In this post, we will explore why milk was (and still is) often added to brewed coffee.

Let’s go back to your first cup of coffee. Chances are, you took a sip of the dark sludge that your parents had in their cup while they were reading the morning paper. You probably hated it. Now look at you, reading a blog post by a specialty coffee company. Oh, how we change.

Anyway, that’s beside the point. We’re here to discover why milk and coffee have such a close relationship. To further explain this, let’s dive into why coffee has historically been considered a bitter beverage.

Coffee is like most foods, you need to cook, or in this case, roast the beans before you can prepare it. While some people have consumed green (or raw) coffee, we do not recommend this. That being said, like most things that are cooked, there’s a desired level of “doneness” we like our food to be. Take steak for example. Some people like it seared, others like it burnt to a crisp. Coffee is very similar.

As many of you probably know, coffee has different roast profiles. In the specialty coffee industry, you will typically see coffees roasted between light and medium, however, dark roasts are sometimes seen as well, just far less common. This is not without good reason; this is because dark roasts tend to erase some of the unique flavor profiles that can be found in coffees. While this is an oversimplification, we can explore this topic more thoroughly in another blog post.

We’ve left you in suspense for long enough now to answer the question at hand: Why is milk often used in coffee?

Before coffee roasters and the specialty coffee industry at large, coffee was roasted to a dark profile. People found these coffees very bitter, and as such, cut them with milk to alleviate some of the bitterness. The reason milk is so effective at neutralizing bitterness is because the proteins in milk bind to the tannins, aka the stuff that makes coffee bitter. 

Now, it’s important to note that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PUTTING MILK IN YOUR COFFEE! However you enjoy coffee is the right way to do it. That being said, if you are trying to acclimate yourself to black coffee, try exploring a lighter roast. Check out below to see some of our light-medium roast coffees.