Milk Thermometer Motta with Clip, 60 to 70 Degree Band

For anyone learning, and for anyone who wants everyone behind the bar to steam the same way. Milk temperature is the one variable in steaming you cannot see: the texture of the foam you watch, the whirlpool you hear, but the moment to stop is only learned by getting it wrong a good many times. An instrument shortens that from weeks to days.

Below 60 the cappuccino arrives lukewarm and the perceived sweetness stays low. Above 70 the milk proteins denature: the foam loses structure, separates from the liquid within a minute and brings that cooked milk taste that spoils even a well pulled coffee. The useful window is therefore narrow, ten degrees, and in the middle of service you cross it in a few seconds. The milk thermometer is there to let you see those seconds.

• Use: temperature monitoring through steaming
• Marked band: 60 to 70 degrees, in green on the dial
• Fixing: clip to the rim of the jug
• Dimensions: 5 x 14.5 x 5cm
• Weight: 0.02kg

The clip is what makes it usable

A thermometer you have to hold takes up the hand that steers the steam wand, so it ends up not being used. Clipped to the rim it stays put, reads at a glance and leaves the movement free: that is the difference between an instrument that lives in a drawer and one that lives on the bar. Keep the probe in the milk but off the bottom, where it reads the temperature of the metal instead of the body of the milk.

Choose the milk thermometer if

You are training someone, several people take turns behind the bar and the cappuccinos do not come out the same, or you work with plant milks, which have different and narrower steaming windows than dairy. It is also the accessory to pack when working on a machine you do not know.

When you can stop using it

Almost never completely, but with experience it turns into a check rather than a guide. The reference that replaces the instrument is a hand on the side of the jug: around 65 degrees the metal is hot enough that you cannot hold it more than a second or two, and that is the moment to close the steam. Anyone who learned with the thermometer reaches that point knowing what they are feeling, instead of repeating what they were told.

Where to keep it between cappuccinos

Clipped to the empty jug, not in the drawer: that way it is already in place when the milk goes in and nobody has to remember to fetch it. Rinse it with the jug, because dried milk on the probe falsifies the reading by slowing the heat exchange, and that is the most ordinary way to end up with an instrument that always reads a few degrees behind.

FAQ

How is the milk thermometer used? Clip it to the rim of the jug, with the probe in the milk and clear of the bottom.

What is the right temperature? Between 60 and 70 degrees, the green band on the dial.

What happens above 70? The proteins denature, the foam separates and the cooked taste stays.

Does it suit plant milks? Yes, and that is where it helps most, because their steaming windows are narrower.

How much room does it take? 5 x 14.5 x 5cm for 20 grams: it stays clipped on without unbalancing the jug.

The more you buy, the less you pay: 4 pieces -5%, 6 -7%, 8 -10%, on the same item.

Dispatched from Rome, Italy. 15-day returns, free of charge. Questions before you order? Message us on WhatsApp on +39 351 929 6937.

The other pieces of the coffee station are in the coffee accessories guide.