
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have really enjoyed all the coffee posts you have put up over the past several months.
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1-27-2010 @7:36PM Catmoves said... Oh, come on.
AOL is really tops in trying to make news out of boring and uninteresting crap. I can't imagine anyone (save those with nothing to do) being the slightest bit interested in this foolishness. News must be scarce. Why not tell the public how big business will own America and the rest of the world in 20 years?
1-27-2010 @8:11PM Cup of Joe. said... In the US is milk used to cool or flavor? I would suggest 70% to cool , 30% to flavor.
1-27-2010 @2:28PM david said... coffee with milk its the best i have a 42 oz cup and i fill it 3/4 with my fav santa white xmas(which btw is very hard to find now a days and costly too) and 1/4 milk 2% please and about 4 tea spoons of sugar that is my breakfast and lunch about every day i prefer to grind my own beans the taste is much better and the coffee is fresher
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1-27-2010 @2:29PM Anne McLaughlin said... Light Cream!
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1-27-2010 @2:30PM BigD said... I LIKE MINE STRAIGHT FROM THE BREAST. Y BUY THE COW WHEN THE MILK IS FREE
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1-27-2010 @3:42PM coffeelover said... Grow up!
1-27-2010 @2:46PM SkyBlue said... Anything but black is nauseating. Milk in coffee? Vomitable.
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1-27-2010 @3:43PM coffeelover said... Can't you just say that you prefer your coffee black? Vomitable?? Really?? Is that even a word?? Grow up!
1-27-2010 @7:14PM SkyBlue said... coffelover, Can't you allow me my opinion? Why should I be limited by your "standards"? I find coffee with milk sickening, so I took a little license with the language to emphasis my point.
You couldn't stand that and had personally attack me. You're the one who needs to grow up.
1-28-2010 @12:58AM Ry said... Grow up? Is that the only phrase you know? You indeed need to "Grow up" and let people have their own opinions...
1-27-2010 @3:15PM Ken Schmidt said... Milk or cream keeps coffee from irritating an ulcer
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1-27-2010 @3:17PM Karen said... In Miami almost everybody drinks the very potent cuban coffee. The small 1 oz shot is equivalent to a cup of american coffee. I drink 2 shots and make cafe con leche with the remainder coffee! Perfect way to start your day!!!! But, you might want to build tolerance before drinking all that caffeine LOL
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1-27-2010 @3:37PM JOANNA said... DOES MILK BELONG IN COFFEE? What's next?
Permission to use cream? What a batch of crap.
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1-27-2010 @4:12PM Les said... Light Milk and No Sugar, Please. Can't get drink it without the Moo! Carry Non-fat dry milk on trips! LOL
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1-27-2010 @3:53PM Curtiss said... I started using milk in my coffee when I attended college at UCLA in the early 80's. The cafe at North Campus, had such bad coffee back then, that a little milk or cream took the edge off. I guess I then got use to it, and I still add it to my coffee today. FYI - I have heard along the way, that for some reason (something to do with physics) coffee with a little milk or cream added, will then take longer to cool or get cold, then straight black coffee. That's my 2-cents!
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1-27-2010 @3:55PM Debbie said... I love starting my day with milk and a little sugar in my coffee. When I get to work, I drink it black. I enjoy it both ways.
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1-27-2010 @4:55PM Julia said... "Moo juice" and "nature's liquid candy" being the worst names I've ever heard for milk aside, I found this article pretty interesting~
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1-27-2010 @4:06PM Carol said... Coffee with milk's good, but even better is half-and-half.
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1-27-2010 @4:07PM Carole said... I cannot drink coffee without 2 tsp of sugar & a small amount of cream or creamer, or canned milk. I can once in a while drink it without the creamer, but I NEED the sugar or sweetener, preferably. I can't handle the extreme bitterness with no sweetener. Yuck! When adding creamer it tastes & feels like closer to drinking a glass of milk. Okay, I'm spoiled! lol
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