Immersion · Milk
Café au lait: brewed coffee and hot milk
Café au lait is brewed coffee with hot milk, and it needs no espresso machine.
- Coffee
- 15 g
- Cup
- 340 ml
- Temp
- 94 °C
- Time
- 6:20
That is what separates it from a latte: the coffee is a full-volume brew, not a shot, so the drink is lighter and less intense, and the milk is simply heated rather than steamed into foam. This page builds it from a French press, the brewer most kitchens already own, and serves it in a wide bowl. Nothing here is hard. The two jobs are making coffee strong enough to stand up to the milk, and heating milk without a skin. If you do own an espresso machine, the latte is the closer cousin.
The spec
| Part | Amount |
|---|---|
| Coffee dose | 15 g |
| Brew water | 250 g at 94 °C (1:16.7) |
| Grind | French press, coarse (CupTune range 900 to 1300 microns) |
| Brewed coffee in the bowl | about 200 ml |
| Hot milk | 140 ml |
| Liquid in the cup | 340 ml |
| Cup | 400 ml latte bowl, so the drink fills 85 % of it |
| Milk temperature | 55 to 65 °C |
| Total time | 380 seconds |
The coffee yield is lower than the water you pour in, because grounds hold water back. A common planning figure is that dry coffee keeps about twice its weight in water, which would leave 250 − 30 = about 220 ml. CupTune's page uses about 200 ml because you will leave the last of the cup in the press to avoid grit. Both numbers are authored estimates.
You need
- A French press of at least 350 ml.
- A grinder, and a scale that reads to 0.1 g.
- A kettle, and a small pan or microwave-safe jug for the milk.
- A thermometer.
- A 400 ml bowl or wide cup.
Ratio 1:16.7 · Grind: coarse · grind chart
Starting ranges come from your grinder maker’s own guide. Burrs, beans and calibration vary, so treat them as where to begin.
Steps
- 0:00, Pour 250 g at 94 °C onto 15 g.
Put 15 g of coarse coffee in the press. Pour 250 g of water at about 94 °C over all of it. Stir gently once and put the lid on, plunger up.
- 0:15, Steep with the lid on.
Leave it. Four minutes of steep plus the time to pour and plunge matches the five-minute French press preset.
- 4:25, Press slowly and decant.
Push the plunger down slowly, over about half a minute. Pour the coffee out right away. Coffee left on the grounds keeps extracting.
- 5:00, Heat 140 ml milk to about 60 °C.
Heat 140 ml of milk in a pan over low heat, stirring, or in a jug in the microwave in short bursts. Stop at 60 °C, before it simmers. Whisk for a few seconds if you want a little froth.
- 6:00, Pour coffee, add milk, stir.
Pour about 200 ml of coffee into the bowl, then add the milk. Stir once.
My notes for this recipe
Why a bowl
Café au lait is traditionally associated with France, and in the home it is often drunk from a wide bowl rather than a tall cup. CupTune offers this only as a serving convention, not a rule. A bowl is useful here for a practical reason: 340 ml of liquid fits it with room to stir, and you can hold it with both hands. A 350 ml mug is slightly tight at this volume.
Why these numbers
94 °C and 1:16.7. These are CupTune's existing French press preset: 30 g to 500 g, scaled down to 15 g and 250 g. They are authored. A controlled study by Batali, Ristenpart and Guinard (2020) brewed drip coffee at 87, 90 and 93 °C at fixed strength and extraction and found brew temperature had no appreciable impact on the sensory profile. It was drip coffee, not a press, so read it as a hint that a few degrees either way will not break this recipe.
Strong enough for milk. The preset's ratio is a standard filter strength. Milk dilutes it, so some people make the brew stronger, around 1:14. CupTune has no data on that preference, and 1:16.7 is a place to start. If the drink tastes thin, raise the dose to 17 g.
140 ml of milk. Authored. It is a little under half the drink. Raise it for a milder bowl.
55 to 65 °C. Authored. Milk that boils forms a skin and can taste cooked. The one peer-reviewed milk-temperature study we found, Klimanova et al. (2022), steam-frothed milk from 30 to 80 °C and reports 50 to 60 °C as the best final temperature for microfoam. It studied steam foam, not milk warmed in a pan, so this page treats it as a hint and keeps the range as an authored starting point.
If it looks or tastes wrong
- Gritty. Fine particles passed the mesh. Grind coarser, pour slowly and leave the last of the cup.
- Weak and pale. Raise the dose to 17 g, or steep for four and a half minutes. Change one thing at a time. The grind size guide explains the rest.
- Bitter. The coffee sat on the grounds. Decant right after pressing.
- A skin on the milk. It sat too hot. Stir while heating and stop earlier.
Treat these fixes as CupTune's judgement rather than tested rules.
Evidence and limits
Two studies are cited here, and neither tested this drink: the temperature study used drip coffee and the milk study used steam-frothed foam. The ratio, the 200 ml yield, the milk volume and every time are authored. The idea that café au lait is a French home drink served in a bowl is a convention CupTune did not source. These steps were not tested on a specific press.
Questions
Is café au lait the same as a latte?
No. A latte starts with espresso and uses steamed milk. This starts with a full brew and uses simply heated milk.
Can I use a pour-over instead?
Yes. Brew 250 g of water through 15 g of coffee and use the rest of the page unchanged. The calculator scales the dose.
Do I need a frother?
No. A small whisk is enough. Stopping before a simmer matters more.