Skimmed milk versus whole milk for your coffee shop

Second to coffee, milk plays a very important role in your coffee shop.  When choosing the milk type for your coffee shop, which one should you choose and why? This is a decision every coffee shop owner has to make, and as such, we would like to help along the way. 

Milk with some amount of cream or fat,  is better for your coffee drinks over skimmed milk, because of the quality of the foam and the taste of the drink.  Choosing between partially skimmed milk (2% fat) or whole milk will depend on the cost per liter, life span, supplier availability and consumer preferences. 

Follow along with this post if you’d like to go deeper into all these factors, which are essential to every coffee shop owner.

Characteristics of different types of milk

The following table compares skimmed, partially skimmed and whole milk in various aspects.  

Curious fact: Why is milk white?

The color of the milk is due to the dispersion of the spectrum of light caused by the  proteins, specifically casein micelles, fat globules and calcium phosphate present in this rich liquid (1)

Composition of milk

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, cow milk naturally has between 3.4 a 5.1% fat, 3.5% protein, 5% lactose (2) and the rest being mostly water and other small components like vitamins and minerals. 

Milk can vary naturally in its composition depending on the type of cow breed, the type and feeding frequency, and the climate and seasonality, amongst other things (1). Natural milk always has more fat than protein, about 1 to 1.5% more in percentage.  Amongst cow breeds, Normande is usually the breed that produces milk with more fat, while Holstein is amongst the lowest milk fat producing cow breeds. In between these two breeds, there are other well-known breeds, such as the Jersey cattle, the Brown Swiss cattle and the Ayrshire cattle (2).

Skimmed milk is produced by removing the cream or fat by using a machine that applies centrifugal force to the milk, thus separating the fat globules from the rest of the liquid.  Partially skimmed milk is the process of adding back a certain amount of fat to the milk but not as much as the original amount. 

Quality of foam and beverage taste

A cappuccino is made by combining espresso coffee with foamed milk. The greater the amount of protein there is in milk, the greater the foam that will be developed when frothed.   

However, more foam does not necessarily mean better quality.  When milk has fat the foam is thicker and creamier, hence it has a better taste and feel.  Cappuccinos made with 0% fat milk will have a larger foam, but lighter and less stable.  

Regarding taste, the fat in milk will also give a creamier taste and balance to the bitterness of the espresso coffee.  So in a general sense it is believed that a better taste is obtained when cappuccinos are made with milk that has fat.  

However, this can also vary depending on your customer’s preferences, for some people may prefer the taste associated with skimmed milk, or prefer it because of the lesser calories in the coffee drink. 

Finally, the brand of the milk may also have an influence on the properties, taste and foam produced by certain milk, even amongst an equal amount of fat content milk.  Ask around other coffee shops to which brands and type of milk they use, try them out and choose the one that feels more comfortable to you. 

Cost, supplier and milk presentation

Check out what the most common and available options are for coffee shops from suppliers.  For us, the most affordable and convenient milk was 2% fat because it came in a conveniently sized package: gallons. This milk had a nice flavor and some fat that added a creamier taste to cappuccinos. It was made by applying a pasteurization process that destroys harmful bacteria but requires cold storage even.

Whole milk on the other hand, came in a 1-liter tetra pack container and was made using an ultra high pasteurization process, which uses a higher temperature for heating than pasteurized milk.  The price per liter or ounce on the whole milk was 40% higher than the partially skimmed milk that came in gallons. Also, the trash derived from the empty containers was almost four times higher, which was more detrimental to the environment. Skimmed milk also came in 1-liter tetra pack container.  So the decision to use 2% milk was a no brainer for us because of cost, flavor and less package waste.   

However, this is not the case for every area.  When reviewing prices for milk at a national retail chain of supermarkets in the USA, there was no difference in price within the same brand between skimmed, partially skimmed and whole milk, because all of them came on the same presentation: 1 gallon and half-gallon. 

There was a difference however per ounce of milk amongst gallon and half-gallon, being the latter more expensive. There was also a difference between brands of milk. Some baristas have found to prefer some brand over another, for there may be some differences in the amount of fat between some brands and hence an effect on cappuccino quality. 

Storage capacity and lifespan

Another important aspect to take into consideration when evaluating different presentations of milk is your storage capacity and lifespan of the product. 

Pasteurized milk usually has a lifespan of a few days and requires cold storage.  This means you will need to calculate your cold storage capacity in relation to the days that you receive milk from your supplier or the frequency at which you go buy the product. This would be an issue especially for high traffic volume coffee shops, where you would need to store a large amount of milk to keep up with sales, or you will need to buy milk constantly. 

On the other side of the story, if you start with really low sales volume, you would need to make sure that milk does not go to waste because it consumes all its lifespan. This however is usually not the case for coffee shops as cappuccinos and lattes tend to be one of the highest sold products in terms of volume.

On the other hand, milk packaged in a Tetrapack container, and gone through ultra high pasteurization process, can be stored in ambient temperature and has a long lifespan (months) when unopened because of the thermal process that it goes through that kills deterioration microorganisms and the sterile packaging. They usually come in smaller presentations, one liter instead of a gallon which is 3.78 liters.  To have this type of milk presentation could be an advantage if you need to have a back up stored in case you run out of refrigerated pasteurized milk. Because of its long lifespan it is unlikely that it will go to waste.  

Consumer preferences

In our coffee shop, 1 out of 40 customers, would ask for skimmed milk in their coffee.  Most consumers would just ask for a cappuccino and would not specify the type of milk, other than ask for lactose-free milk versus regular milk. In terms of regular milk, they would not differentiate between 2% or whole milk.  

These consumer preferences can vary within countries and regions.  Try to understand what your consumer preferences are in your local area by going to other coffee shops and observing behaviors.  Are people asking for skimmed milk? Or this rarely happens. Are customers asking for a specified amount of fat on their coffee?  Try to ask around also to waiters and other coffee owners to get a glimpse of the behaviors of your customers. 

Biggest takeaway

Being a coffee shop owner you will be faced with having to decide what your adequate balance of factors is.  For example, if you wish to please all customers by having various types of milk, you may have to accept a certain amount of waste for unused skimmed milk,  in the case of low consumption, and a bigger and more complex inventory to manage. Or, maybe you have determined that the percentage of customers that ask for a certain type of milk is big enough for you to keep stock of a certain milk without much waste.   

Regarding flavor, maybe you will see not much difference in the number of customers that ask for whole milk versus 2% milk, and your most convenient supplier has 2% milk.

Taking into account all these factors, and what is your view for your business as well as your customer’s expectations, will be the basis for taking this seemingly simple but important decision. 

References

(1) Badui, Química de los Alimentos, Fourth Edition.

(2) FAO, Dairy production and products: Milk composition

(3) Interview to MsC Antonio Madriz Carrillo, Agronomic Engineer.