Oat milk has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity over the last few years, and now almost every coffee shop you visit will serve it - and every second customer is ordering it. I myself am an avid oat milk enthusiast and have been drinking it exclusively for a number of years. However, when I moved from New Zealand to London last year and continued pouring my oat milk into my coffee as per usual, I noticed something odd.
My oat milk was splitting when it came into contact with hot coffee, taking on a weird curdled appearance and making my morning beverage undrinkable. Baffled by this, I got in touch with my personal favourite oat milk brand Oatly to ask what on earth was happening - and how I could fix it. Toby Weedon, the barista development manager at Oatly, was more than happy to help me with my problem.
He said: “There are a number of reasons why oat drink might split in coffee, but the main two causes will be acidity and temperature. Freshly brewed, high quality, light roasted, filter coffee is one of the biggest challenges for plant milks, as the shock in temperature change and the acidity can cause oat drink to split or curdle.” This explained a lot - I’m partial to a light roast, always fresh, and, when I can afford it, high quality.
“Pouring steamed plant milk into an espresso brewed with light roasted coffee is also challenging, due to the acidity, and can leave a thick shaving foam like layer sitting on the top of the coffee," said Weedon added. It’s .
