In this video Jimmy is teaching us all about splitting milk jugs and some of the do's and don'ts surrounding the practice. Jimmy talks through the types or size of coffees it's suitable for and shows how it can improve speed and efficiency in your coffee making service.
A good barista will be able to steam one pitcher of milk to pour out two cups of coffee but the process of how that's done is important to maintain consistency and quality in the final product. The key to splitting jugs and milk starts at the steaming not at the pouring. The reason we split jugs is so we can do good latte art, good milk management and good froth management across all cups.
The practice of splitting milk jugs is really only for use in a busy cafe environment and really isn't a concern for the home barista. Unless of course you have a large group of friends over for coffee and you want to speed up the process.
Video Transcript
0:00
Okay. So you've been making coffee for a while now.
0:02
You want to look at how to get faster
0:03
and you've heard about splitting your jugs or splitting your milk and
0:06
you're not really sure what it's all about and how it's going to benefit you.
0:10
I'm going to talk you through it today.
0:15
So why would we split out jugs?
0:17
Firstly, it is faster to split your jugs If you can do two milks,
0:21
two cups of milk in one jug, it is going to be that faster.
0:25
You can pour two coffees out of one jug.
0:29
You're saving yourself a little bit of time on change over,
0:31
and that's where you're going to win out.
0:33
And that's where becoming a faster barista is going to help you.
0:36
Now, if you want to become a fast, good barista,
0:39
you want to make sure that you're also producing great latte art.
0:42
Your producing well managed milk.
0:45
And one of the things that we see a lot of people doing is being able to,
0:48
they're actually steaming a lot of milk and they're pouring
0:50
multiple coffees out of one jug.
0:52
Now, the problem I have with that and the reason that we avoid that
0:56
is because you're really trying to dictate the amount of froth just by height,
1:01
sometimes people pour higher for a flat white, low for a cappuccino.
1:04
And you kind of can do it.
1:06
But it's not a true reflection of what the customer is asking for
1:09
to get a nice, creamy, full body cappuccino by managing your steam,
1:14
adding less air for a flat white at the steam part.
1:17
Doing nice latte art.
1:18
That's the kind of quality mouthfeel that they're after for a flat white.
1:24
If they want a cappuccino,
1:25
you really want to be managing that at the steam, not at the pouring.
1:28
So the reason we split our jugs is so that we can do good latte art
1:32
and good milk management and good froth management across all cups. Now,
1:37
I'll give
1:38
you an I'm going to put two lattes on
1:41
I'll give you a demonstration of what I see
1:44
when you pour two lattes out of one jug.
1:48
There's a couple of reasons that I don't encourage people to pour
1:51
two lattes or two coffees at all out of out of the same jug.
1:56
And that's because of the inconsistencies
1:58
in the froth that's going to come into both cups now
2:02
one of the most embarrassing things for a barista or a waiter
2:05
that's carrying those coffees out for you is when you carry two lattes out.
2:09
And you get and you look at them and you put them down at the table
2:12
and you know straight away that the froth is higher in one.
2:15
There's more froth in one or more froth in the other.
2:18
One of the greatest one great skill as a good barista is being able to manage
2:23
every latte to get a good amount of froth in each
2:26
one for that, you know, ten mil of latte froth.
2:33
So I'm not going to split.
2:34
This is not splitting.
2:36
This is just pouring out of the same jug Got my shots?
2:41
Yes. You kind of being fast
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I can't get a good angle.
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And I'm also
2:51
I'm just not sure whether I'm going to get now I can pour a better latte art.
2:55
Ahh I've got no froth.
2:57
I've actually got no froth left in this one.
2:59
So it'll be pretty obvious because
3:01
now I've got two lattes, I'd plate them up.
3:05
You might not see it straight away,
3:07
but I'm definitely going to get a difference in the amount of froth
3:10
sitting on top of those, as they settle.
3:12
And like I said, you'll be half way out just walking them to a customer
3:16
and you'll you'll realize that you're about to give someone
3:19
you know, the super frothy one and someone the lower one.
3:22
Now, I wasn't able to get a good angle to pull my latte art with such a full jug,
3:27
and that is a huge benefit of splitting because once I split my jug,
3:30
which is transferring half the milk into another jug,
3:33
then I've got two nice even jugs of milk, and then I'm going to be able
3:37
to pour with a better angle.
3:39
I can manage the froth that's coming out, and they're going to be identical.
3:44
And that's how you get consistent lattes.
3:47
So you can see straight away
3:49
we've got two uneven heads there.
3:51
So we want to we want to do a better job of that.
3:57
So let's split some milk.
4:05
Now, I will say that in these 600 milk jugs,
4:11
if I'm doing a 12 ounce takeaway
4:13
or 36 ml cup, I do like to pour.
4:17
I do like to steam my milk just for the one coffee.
4:21
It's not ideal to have a liter jug
4:24
and to split on your 12 ounces.
4:27
It's just a lot of milk to manage and you can quite often
4:31
get your milk froth texturing wrong and then you kind of splitting
4:35
and you're not getting enough froth in either of them.
4:37
And that's kind of its own issue.
4:39
So I will always encourage people if I have a 12 ounce cup
4:44
just to froth for that 12 ounce cup, froth for your cappuccino, pour you cappuccino
4:47
properly, froth for your latte. Pour your latte properly.
4:49
Yes of course in some scenarios you can get faster
4:54
and but I'd still if you are using the liter jugs,
4:57
I'd still say froth them and then split them.
4:59
So you know what coffee you're making with that milk.
5:02
A big question I get is can I split a jug for a flat white and for a cappuccino
5:10
The simple
5:10
answer is not if you want to produce
5:14
the best version of both of those coffees.
5:17
Technically, with good milk management, you can do it.
5:21
Good barisas will do it,
5:23
but it's it's not as consistent.
5:25
Straight off there before it settles.
5:27
I'm just going to gently pour that in there.
5:29
I don't want to throw it in there because I want it to feel frothy.
5:33
I don't want to splash it in there and create bubbles.
5:35
So the speed in which you split your milk does help
5:38
because we don't want those bubbles going in there.
5:40
But I've now taken that off before.
5:42
I even wipe the steam wand or do anything.
5:45
I'm going to split them.
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Now I've got to super consistent Latté Milk's
5:52
I can
5:52
now pour them individually and I can actually give them the attention
5:57
that they deserve when it comes to good latte
5:59
art. Now.
6:06
See where we get to.
6:09
I actually need to get some of that
6:11
milk back.
6:18
I have a tremendous
6:20
I think I've even frothed this milk a little bit too thin.
6:23
So that's just me managing the air that I'm actually going in.
6:28
But this demonstration is more about the
6:31
the consistency of the head that's happening on both coffees.
6:34
So I'm still I'm pretty good.
6:36
It just felt a little bit thin while it's pouring, which is obviously
6:39
just a milk air temperature management sorry,
6:42
air input management
6:46
but what we're trying to see here, it's
6:48
just a better consistency of froth across the two cups now.
6:53
Now I know how to fairly and evenly share out the froth
6:57
and that's by just quickly splitting straight off there.
7:00
Now, if I am doing a cappuccino and I'm doing a flat white, like I said,
7:05
I really want to manage my flat white milk here or my cappucino milk.
7:09
But if you have to froth and you and you have to split,
7:13
you just have to remember
7:15
that whatever you're going into is going to collect the most froth.
7:19
If you're doing the pouring the throwing technique and you'll see baristas
7:22
use this technique that quite often won't fully blend the milk back together.
7:27
So you'll actually maintain that separation of hot milk and froth
7:31
and they'll actually throw the milk from one jug to the other
7:34
and that's what that's what is moving any froth that's sitting on top.
7:38
And they're throwing that into the next jug.
7:40
So just remember, depending on how smoothly you pour
7:44
and transfer when you're splitting will actually dictate how much froth.
7:48
So just be mindful of that.
7:49
If you do need to get a cappuccino and a flat white out of one
7:53
jug and the boss really wants you to start doing that just to be faster,
7:57
just remember that whatever you throw that froth into,
8:00
that's going to have the majority of the froth in it.
8:03
So if I was doing if I had to split my cappucino and my flat white.
8:06
Make sure I'm got enough froth in here, obviously, for a cappuccino
8:10
because I don't want to undo the cappuccino to get the flat white.
8:13
I'd come off there I might even let it settle for a second
8:16
just to get that separation, and then I'd throw that froth into there.
8:20
That would then be my cappuccino and I'd go with my flat white on that that jug.
8:25
Now, it's not ideal, but in a real world scenario, we're trying to be fast.
8:30
We're trying to be quality.
8:31
So that's how you would do it.
8:33
If you had to do it.
8:34
But like I said, we're always trying to make the best version
8:37
of every coffee and produce consistent cups.
8:41
We want them to taste great. We want it to look great.
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We want to be fast and we want to be great baristas.
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So that is splitting milk and that's how you're going to produce better coffees.
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If you are using this technique in your cafe,
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if you didn't know how to do this and you found this video helpful,
8:56
let us know in the comments
8:58
if there's anything else
8:59
in this space that I've missed and you think would be helpful
9:02
to our coffee community.
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Put in the comments below.
9:04
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9:10
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9:13
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9:16
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9:20
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Thanks guys, we'll see you next time.
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