I have a confession: I’m guilty of having a snobbish attitude against drinking coffee with milk. Real coffee drinkers should drink their coffee black. I saw milk as a mere softener of the bitterness of bad coffee. Well over the last few weeks, I’ve been making 8 O’clock Coffee in the morning and have been adding milk to soften the bitterness of the bad coffee. But I had a micro-epiphany. One thing that milk does that adds another dimension to coffee is what it does to the mouthfeel. Mouthfeel is how it feels in our mouth. Water is thin. Cream is creamy. Maple syrup is thick (By the way these terms are my own. I don’t know if there are a standard set of mouthfeel terms used by coffee experts).
Why I called this a micro-epiphany is because I now realized the different experience one should expect with a high quality latte. The mouthfeel of milk is another dimension to the taste profile of coffee that make things interesting.
Tags: 8 O'Clock Coffee, Coffee Tasting
