Dairy/Dairy Alternatives

Hi all,

Quick question - we have a Bewleys coffee machine in work that grinds coffee beans and makes americanos, cappuccinos etc. It uses fresh cows milk, but the milk comes out of different tubes to the coffee. However, having watched the person in front of me get a frothy cappuccino, I think there is a possiblity of very small amounts of milk contaminating other coffees.
Do you worry about milk contamination from coffee machines? I'm wondering if I should start bringing my own coffee to work?

Hi

This is something I have wondered about. It is like to me when certain products say may contain milk or dairy. If you really look into this you will see this is just a disclaimer really to protect against litigation. When a product says this it means none of these products have been added but may have come into contact with the product you are using.
I don't actually know what to advise you but it is confusing when you are not actually adding these things, but avoiding them to know if you are doing right or wrong.

Valley

Morning hfox,

I would assume that the amount of dairy that may come into contact with your coffee from the machine would be fairy negligible. Granted I can't see what you're seeing. But if you are concerned, you could always bring coffee from home since it's better to be safe than sorry. Or perhaps request at a staff meeting that employees make sure to clean up the coffee machine after use as some of you may have food allergies. I have started using that excuse a lot because people seem to understand allergies versus trying to explain why it's bad for me if I'm not allergic per se.

I know exactly what you mean about "may contain...." My daughter has a nut allergy and only once in 6 years has a product that says "may contain nuts" actually caused her to have a reaction. However I think this is probably different as I suspect there is a very high chance of crossover between coffees; both nozzles on the coffee machine (coffee and milk) ended up dipped into the froth at the top of the cup containing the cappuccino and I'm fairly sure there would be tiny amounts of milk in the coffee tubes. So I guess my question is actually whether we are trying to keep milk intake as minimal as possible but a tiny amount is inevitable, (like for saturated fats) or whether even a tiny amount is detrimental and should be avoided at all costs.

I'd be tempted to clean the ends of the nozzles in hot, (boiling), water, then brew your coffee with clean nozzles.

At least that would be my way round the question, by reducing the minimum that you could be consuming, would be the best method, IMO!

But I drink my coffee black anyway!

What’s a good coffee machine (non capsule) for daily home use please?

Mrs Hillsplease would like a capsule machine I’d rather have the glorious faff of ‘proper’ coffee making, grounds, steam wands etc etc