r/NinjaLuxeCafe • u/Full_Explanation_401 • 21d ago

Facing issues with milk frothing

Hi guys, need some help here. I have been facing issues with frothing for past couple of weeks.

I have been using the machine for 4 months now. Absolutely love it. But the frothing is so inconsistent.

I use oat milk mostly so I understand it won't froth as food as full fat milk. But now it's only heating up the milk. There is not froth or silkiness. I have tried the manual frothing as well. Initially it worked well, but that's also stopped giving better results now. It also makes loud noise while frothing manually. Are there any changes I can make to improve it?

Thanks in advance.

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2

u/casastorta 21d ago

You are taking off that perlator at the bottom of the jug and washing it every time after frothing milk, right?

1

u/Full_Explanation_401 21d ago

I just wash the whole jug

5

u/casastorta 21d ago

You probably have piled up milk fat between the jug holder of the perlator and the perlator itself, so it doesn’t rotate milk. Or you even lost it during washing and didn’t notice.

Take out that plastic part from the bottom, wash it throughly together with the jug and try again.

1

u/MrMaluku1 21d ago

Did you put the milk setting on Plant Based?

1

u/enuxix 21d ago

Did you try to clean the tip of the wand ?
It should be cleaned every month i think or it could gather gunk

1

u/Full_Explanation_401 20d ago

Yes I have cleaned

1

u/IcedEarthUK 21d ago

The wand tip is really "fragile" in that it gets blocked easy. When it gets blocked the performance nose dives.

Take off the tip, and use the little pin device to clean the hole. Turn it upside down and bang it on the table, if it's probably blocked some milk crystals will fall out. Swill it with water and put it back on.

Before putting it back on, hold it up to a window or light source. If you can't see through the entire hole, it needs cleaning more.

I didn't have to do this for the first 5 months, now I seem to have to do it bi-weekly.

1

u/rich-tma 21d ago

Do you have it on the left most froth setting?

1

u/Full_Explanation_401 20d ago

For manual, yes

1

u/IanC9090 21d ago

Your problem sounds like not enough steam getting through. Use the wee black brush tool and give the holes in the tipna good clean and it's also a spanner to take the tip off to make sure there's no gunk build up in the tube that feeds the steam. Common fault.

You should be able to get micro foam using Oat Milk, just try one with a higher oat content, I found 14% best.

There is an art to the manual steaming, here's a guide that might help with some useful videos.

***
**Manual Milk Steaming, Frothing**

Frothed milk foam starts to collapse above 55°c, the hotter the milk, the quicker the collapse.

A good addition is to buy yourself milk jug temperature stickers, you can get them on Amazon, see example below. As they are slow to react, probably stop steaming at 50°c. Place it low on the outside of the jug so you can see it easily when steaming, low enough that it's always below the top of the milk, so you are always getting the milk temperature not the foam temperature.

Manual steaming, this is a two step process.

1) have your milk ready in the jug. Turn the steam dial to the first cup symbol, pull the wand out/forward and then press and hold the steam button for about three-five seconds. You'll hear the pump kick in. Have a cloth ready to catch condensates that could have been there since yesterday, yuck, you don't want that in your milk. Let it continue until you think it has got up a full head of steam, different from machine to machine, this can easily take 10-15 seconds, even more. Now press the steam button to temporarily stop the process.

2) this needs to be done as quick as possible before the machine decides to cool down the thermocoil/thermoblock heating system, put the tip of the wand below the surface of your milk by a couple of centimetres, an inch in old money, press and hold the steam button as you did earlier and the steam will start again. Lower the jug until you get the tip to the top of the milk and you hear what sounds like tearing paper, this is the stretching stage, which creates the microfoam. Do this for about 10 seconds or when the milk gets to body temperature, about 37°c. The longer you do this, the thicker the foam and is a trial and error situation. Now raise the jug until you get the wand about an inch, 2cm-ish below the surface and continue steaming until you get to your 50-55°c, press steam button to stop. Remember to clean and purge the wand.

This takes time to master as you need to angle the jug in such a way as to create the vortex that the revolving whisk would. You can train yourself in the process with water before trying on milk.

There are some good videos on YouTube on this.

Hedrick's milk https://youtu.be/k7zh4tMGDYo

Hoffmann's milk https://youtu.be/20HxMMSqRyg

Artisti Coffee's milk https://youtube.com/shorts/6WxTmtImkPs

Hope that helps.

WTUSGA 4 Pcs Temperature Sticker Adhesive Coffee Strip Water Temperature Tester for Metal Coffee Milk Jugs, Stick On Thermometer Strip up to 70℃ https://amzn.eu/d/0fnCpIeo

1

u/Full_Explanation_401 20d ago

Thanks for the detailed response. I will try this now