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Whether you work from home or you’ve simply succeeded in your New Year’s resolution to spend less money at cafés, the home brewing routine can become, well, routine. All those uniquely sourced and flavored coffee beans, expertly microfoamed lattes and cappuccinos, and even occasional cup identification misspellings at the local shop sure keep things interesting, costly as they can be. And regardless of the coffee making contraptions in your own kitchen, all that infinite variety is inevitably reduced outside of a retail environment. But there’s one java riff that can liven things up with tools you likely already have lying around, or one cheapie little addition: a caffè misto.
A caffè misto is like the gin and tonic of cafe drinks, both bases requiring just one addition to turn them from whatevs into proper bevs. In the latter case, the ingredients are right there in the title. Even if you speak Italian, misto, which means mixed in English, is not particularly revelatory. It’s what’s in the mix that makes the drink, and, in this case that’s — drumroll, please — steamed milk.
To prepare this drink, simply make your coffee however you normally would, heat an equal amount of milk on the stove, and whisk, whisk, whisk until it fluffs up with air. And, although it would be easier with a fancy frothing wand, you can approximate the same effect with little more than a whisk. Pour the milk over the coffee and you’ve mastered the DIY misto.
Upgrading your upgraded coffee
Once you’ve made a few caffè mistos and you’re sure you’re going to sip them most mornings, it’s time to invest in a little gadget that’ll make their easy preparation even easier. And we’re talking tiny in the grand scheme of investment possibilities. A handheld milk frother like this Zulay Kitchen frothing wand cuts the dairy portion of your preparation down to about two minutes. You can heat the milk in the microwave, foam it right in its vessel (use a tall one to prevent splashing), and have one less pot to scrub.
Unlike some apparently single-purpose kitchen tools, you may get more use out of a frother than you expect. It’ll net a finer foam than just a whisk, so you can use it for those espresso drinks that demand a denser blend as well. It also comes in handy for making particularly decadent hot chocolate. To round out breakfast, you could use a milk frother to make scrambled eggs even more easily, too.
