Give Your Morning Coffee A Flavor Upgrade With This Old School Ingredient

While there are plenty of people who enjoy starting each morning with a black coffee (the healthiest way to drink the beverage), it's no secret many people enjoy adding more flavor to the mix. You'll often find people using dairy products like milk or cream, but one underrated upgrade you can make to your coffee actually comes from malted milk powder. We spoke to home coffee expert and former barista Matt Woodburn-Simmonds about the use of malted milk in coffee, and he was incredibly supportive of the old-school ingredient's merits as a mix-in. 

"Malted milk powder would add an extra layer of flavor with a sweet umami background note and a creamy texture, assuming it was dissolved properly," Woodburn-Simmonds explained. "This might be especially nice in darker, more bitter coffee where the umami and sweetness will complement the roasty flavors of the coffee." The complex flavor of the ingredient — which comes from malted barley, wheat flour, salt, and dried milk — makes malted milk powder a great upgrade for brownies, cookies, pancakes, and, of course, coffee.

Now, as Woodburn-Simmonds alluded to, it's important the malted milk powder dissolves into the coffee correctly if you want to achieve a nice, balanced flavor. "The best way to add malted milk powder and ensure it fully dissolves is by starting with it in your cup and then adding the hot coffee," Woodburn-Simmonds revealed. If you prefer iced coffee in the morning, there's an additional step you'll need to follow to get the right taste and texture. "The easiest way to ensure no lumps when adding it to iced coffee or cold brew is to dissolve it in a small amount of hot water and then add that to your cold coffee."

From there, adding warm spices to the mix would make a fitting complement to the rich flavor which malt milk powder provides. While using a DIY pumpkin spice blend is a choice we undoubtedly recommend, Woodburn-Simmonds has his own go-to additives for malted milk coffee. "Clove and nutmeg can work really well with your coffee and malted milk," he advised. "Not just due to the heady aromatics but the nostalgia of these spices associated with cozy evenings and sweet treats or drinks."