Full Steam Ahead
A Sweet Spin Turns a Before-Bedtime Drink Into a Coffeehouse Staple
by Chris Ryan . photograph by Ness/Pace Studio
A barista slaves over an espresso machine, fretting over the milk and adding the appropriate amount of syrup. Once it has reached the right temperature, the beverage then journeys from the steaming pitcher into the cup. After some decoration provided by the barista-maybe some whipped cream or drizzled syrup-the drink is ready to serve.
But there's something missing from this beverage: coffee. This drink is a steamer, a hot and refreshing item made only from milk and flavored syrup. The drink may not be the hippest offering at coffeehouses, but it has an audience in children and non-coffee drinkers, and the drinks come in pretty much any flavor you can imagine.
HOW TO MAKE AND PRESENT A STEAMER
There are not a lot of frills attached to making steamers: Milk, syrup and an espresso machine are the only supplies needed. Whole milk is often used because it adds thickness to the mixture, though some coffeehouses use two-percent milk. "Typically, whole milk is a good thing to use," says Chris Deferio, a barista and manager at Carriage House Café in Ithaca, N.Y. "You want to look for the balance of fat and protein that will give you a good texture." The thick texture acts as a solid base to which flavors can be added to produce a quality drink.
"Whole milk is obviously much creamier and richer," says Don Eckles, senior vice president of Scooter's Coffeehouse based in Omaha, Neb. "It just has great mouth appeal."
When steaming the milk, the barista should avoid the fluffy, frothy and meringue-ish touches at the top of the milk that are often found in cappuccinos and lattes. "If you end up making a steamer frothy," says Don Burquist, Western U.S. account support of Rancilio North America, "as you start to whip it, beat it with a spoon and such, try to stir up your steamer . the product is not very appealing visually." Instead, Burquist recommends putting the tip of the steam wand at the bottom of the steaming pitcher so the milk is heated without creating any froth.
The main ingredient in steamers aside from milk is syrup, and there is some debate about whether to add syrup to the milk during the steaming process or once the milk is finished steaming. Because some of the fruit flavors are citrus-y, they can cause curdling when applied to hot milk.
At The Roasterie Café in Kansas City, Mo., barista and assistant manager Stacey Brown says because of the curdling, they wait until after the milk is steamed to add their syrup. "Here's the tricky thing about steamers," says Brown, who mostly uses Monin syrups. "The fruity flavors like raspberry and peach are too acidic . so they have a tendency to curdle the milk."
Leanna Mix, Beverage Applications Manager of Kerry Group, which makes Da Vinci Gourmet syrups, says curdling is not a big worry with their syrups. "We have a very low curdling effect," says Mix. "Our syrups in general are made to have less curdling."
But Donald Harrell, Director Business Development of Monin, says fruit flavor should never be used in steamers because of the potential for curdling. "Nutty and spicy flavors make extremely wonderful steamers," he says. "Fruity flavors make wonderful cold drinks."
Harrell says there are ways to add the syrup during the steaming process by manipulating the temperature, but he does not recommend doing that. "There are tricks that you can play with nature," he says. "The tricks are that if you heat up the syrup . if there isn't a temperature reaction on top of the acidity reaction, you can slip it off, and it does work because you're fooling Mother Nature, basically. I've lived in a hurricane zone, pal-you don't want to mess with Mother Nature."
At the Carriage House, they offer only one syrup flavor-vanilla (though they make cinnamon seasonally)-but instead of coming from a bottle, the flavoring is made at the restaurant. "It takes a few hours to make it," says Deferio. "It's made from pure vanilla beans. You can see the flecking all throughout the syrup, and it's made batch by batch."
Once the mixture is complete and the steamer is ready to be consumed, appearance comes into play. At The Roasterie, they put steamers in latte bowls and serve them with a spoon. At Scooter's Coffeehouse, they adorn the drink with homemade whipped cream then drizzle syrup on top depending on the flavor-raspberry syrup for a raspberry steamer or caramel syrup for a caramel steamer.
AN ALTERNATIVE TO COFFEE
One of the most notable features of the steamer is its lack of coffee. Though that may seem like an odd proposition for a beverage featured at coffeehouses, it's not: There are quite a few people who enjoy the atmosphere of a coffeehouse but not the taste of coffee. "There are certain things that you have to offer in a coffee bar that are not coffee-related," says Deferio. "It's not just the coffee that espresso enthusiasts appreciate. It's also the café culture."
Others in the coffee industry agree that drinks such as steamers need to be offered to appease the non-coffee drinkers who visit coffeehouses. "A more diverse group is now visiting coffeehouses," says Stacy Cooper-Dent, senior communications manager of Torani. "People that are going to coffeehouses are now looking for more than just traditional coffee. As more and more people are visiting cafés, it's time for operators to start looking at different ways that they can service their different customers and people that are looking for drinks without caffeine."
Because steamers are sweet and do not contain any caffeine, they are often consumed by children. "Lots of kids like steamers because it's hot milk," says Brown.
Eckles says children often order steamers so they can pretend they're drinking coffee alongside their parents. "Especially younger kids, so their folks can pretend they're getting a latte so they call it their coffee or whatever," he says.
Brown says she thinks the drink's appeal to children could be maximized if it were marketed more. The Roasterie has gone through a list of names to try to come up with signature steamers, but so far they haven't found one they could settle on. "I think that it's sort of an under-utilized drink," she says. "I think that you could market it toward children."
Though children make up a large part of steamer drinkers, Mix says there are others who drink them as well. "They (children) are a big market," Mix says. "But there's a surprisingly high number of adults as well, especially toward the middle and later part of the day, when you're still looking for that coffee shop allure but without the caffeine. And the winter months are especially popular."
Julie Beals is editor of Fresh Cup Magazine. Comments on this article may be sent to comments@freshcup.com. 
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