Friday Night Music

Just a short one tonight - in keeping with the week's unintended theme:

The Big Milk Post

The last few days have got me thinking about milk. This post is a way for me to re-think milk in general and then start looking at what makes a good drinking milk and whether this might be the same as a good steaming milk. I have observed in cafes that barista's value consistency in the milk so that they are not chasing a changing balance of milk fats, proteins and sugars that alter the way milk is steamed. Generally consistency is obtained at the cost of quality - by increasing the volume of milk blended, and by balancing fats, proteins and sugars by adding permeate, large dairies deliver a consistent, but basic, product.

For the barista willing to tolerate a little more (and usually seasonal) variation, there is some pretty good milk available that really offers better support for the coffee. Generally these are milks that are less ‘generic’ in their profile because they are from a specific herd or small dairy region where there is greater control of the factors that influence milk quality.

Sadly, at this point I must confess my past - I was an agriculture and animal husbandry student. I had high hopes of one day striding tall across my own meadow with a hay bale under one arm and a woman under the other.

Sadly I lack the 'tall' and the 'meadow' and although I have been known to buy the odd bale of lucerne hay that is strictly for gardening purposes. I'm not sure you could even fit a miniature cow in our yard!

In my studies we covered all the introductory dairy cow basics – four leg, four stomachs, four teats etc and we had the pleasure of getting up before dawn to milk them – which is an activity that I must confess enjoying. Cows are big and warm and generally cooperative at milking time and make some amazingly contented sounds as the pressure on their udder is reduced. We also studied the various dairy breeds and their characteristics.

I had forgotten much – but happily the intertubes have brought me up-to-date even more than my old textbooks.

Dairy Australia lists the following breeds of cattle and their descriptions - this list does not seem to have changed much in two decades - except for the Zebus at the end, that one is a newbie for sure. My additional comments are in blue.

Holstein Friesians
Originally from Holland. With their distinctive black and white markings, they are Australia's most popular dairy cow – and great milk producers. Higher lactose but less cream than Jersey and Guernsey cattle and are genetically predisposed towards the production of both the A1 and A2 protein in their milk.

Jerseys
From the Island of Jersey in the English Channel. Mostly a pale honey colour, these cows are a smaller breed but they produce delicious creamy milk. They keep on keeping on well into old age. Higher cream content in the milk than most breeds and both Jersey and Guernsey's produce between 25-50% more riboflavin (vitamin B2) in their milk than Holstien/Fresian cows. Some Jersey cattle produce only the A2 protein in their milk - selective breeding has been used to create entire herds that produce only A2 milk.

Guernseys
They too come from the English Channel Islands. They have a quiet nature, a result of tethering. Their cute pink noses and golden yellow colour are highlighted by distinctive white markings. Like the Jersey, Guernseys produce more milk fat (cream) and riboflavin. Prettiest cow to decorate your paddocks with and having milked these on occasion I can attest to their placid nature.

Ayrshire
From Scotland of course! These are good-looking medium-sized cows, with strong facial features, dark browny-red (roan) and white in colour.

Ayrshire milk is considered to be an excellent drinking milk as it is well balanced between fats, proteins and lactose. It has an excellent flavour and is often selected as the 'best tasting' milk in blind taste tests. It also has an unusual characteristic - the fat particles area smaller and more evenly distributed in the milk which makes Ayrshire milk particularly good for secondary dairy products like cheese.

Ayrshire milk is about 3.9% fat by mass and each cow can produce around 80,000 kilograms of milk in its lifetime. There is an Ayrshire producer in the Toodyay area with amazingly good milk in glass bottles - the Avon Valley Dairy and I have enjoyed their milk in the past. I haven't been able to get it lately.

Australian Illawarra Shorthorns
Developed in Australia from the imported Shorthorn breed. These are attractive, chunky cows with a rich reddish colour and occasional flashes of white on their flanks.

Dairy Shorthorns
Travellers with the first fleet, these big, strong cows are bred for milk and beef and are identified by their coats of red with white blotches.

Australian Friesian Sahiwals (AFS)
These stoic cows can put up with a lot! Harsh conditions, hot weather, and those annoying little tics and parasites. They too are red-brown in colour.

Australian Milking Zebus (AMZ)
A new cow on the block, bred to make milk under tough tropical conditions. They come in various colours, but gold and fawn are the most common.

The last four breeds I have not had much experience of but I do remember the cross-breeding program that was underway in the 1980's to develop warm climate dairy herds - it looks like they succeeded with at least two of the approaches.


The goodies in milk:

• Calcium
• (sometime milk is 'fortified' with additional vitamin D which
promotes the absorption of calcium and enhances bone mineralization.
• Protein - milk proteins are complex with a full range of amino acids making it a very good source.
• Potassium
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B12
• Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
• Niacin
• Phosphorus
• Lactose (milk sugar)
• Fat (cream)

To be a nice tasting milk, all of the above need to be in balance but the various proportions depend on a number of factors including the breed of cattle, the feed the cattle are eating and the time of year. Ideally you'd want a supply of milk from a dairy that is close by so that the milk does not have to travel too much. In Australia much dairy country has in recent years been put to other uses and very few cities now have the dairy supply in the immediate vicinity to the city.

The milk of Holstein/Friesian cows is a little sweeter due to the higher lactose content of their milk, but slightly less creamy than the milk from Jersey and Guernsey cattle. Holstein/Friesian’s (the black and white cow of familiar diary images) is an amazing producer. They are very fertile and have more milking seasons than other breeds and produce, in volume each day, more milk than other breeds.

The Jersey and Guernsey cows with their higher cream content and favoured for cream production. Cream has a high market value (butter, cheese and a whole host of value added dairy products) so it suits large dairies to ‘skim’ some cream from all their milk supply standardising whole milk to on-sell or use in value-added products.

Dairies LOVE people who drink skim milk!

On average, whole milk has 3.6g of fat per 100 ml of fluid. Normally this amount of fat will change throughout the year – if feed is thin on the ground the cows are able to put less fat into the milk because they are using it themselves. Always with milk you have to remember that the real purpose of production (from the cow’s perspective) is to feed its young. The nature of milk means that it must have fairly high nutritional value as a calf grows fairly rapidly and needs to consume a good amount of milk to mature to the point where it can be weaned to pasture.

Areas that have good pasture cover (green growing stuff) generally have better quality milk than areas where dry fodder such as hay and feed pellets have to substitute for extended periods. Most cattle do get supplementary feed (usually fortified with nutritional additives for good balance) but best flavour in milk seems to occur when green feed is the dominant food.

It is no coincidence then that ‘dairy country’ is almost always an area with rolling hills and good rainfall – perfect for pasture species. All the way from the grass on the hill to the coffee cup is quite a trip, but just as proper selection, roasting and blending of beans is important for the brown half of your latte so milk selection is important for the rest.

Selecting a good milk for steaming is not too difficult.

• It should be as fresh as you can get it, and should have little or no odour (not a strong ‘milky’ smell)
• You need to warm it very slightly to around 15 degrees Celsius. If you try to taste it much colder than this then the cold dulls your senses and hides some defects.
• Sip it lightly letting it flow across your palate and inhale a little air through your mouth then exhale to carry the aromas to your nose.

It should be sweet, have a velvety creamy texture, very slight buttery note – with some experience you may be able to learn what feed the cows have been on (grasses, clovers, lucerne etc all impart different flavours to the milk if they are the main source of fodder). Other things that can change the flavour are bacteriological activity, chemical changes (such as overheating during pasteurisation) or accidental inclusion of foreign material post milking (rare).

The breed of cow and the health of the individual cow can also change the milk flavour. Naturally in large volumes defects resulting from individual animals may not be apparent.

Australian’s love milky coffees, and the same rule for coffee applies to milk – you can make a bad coffee with good milk but you can’t make a good coffee with bad milk.

At least if you have good milk you are in with a chance!

Don't forget - Drink Coffee!

Caffeine Reverses Memory Impairment In Mice With Alzheimer's Symptoms

Shared via AddThis

Science Daily carries a report from the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease describing a critical new research finding involving mice that have been genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's Disease.

The study finds that not only does caffeine have a preventative benefit but in sufficient doses (around 500mg per day) it can reverse the build-up of beta amyloid in the brain and restore some memory function previously lost.

This opens up the possibility of human clinical trials with a view to determining of caffeine is a viable treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.


Full details can be found in the back-to-back journal articles reporting the research findings:

Gary W Arendash, Takashi Mori, Chuanhai Cao, Malgorzata Mamcarz, Melissa Runfeldt, Alexander Dickson, Kavon Rezai-Zadeh, Jun Tan, Bruce A Citron, Xiaoyang Lin, Valentina Echeverria, and Huntington Potter.

Caffeine Reverses Cognitive Impairment and Decreases Brain Amyloid Levels in Aged Alzheimer's Disease Mice. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Volume 17:3 (July 2009)

Chuanhai Cao, John R Cirrito, Xiaoyang Lin, Lilly Wang, Deborah K Verges, Alexander Dickson, Malgorzata Mamcarz, Chi Zhang, Takashi Mori, Gary W Arendash, David M Holzman, and Huntington Potter.

Caffeine Suppresses Amyloid Levels in Plasma and Brain of Alzheimer's Disease Transgenic Mice. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Volume 17:3 (July 2009)

Brain Surgery

Via Orac at Respectful Insolence

Milk Head2Head

Following yesterday's post on A2 milk I decided to follow it up with a head to head milk challenge.

A2 with the Beta Casein difference up against Bannister Downs, a top notch local.

First things first - milk preference is ENTIRELY subjective - we all like different things in milk so I will report on two thing - the observable facts and my subjective experience of the final results.

I purchased one litre of each milk at Sister's IGA in Joondalup. Each had the same 'best before' date, 12 July.

I measured 200ml of each - enough for a small flat white.

My first test was odour - milk that has a strong 'milky' smell often overpowers the coffee - neither had a strong odour, in fact the A2 was almost odourless. The Bannister Downs had a very slight fresh milk smell.

I had not intentionally considered colour as a factor - until I looked at each jug side by side. There was a distinct difference with the Bannister Downs having a slight creamy colour and the A2 an almost pristine white. I'm hoping it shows up in the photo but the colour difference, although slight, was apparent to the naked eye.




I poured two shots in identical stainless steel cups and then commenced steaming the milk.

The very first difference I noticed was the time to heat - the A2 'ran hot' as in it heated up much faster than the Bannister Downs. (I ran the steam wand for 10 seconds before each to try and minimise differences in temperature and pressure).

Both gave a fine creamy, glossy microfoam although I'd have to say that the A2 seemed slightly finer.

It did not seem to be as easy to intergrate the foam into the milk with the A2 and this shows in the final pours with the Bannister Downs being much more responsive for latte art purposes.

However - it is the taste that is critical for me. Mrs Grendel and I both tasted the results and it is a split verdict.

The Bannister Downs was distinctly creamier and richer and I would suggest that it might have a higher cream proportion - both colour and mouthfeel suggest this.

The A2 however had a much lighter taste and did not dominate the coffee at all which surprised and pleased me.

The Bannister Downs did have a more prominent flavour profile, which while pleasant, would not necessarily allow some more subtle coffee blends to strut their stuff.


The Verdict

I liked the A2 better with this coffee - it is a high quality milk for sure but you are likely to suffer from 'sticker shock' at a price of $3.04 for a litre.

Mrs Grendel liked the Bannister Downs and noted in particular its additional creaminess. The price also is a little easier to swallow at $1.99 for a litre.

As I discussed yesterday, A2 milk is claimed to have a number of health benefits for people with particular conditions. On the current evidence I would not be able to support that it can actually do what is claimed in that respect, however that doesn't mean that it is not a high quality dairy product.

On balance I think the Bannister Downs has the edge - costing 1/3 less with a creamy profile and good balanced palate it is a great local milk. The A2 is interesting and while I personally preferred it I would have a very hard time justifying the additional expense for the very slight difference in the cup.

Friday Night Music

This will date me somewhat. . .

A relative bought me this record for my 11th birthday. A travesty in many ways (due to its utter bastardisation of some great music) it nevertheless did its job. I am now and always will be an appreciator of classical music. Ok I've moved on from classical through baroque and into early music but THAT journey probably would not have happened unless I'd once listed to this record until it wore out.

I thus love it and hate it in equal measure.

A2 Milk

I saw a carton of milk recently being used for coffee - and it was not a carton I had seen before - it had 'A2' on the side in quite dramatic font.

A2 Beta Casein is one of the proteins in cow's milk but is not exclusively present in the milk of all cows usually occuring with another protein - A1. The gene for producing only the A2 Beta Casein occurs naturally in some cattle and they can be DNA tested to see if they have the correct genotype. The main difference is that A1 has a Histidine amino acid while A2 has a Proline amino acid.

It is claimed that the Proline Amino acid can help you digest through the release of bioactive peptides. I say ‘claimed’ because although there are a number of studies cited in support I note that several of the Journal’s such as “Medical Hypotheses” are renowned as less-than-stellar sources of authoritative data since they are not peer reviewed journals and have a reputation for publishing material that is often little more than quackery.

It has been claimed, for example, that A2 milk is less allergenic than A1 however clinical tests have demonstrated that there is little if any allergenic difference between the two.

It has also been claimed that conditions as diverse as autism, diabetes and heart disease can be linked to A1 milk, but not A2. This is a dangerously misleading claim since again there is as yet little evidence that suggests that A1 milk in normal quantities is at all harmful or that A2 is clinically beneficial (to any greater or lesser degree than A1).

Essentially what you get is milk. You pay a little extra in the hope that may what is claimed it will do – but you can’t really know.

For the purposes of making coffee however you may inadvertently be hitting onto a good thing for totally unrelated reasons.

The production of A2 milk requires close attention to herd and production facilities and these are audited by the A2 corporation.

It is also ‘small batch’ production comparatively which means that the overall standards may be higher than at some of the bulk dairies.

It is certainly fresh and creamy and makes beautiful microfoam – but I have to point out, NONE of that is because it has one slightly different protein and is likely to be either confirmation bias (I paid extra so it MUST be good!) or the result of the aforementioned quality control.

Given that we have producers such as Bannister Downs producing superb quality ordinary A1 milk that to my tastes is superior to the A2 milk then I can’t see any reason why you need to pay extra for health benefits that probably do not exist.

(Image via Wikipedia)

Bek's blog: Utegate, as told by LOLCATS

Bek's blog: Utegate, as told by LOLCATS

On Coffee Blogging

When I commenced writing about my subjective coffee experience I had no idea of just how interesting life would become as a result of writing about coffee.

I am now immersed in another world - a caffeine fuelled subculture as complex as any sociologist could desire. Me - I'm in it for the coffee!

The interest in coffee - and writing about it all happened at the same time that Junior Grendel Number One was diagnosed with autism. We like many families, received services from the Autism Association of WA and it was probably inevitable that the two should interact.

I deliberately have kept coffee as a hobby, I like my work and don't wish for my hobby to intrude (too much) on my workplace, and keeping my coffee blogging in the 'hobby' sphere has also been a good thing. It turns out that life is not that simple and now I see an amazing tapestry that weaves through my life with people from work, family, organisations and businesses all linked through my coffee hobby.

This has been an amazing experience and when we started fundraising for the Autism association the response from the coffee community was the most generous that I have ever seen. As a parent that makes me immensely grateful, as a coffee lover that makes me very proud.

Lately I have not been getting out to many cafes - I don't eat much at the moment so I tend to skip most of the morning treats I used to indulge in. I am finding however that I miss the people in those cafes and I miss writing about the experience that can be had in Perth's best coffee venue.

I'm going to make an extra effort to get back out there and see what is on offer - I can't promise my writing will improve much, but I'll work on it.

I do find that I want to write a blog at the most inconvenient moments - usually while sitting in a cafe with nothing to hand but an already used paper napkin and more than one blog post has been sketched out around a smear of jam.

I've not managed to attach to myself the enviable technological blogging aids that I have seen in the hands of others. I have 'borrowed' Junior Grendel Number One's laptop on more than one occasion when I knew that I'd be visiting a venue I wanted to cover in depth.

Tonight I saw a competition for a laptop and it is a good one - pretty much what any blogger could dream of - however I think I am going have to work on my creativity a bit to win it. The competition is based on skill, not luck, which is good since it inevitably should promote people's creative juices.

I'm struggling tonight though! Perhaps if I opened that bottle of port and alternated that with shots of espresso. . .

Great with coffee!

Recently I discovered that a local store stock walnuts. I've never been a big fan of walnuts finding them too bitter and with a slightly rancid oil flavour.

It turns out this was not too far off the mark, walnut oil, like many light vegetable oils does go rancid and sadly many of the walnuts that I have tried previously have been imported from California and of unknown vintage.

The local shop has Tasmanian walnuts and I thought I would try them as a way of increasing my intake of omega-3.

Wow - really really different.

These are bigger and sweeter than the import with a nice level of traditional walnutty bitterness but none of the rancid oil notes. We did a blind taste test between the Tasmanian and Californian walnuts to see if it was a parochial bias, but there was a clear difference for everyone who tried them - the 'fresh is best' rule holds true.

They also go really really well with coffee - not a pairing I would have considered but since the walnuts are on my desk at work I've been eating them when I have my morning plunger.

Every so often you'll get a nut just a bit sweeter than some of the others and hit a hint of maple flavour that makes me think of pecans. Keep an eye out for the Tassie nuts, they are superb.