This Creamy, Fruity Milk Might Be Your New Favorite Coffee Addition

Whilst coffee is bitter, roasty, and designed to get you going, strawberry milk is something else entirely. It's sweet, fruity, creamy and a little nostalgic, but yet that's exactly why combining the two might make more sense than you think. That sweetness works like a charm to soften some of coffee's bitterness, making it taste closer to a dessert than just your usual morning cup of joe. 

The general concept is not too dissimilar from the more popular strawberry matcha latte, but the trick is to choose a coffee that can keep up with the sweet strawberry taste. Matcha's astringency more naturally lends itself to that fruity flavor, but with coffee there's a whole spectrum of roasts with nuanced notes to take into account. A very dark or bitter roast runs the risk of overpowering the strawberry and leaving you with a flavor that's a bit muddled. More smooth-tasting light and medium roasts or coffees with notes of chocolate and caramel, would all play more nicely with the berry flavor. As for the fruit element, buy one of the better strawberry milk brands from the store to make sure you're getting genuine notes of strawberry and not something artificial. Or, if you're in a pinch, use a strawberry syrup mixed with milk. 

Strawberry lattes are most common in an iced form, but there's no reason why they can't be adapted for hot too. However, they require different approaches. If you're making an iced version of a strawberry milk latte, then you will definitely want to chill the milk in advance, pour it over ice, and simply add a shot of espresso. It'll also look pretty if you pour the espresso in slowly and create a blended two-tone effect between the pink and brown. For a hot strawberry latte, however, you'll want to gently froth your strawberry milk with a blender or milk frother, or at least warm it, before adding it to the coffee. If you're warming it on the stove, know that a gentle heat is all you need, do not bring the milk to a boil. 

If you love the fresh and fruity vibe this creates, lean into the strawberry theme even more by adding in a little spoonful of strawberry puree to the drink too. To make this, blend or mash fresh strawberries with a little sugar and lemon juice until it becomes saucy, like a sort of thick syrup, and stir that through your strawberry milk coffee. There are other flavor-boosting coffee additions as well, like a splash of vanilla syrup or even a pinch of cinnamon — both work beautifully with the flavor of strawberry and coffee. But take into account that some strawberry milks may already be sweetened, so start with a small amount of any other syrups or sweeteners you may like, then taste as you go.