Conor Goodman from 1022 Cafe & Gelateria in Oceanside, a coastal city north of San Diego, had heard rumors of milk brew since 2021. He finally tried it at Koffee Mameya Kakeru in Tokyo earlier this year—and was blown away.
“My first impression of the milk brew made me really rethink cold brew as a whole,” he says.
Milk brew coffee is made by soaking ground coffee beans in milk instead of cold water. The result is distinctly different from cold brew or an iced latte, with a fuller body and smoother mouthfeel, and featuring a natural, subtle sweetness from the milk.
Although there is no one person credited with creating milk brew coffee, the technique seems to have originated in Japan, with shops like Koffee Mameya and Kurasu Kyoto popularizing the drink. The latter published a story about milk brew on its blog in 2021 and the Japan News covered the trend in 2022, exploring the drink’s growing popularity across the country.
After trying milk brew for the first time, Goodman knew immediately that he wanted to replicate the technique back home, and he’s quick to acknowledge that what he’s doing is nothing new. “As it turns out, milk brew is extremely common in Japan, and nothing about what we are doing at 1022 Cafe & Gelateria is unique to the concept—we are just committed to making it accessible to the people of San Diego and Los Angeles,” he says.
Part of that mission involves creating custom, milk-brew-based drinks. At 1022, Goodman serves what he calls a banana bread milk brew made with anaerobically processed Costa Rican coffee beans. (Fermenting coffee an oxygen-free environment pulls distinctly fruity flavors from the coffee cherry into the bean itself.)
“I like to use these ultra high-quality, fruit-forward beans with organic banana milk and a few other fun ingredients to make what I would consider a liquid version of a balanced, layered, complex banana bread,” Goodman says. “The fruitiness of the bean along with the richness and fullness of [the milk] fats really works.”
Goodman explains that the natural sugars in the banana milk contribute a subtle sweetness to the drink. Patrons also have the option to add a homemade pie filling and cinnamon on top if they prefer a sweeter drink.
Goodman plans to expand his milk brew operations so he has oat, almond, coconut, and whole milk brews ready to serve. “I like the idea of introducing this fad to San Diego and converting cold brew drinkers to milk brew drinkers,” he says. So far, he says whole milk is the best at extracting flavor from the coffee. Part of his research phase has involved attempts to dial in fat contents, ratios, and extraction times as he plays around with alternative milks.
“My trial-and-error process will start at matching the total amount of fat in a liter jug of milk brew by adding water and keeping the amount of coffee consistent,” he explains. “This gives me a starting point for all flavor profiles, and then I adjust from there.” His biggest piece of advice is to document the experimentation, so that once you find the right profile, it’s easy to replicate.
When making milk brew, you can either steep ground coffee directly in the milk before straining through a filter, or you can steep the coffee in a tea-brewing packet so that no straining is necessary. Direct steeping coffee with milk provides the strongest and most intense coffee flavor. Goodman says he’s tried steeping beans directly in milk, then straining the coffee grains through a super-fine sieve, but has found that steeping in milk with a filter works better. “I found a very nice mesh filter that I like and it’s easy to keep the brew clean and consistent,” he says.
Most people have no idea what to expect when they see banana milk brew on the menu, but Goodman says that adventurous guests willing to try it have all been pleasantly surprised. Given that his business is known primarily for coffee and gelato, Goodman finds it rewarding when people order the milk brew. “Every chef or barista who comes into our shop pretty much exclusively orders it because of its complexity,” he says. “That alone makes me proud to serve it.”
