Why milk is becoming a bigger focus for automation in coffee Estimated reading time: 7 minutes Key takeaways Milk options have grown considerably in coffee shops. Cold drinks and layered toppings add more variables for baristas. Automated milk systems deliver consistent results, reducing training needs. Thermoplan’s AirSteam detects milk temperature and volume to standardise texture. Coffee shop menus have expanded considerably in recent years, and much of this change has come from milk. Many cafés now offer several dairy and plant-based options, served hot, cold, whipped, or layered, and customers notice quickly when a drink falls short. For operators, this creates a practical problem. As wages, rents, and other operating costs rise, businesses need to sell more higher-value drinks without increasing waste or slowing service. Yet every new milk, temperature, and topping adds another variable for baristas to manage manually, often during the busiest periods of the day. Manufacturers have spent years automating grinding, dosing, and extraction, and many now apply the same approach to milk. Automated milk systems can detect temperature and volume, adjust texture for each type of milk, and produce the same result regardless of who operates the machine. As a result, milk automation is becoming as much a commercial decision as a quality one. For many businesses, it now determines how far they can expand their menus without increasing training costs or risking repeat custom. You may also like our article on how super-automatic coffee machines are changing. Why milk consistency is a commercial issue Milk is the main ingredient in most coffee shop drinks. If it’s too hot or too cold, or if the microfoam is too thick or too thin, the whole beverage suffers, regardless of the quality of the espresso. This matters more as specialty coffee places greater value on consistency. A customer who gets a well-textured flat white one visit expects the same drink the next and has little reason to return if quality varies. “If a customer receives a great flat white with the perfect texture one day, they expect the same experience when they come back two days later,” says Sven Weibel, the Head of Black&White Sales at Thermoplan. “But if a different barista is on shift and the customer now has scalded milk, they’re unlikely to return.” For multi-site operators and businesses with high staff turnover, this problem compounds. Each new team member needs time to learn to texture several types of milk correctly, and mistakes during this period waste milk and create inconsistent drinks. How automation helps Super-automatic machines have long handled grinding, dosing, and extraction. Increasingly, manufacturers are applying the same approach to milk, focusing on temperature, texture, and microfoam consistency rather than simply increasing the number of milks a machine can hold. Thermoplan’s AirSteam system on the Black&White4 CTS, for instance, textures milk automatically from the steam wand. It aims to produce the same standard for dairy and milk alternatives, and adjusts for pitcher size and drink type, so a small cortado and a large latte should both meet expectations. “The machine has a smart algorithm which detects the temperature of the product,” Sven explains. “So if a barista pours oat or coconut milk into the pitcher, the machine can detect how much milk is in the jug and determine exactly how hot to steam it.” Operators can also set microfoam profiles to match different drinks on their menus. “Thermoplan machine options are unlimited. You can customise microfoam settings to create denser or lighter foam, as well as options for seasonal limited-time offers.” Because automation controls texturing, a new team member can produce the same milk as an experienced barista. For operators, this reduces training time and waste and makes quality less dependent on who works each shift. Milk has become the most variable part of the coffee menu Dairy is no longer the default choice in coffee. Oat, almond, soy, coconut, and other plant-based milks now sit alongside whole and skimmed cow’s milk on many menus. Each category also continues to split into new variations, such as oat milk with added fibre or almond milk with extra protein. Sven says demand for plant-based milk has grown substantially since the company first began tracking it. “When we started, it probably accounted for 3% of customer sales; today we talk about over 12% depending on the market,” he tells me. Oat milk still leads, although Sven adds that preferences vary by region. “Oat is definitely, I would say, still the number one. But what we see is also on which market you’re talking about; Asia compared to the US, for example, there are different preferences.” Even so, oat milk’s position is less secure than it once was, as coffee shops become more willing to look at alternatives that compete on flavour, texture, and functionality. Demand also extends beyond plant-based milks. Customers increasingly ask for lactose-free milk, double milk, dairy and plant blends, and milk drinks served at specific temperatures and with different textures. Each of these options behaves differently. Plant-based milks respond to heat and aeration differently from dairy, and their protein and fat content varies from one product to another. As a result, identical machine settings can produce very different textures, which makes consistency harder to achieve as the number of options grows. Cold foam raises the stakes The growth of cold drinks adds another layer of complexity. Starbucks reports that cold drinks now account for roughly two-thirds of beverages sold in its US company-operated stores, and the chain has made cold foam central to its drink development. These higher-priced, layered drinks are also helping coffee shops raise average spend. However, each additional component introduces more variables. Without a consistent base, Sven argues, coffee businesses can’t serve these drinks reliably. “If you don’t have a consistent product, you can’t create those highly customised beverages, such as a shaken espresso with a cinnamon cold foam on top,” he says. “Therefore, the technology and the milk consistency build the base, and then you can experiment from there.” Thermoplan has added Chilled Foam functions to the Black&White4 CTS and the Black&White4 Competizione to address this. Introduced in July 2026, the function produces foam at a much lower temperature than conventional steaming. Fresher coffee The same logic applies to coffee itself. The Black&White4 uses smaller bean hoppers, allowing businesses to offer more coffees, such as single origins or decaf, without committing to large volumes that may lose quality before use. “We conducted studies with coffee ageing,” Sven says. “As soon as you unpack them and put them in a bean hopper, within four hours, we start to see a difference in flavour profile, TDS, and so on.” Automation also changes how staff spend their time. With the machine controlling milk quality, baristas can focus on service, which is where many coffee shops compete with chains and home brewing. “They could push the button and talk to the customer,” Sven says. “They can greet the customer, ask how their day was, try to upsell, and more.” For many years, milk was the simplest part of a coffee order. Today, with more plant-based options, more layered drinks, and a growing share of cold beverages, it has become one of the hardest components to execute consistently. For coffee businesses under pressure to increase average spend, this has direct commercial consequences. Higher-value drinks only bring customers back if they taste the same on every visit, and inconsistent milk undermines that regardless of the menu. Automated milk systems will not suit every coffee shop, and many specialty businesses will continue to value manual skill behind the bar. However, operators planning to expand their menus or open new sites will likely find consistent milk a precondition for growth. Enjoyed this? Then read our article on how super-automatics could reshape coffee competitions. Photo credit: Thermoplan Perfect Daily Grind Please note: Thermoplan is a sponsor of Perfect Daily Grind. Want to read more articles like this? 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Popular San Francisco Coffee Company Closes Both Cafes After Landlord Disputes Three-year-old San Francisco specialty coffee company Outset Coffee has closed both of its cafes after separate landlord disputes, one ending in a $200,196 court judgment and the other in a... https://dailycoffeenews.com/2026/10/30/popular-san-francisco-coffee-company-closes-both-cafes-after-landlord-disputes/ #landlorddisputes #sanfrancisco #coffeecompany #both #outsetcoffee #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

La Marzocco And Porsche Team Up For A 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Espresso Machine Collection This article is from the coffee website Sprudge at http://sprudge.com. This is the RSS feed version. The new 911 Carrera RS 2.7 collection by La Marzocco and Porsche. https://sprudge.com/la-marzocco-and-porsche-team-up-for-a-911-carrera-rs-2-7-espresso-machine-collection-1532478.html #carrera #collection #sprudge #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Why temperature tracking is now important for baristas Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Key takeaways Filter coffee’s flavour changes significantly as it cools after brewing. World Brewers Cup competitors track temperature to guide judges through tasting stages. New devices like DiFluid Moment map coffee temperature and flavour together in real time. Temperature-guided service is spreading from competitions into high-end coffee shops. Water temperature has always played a key role in coffee brewing, but its role doesn’t end once extraction is complete. As filter coffee cools, its flavour keeps shifting, and how a barista manages that shift is becoming part of the drinking experience. World Brewers Cup competitors have proven that one cup can taste like several different coffees, depending on when you taste it. This approach is now filtering into cafés, where guiding a customer through temperature and flavour changes is becoming a new way to elevate service. Effectively, drinking temperature has become the latest tool baristas use, and new technology is helping them translate how flavour changes to consumers. You may also like our article on how to analyse coffee colour. Temperature is the barista’s new tool Temperature has always shaped coffee extraction, but its influence extends beyond it. Once coffee is handed to customers, temperature continues to shape their drinking experience. This is especially true for filter coffee, where a slower cooling curve gives flavour far more room to change. Sweetness and acidity become more prominent, more nuanced flavour notes are easier to detect, and bitterness starts to fade. The focus on how temperature affects the coffee drinking experience is often most notable at competitions. More World Brewers Cup competitors are bringing infrared thermometers onto the stage, tracking a coffee’s surface temperature in real time and using the readings to walk judges through the tasting experience. Rather than presenting one static flavour description, competitors narrate how a coffee’s flavour and aroma open up as it drops from serving heat toward room temperature. The same guided approach is starting to appear in coffee shops, where baristas talk customers through a similar journey. Ben Barnard at DiFluid has watched this play out from the judging side too. “There is increased discussion on whether the judges are accurately scoring coffee,” he says. “Because if they don’t know the temperature and it’s too hot when they are evaluating those middle temperature zones, then scores could be less accurate.” Temperature tracking is becoming another tool in the barista’s kit for elevating service, and DiFluid’s Moment is the latest addition. Described as a coffee flavour reference thermometer, it maps temperature and flavour together in real time, so competitors and baristas can understand how a coffee evolves from first sip to last. Every stage becomes intentional, measurable, and repeatable, rather than something described from memory. The device recently won Best New Product in the coffee accessories category at WoC Brussels, reflecting growing industry interest in tools built specifically around the drinking experience. How temperature affects coffee flavour The science comes down to how our senses process heat and flavour together. At very hot temperatures, the tongue struggles to register taste precisely, and what we perceive as flavour is mostly aroma, carried by volatile compounds that escape the cup and reach receptors at the back of the throat. As coffee cools, taste buds start to activate properly, and the sensory experience shifts from something we mostly smell to something we taste. Research backs this up with specific numbers. A 2016 study analysing Bourbon Caturra coffee found that bitterness, roasted notes, and overall intensity increased between 62°C and 50°C, while sweetness peaked around 44°C, and flavour shifted toward sweet, chocolate, and sour notes as the temperature dropped to 31°C. A 2018 study found that higher aroma levels register between 70°C and 60.4°C, a range where bitterness tends to dominate, while acidity comes through more clearly at cooler temperatures closer to 25°C. Body and mouthfeel change too, with lingering sweetness and a fuller texture becoming more noticeable once a coffee has cooled well past serving temperature. Devices like the Moment translate this data into usable information at the bar. Using infrared, non-contact measurement, it reads a cup’s surface temperature without touching the liquid, and high-precision sensing keeps readings accurate across different cup shapes and sizes. “We use a highly accurate sensor, and anywhere in that cone, it is within a degree for accuracy, so as long as the cup is centred, it will still read correctly,” Ben explains. Continuous temperature tracking then flags each new tasting window as it opens, giving competitors and baristas deeper clarity, consistency, and control over how they present a coffee. New tools are guiding the experience Tracking drinking temperature will remain a fixture at competitions such as the World Brewers Cup, but its reach is starting to extend further. Some high-end coffee shops already talk customers through how a cup changes as it cools, and this kind of structured, unhurried service fits naturally into omakase-style coffee formats, where staff have the time to guide a guest through several tasting stages. Doing this well takes attention to detail, which is why purpose-built tools are emerging to support it. The Moment tracks a cup’s temperature in real time and lets drinkers give direct tasting feedback as they go, replacing the paper tasting notes many cafes still rely on. Ben notes that training centres have become some of the most active users so far. “A lot of training centres are getting really good use out of it, because they’re using it as a teaching aid to show the different temperatures and how that changes,” he explains. Competitions are already treating temperature-guided tasting as a serious discipline. DiFluid served as the Official Coffee Flavour Reference Thermometer Sponsor for the Malaysia Open Coffee Championship, putting the Moment directly into a competitive setting where every stage of a cup’s evolution matters to the score. As more baristas treat temperature as a variable worth managing, tools built to support that shift will likely keep multiplying. What began as a competition habit is becoming a broader service standard, where understanding a coffee’s full temperature arc, not just its first sip, defines a truly considered cup. Whether through a formal guided tasting or a simple comment from a barista, walking a customer through how their coffee changes as it cools adds a layer of hospitality. As hospitality and service matter more, this kind of attentiveness may become the baseline for specialty cafés. Enjoyed this? Then read our article on analysing green and roasted coffee. Photo credits: DiFluid Perfect Daily Grind Please note: DiFluid is a sponsor of Perfect Daily Grind. Want to read more articles like this? Sign up for our newsletter! 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Weekly Coffee News: FAO Grant Opportunity + Multiple Home Brewer Launches Welcome to DCN’s Weekly Coffee News! Subscribe here for all the latest coffee industry news. Also, check out the latest career opportunities at CoffeeIndustryJobs.com. FAO Opens Grants for Coffee Enterprises... https://dailycoffeenews.com/2026/10/30/weekly-coffee-news-fao-grant-opportunity-multiple-home-brewer-launches/ #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Kerry Opens Massive Roasting and Extraction Plant in Pennsylvania Global taste and nutrition company Kerry cut the ribbon on a 48,600-square-foot coffee roasting and extraction facility near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in September, significantly expanding the company’s North American coffee production... https://dailycoffeenews.com/2026/10/29/kerry-opens-massive-roasting-and-extraction-plant-in-pennsylvania/ #pennsylvania #northamerican #bethlehem #september #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Bodum Recalls 5.9 Million French Presses After Burn Reports Bodum USA is recalling approximately 5.9 million French press coffee makers in the United States sold during a 52-year span. The recall follows 70 reports of glass carafes breaking during... https://dailycoffeenews.com/2026/10/29/bodum-recalls-5-9-million-french-presses-after-burn-reports/ #millionfrench #bodum #unitedstates #usa #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Tin Is In With Earnest Pursuit Coffee Roasting In New York City This article is from the coffee website Sprudge at http://sprudge.com. This is the RSS feed version. Coffee tins from Earnest Pursuit Coffee Roasting in New York City, New York. https://sprudge.com/tin-is-in-with-earnest-pursuit-coffee-roasting-in-new-york-city-1528237.html #newyork #yorkcity #earnestpursuit #coffeeroasting #sprudge #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

You Can Have Exactly One Cigarette With Your Espresso Martini (It’s Fine) This article is from the coffee website Sprudge at http://sprudge.com. This is the RSS feed version. A bar in Washington DC lets you order one cigarette with your espresso martini. https://sprudge.com/you-can-have-exactly-one-cigarette-with-your-espresso-martini-its-fine-1527696.html #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Kilo Coffee Weighs Every Detail at New Dallas Cafe Meticulously measured approaches to brewing and service are at the center of Kilo Coffee, a new high-end specialty coffee bar that opened in September in Dallas. At the Snider Plaza... https://dailycoffeenews.com/2026/10/28/kilo-coffee-weighs-every-detail-at-new-dallas-cafe/ #kilocoffee #sniderplaza #september #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit