Milk Steamer Tips

beanflying

Hi all,

looking at the quality of my milk texturing and having a bit of a play around with 3, 4 and 5 hole tips on my 1 group commercial to try and improve it.

So far getting a slightly better result with the 4 hole tip over the other two and I have been re looking at some other alternates such as those shown below.

Anyone tried them or talked directly to people who have? Are they worth the $100+?

ACog

I've not tried them, but I understand they only fit the La Marzocco and Synesso without an adapter. It would be nice if they had a list of adapters required for each of the main machine models out there.

askthecoffeeguy

they look like an expensive waste of time to me - I'm sure there are other less expensive options that work just as well... Personally I look for a steam tip that's going to push the steam out to the sides, so that I can angle the wand to the botom corner of the jug, to produce a continuous 'swirling' motion and my 10yr old Rancilio S27 at home makes better 'latte art' milk that my much more heavily specked (and much more expensive!) BFC Synchro at work! P

Koffee_Kosmo

I personally like the 4 hole I can use any other type as well These things can be very personal However if you can swing it & get to use one before you buy one, it will be the best test KK

beanflying

I should point out the 4 hole on the right above is $20 USD too from the same supplier :🙂 Based on potential improvement being slightly more dense foam and them also taking some getting used to (Sounds like the VST filter baskets again) I am going to see if I can arrange to beg or borrow a loan of one at this stage to try (open to offers 🙂 ) More playing needed with what I have too.

Koffee_Kosmo

I also think that the diameter size of the hole/s matter more, that the number of holes KK

ACog

How about a group purchase of one, based on the agreement cost is split evenly and each participant gets a certain amount of time to evaluate. If the decision is they're useless, then whoever wants it can buy it out at a reduced cost from the other members. If no one wants it, then it goes up for sale and the sale price is split back evenly to everyone? At least this way they're reduced risk of wasting hundreds of dollars on a potentially useless piece of kit. Im sure they're not useless however.

Koffee_Kosmo

ACog wrote:

How about a group purchase of one, based on the agreement cost is split evenly and each participant gets a certain amount of time to evaluate. If the decision is they're useless, then whoever wants it can buy it out at a reduced cost from the other members. If no one wants it, then it goes up for sale and the sale price is split back evenly to everyone? At least this way they're reduced risk of wasting hundreds of dollars on a potentially useless piece of kit. Im sure they're not useless however.

That will work if the steam tip fits all machines ? of the participants KK

ACog

Well EP's website does say it will only fit LM and Synesso machines without an adapter....what adapters are required is anyones guess.

beanflying

Some tips will be metric and some will be bspp (parallel BSP) they do have some adaptors and checking size prior to order is a must do. I do want to order some other bits and pieces off them this side of Christmas too.

Kelsey

I struggle a little to get true microform. I use KK's technique, but generally ever wind up with something that's a little too think - or more rarely just plain old hot milk. It could be the lactose free milk... Or i could be getting it bang on and the combination of my ineptitude and the cheap, thick-spouted jug that came with the Sunbeam that has limited my improvement with latte art. Or it could be the two-hole steam tip. Do 3-4 hole tips work well with single-boiler machines or does it just mean you run out of steam even faster?

ACog

Kelsey, If you're using a sunbeam EM6910, then KK's method is all wrong for you. On that same note, I would recommend getting a 400ml or 300ml jug for steaming milk as the limited power works better on a smaller jug. Of course ignore all this info if you don't have a Sunbeam 🙂

Koffee_Kosmo

ACog wrote:

Kelsey, If you're using a sunbeam EM6910, then KK's method is all wrong for you. On that same note, I would recommend getting a 400ml or 300ml jug for steaming milk as the limited power works better on a smaller jug. Of course ignore all this info if you don't have a Sunbeam 🙂

Kelsey is a proud owner of a Bezzera BZ09 single boiler machine

Kelsey wrote:

I struggle a little to get true microform. I use KK's technique, but generally ever wind up with something that's a little too think - or more rarely just plain old hot milk. It could be the lactose free milk... Or i could be getting it bang on and the combination of my ineptitude and the cheap, thick-spouted jug that came with the Sunbeam that has limited my improvement with latte art. Or it could be the two-hole steam tip. Do 3-4 hole tips work well with single-boiler machines or does it just mean you run out of steam even faster?

My method should work Lactose free milk may react differently to normal milk but I am not certain as I have not used it So the only way to find out is to try normal milk and compare KK

ACog

I've used lactose free milk before. It's a little thinner and tends to separate quicker than normal full cream milk. But should generally behave the same. KK is right, perhaps buy a litre or so of full cream milk and try it. Even if you don't drink it, it's only a few dollars worth of learning experience.

Kelsey

What I really need is to go to someone's place that makes really great microfoam and just have a look - I find watching videos I can't really tell what it's supposed to look like! I also generally only work with about 100ml of milk at a time. I'm an espresso drinker and my wife likes piccolo latte's. The 'real milk' experiment sounds like a good idea tho.

Koffee_Kosmo

With regards to a question earlier 2 hole steam tip or 4 hole steam tip This depends on the size of the holes, a 2 hole steam tip may have the same exit diameter as a 4 hole tip with smaller diameter holes Here is a video of my technique by another user Did it perfectly with one hand http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlUI0t3-2SE&feature=player_embedded KK

beanflying

Hole diameter is a big thing my Pavoni has a 3 hole tip (tiny holes) and my old Solis with a 1 hole had more steam 🙂 I actually did a little playing with the Pav in the early days blocking one of the holes with a toothpick. It helped get a swirl going but with better jug use the 3 holes are now fine. Next step up from there for me was to 20 litres of boiler with a big bore 5 hole and toggle controls, I reckon it took me a week to keep the milk in the jug let alone get microfoam 😃

Kelsey

Ironically, between yesterday and having now watched this video, my microfoam technique seems to be bang-on. 😃 So now I can only blame the artist!