Some of the foods and flavors you experience in Asia capture your imagination and drive you to find them again back in the West. My first “food moment” came just the second night we were in China – a bowl of beef noodle soup in our little hotel restaurant. It cost just US$1 but was the most flavorful and tender meat I’d ever eaten. Since then, other foods and places have become icons to my heart (and stomach) – congee in Hong Kong, Japadogs in Vancouver, and a beverage called “milk coffee” in Tokyo.

A coworker who’d lived in France and traveled widely in Japan called milk coffee “just café au lait,” but that doesn’t really describe its texture or taste, or the role it plays in daily life  in East and Southeast Asia.

Imagine a really smooth glass of chocolate milk, but with the rich roasted note – and caffeine kick – as a great cup of coffee. Then imagine it available in cans at every vending machine – and those machines warm the cans in the winter and chill them in the summer. Imagine it in 1-liter and 2-liter cartons at every convenience store and grocery, selling as fast as regular milk, and at a similar price. Imagine not just the dairy producers, but all the soft drink companies, beer brewers, and even tobacco companies offering competing brands. THAT’S how important milk coffee is in Asia.

                          Coffee vending machine at the Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo  (weninchina photo)

And it barely even registers in the mainland U.S. mass market.

I’ve been searching the stores here in Minneapolis and around the world on my travels for a good cup of milk coffee, and I’ll periodically review what I find on this site. Let’s help milk coffee’s popularity in North America grow!

Milk Coffee Review Criteria:

1.Creaminess. On the one side are the super-dense drinks like Vietnamese Café Su’a made with condensed milk, almost toffee-like in thickness. On the other side is watered-down coffee. An ideal milk coffee texture should resemble 2% milk – not too fatty but not too watery. Our scale is 0 = water; 10 = thick condensed milk.

2.Flavor. This is a more-complicated judgment, subject to individuals’ taste – as all the different drink options at Starbucks will attest. There seems to be a four-way balance in the drinks I’ve tried: water – chocolate – milk – espresso. A good milk coffee doesn’t have to shy away from cocoa notes but can’t ignore the coffee beans (otherwise it’s just chocolate milk.) Our scale looks at M = Milk; C = Chocolate; E = Espresso. 0 on the scale is weak; 10 is overpowering.

3.Price per serving. Milk coffee is supposed to be an everyday beverage, not a premium treat.

4.Caffeine punch. 0 for no effect; 10 for jarring.

The products in today’s review are:

Seattle’s Best Coffee® Iced Mocha, from the U.S.

Seattle’s Best, a division of Starbucks since 2003, sells beans through grocery stores, offers beverages through quick-service restaurants like Burger King, and franchises its own chain of cafes. Canned lattes are their newest product and are widely distributed through grocers and mass merchants like Target.

At present, Seattle’s Best offers three varieties of this beverage - standard latte, vanilla, and mocha. I am a bit partial to chocolate so I’ve tried the mocha; the basic latte is next on my to-try list...

1. 1.Creaminess - 4: while I could tell the product had blended milk solids with the coffee, overall the texture is close to skim milk.
   

2. 2.Flavor - This is the mocha version, so the chocolate is supposed to be pronounced. They do about as good as they probably can with a shelf-stable product, and balance it well with the coffee flavor. The milk flavor note is on the weak side. E = 6; C = 6; M = 4
   

3. 3.Price - a four-pack usually goes for $4.99, so $1.25 each
   

4. 4.Punch - 4: about the same as a plain cup of coffee
   

Recommendation: If you haven’t had the real thing, this would be the entry-level product to try before going to Asia. I wish they could get the price below the $1 mark; as it is you might skip a drive-through coffee in the summer to have one of these instead.

Pokka Milk Coffee, imported from Singapore

Pokka is one of Japan’s leading coffee companies, with a network of cafes across Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. They also are big in the soup market, and products made from lemons. Products intended for export are made by their Singapore division.

Our great Asian market here in Minneapolis, United Noodles, brought in this vendor’s products and had them on sale last weekend, so I grabbed a can out of curiosity.

1. 1.Creaminess - 2: I could feel the particles of milk solids swirling around in the water; not very well blended.
   

2. 2.Flavor - Almost no cocoa in this one; again the milk wasn’t very strong. More like a cold cup of fast-food coffee. E = 6; C = 1; M = 2
   

3. 3.Price - on sale for 79 cents; however most Japanese canned coffees retail around $1.99 so we’ll see where this one levels out...
   

4. 4.Punch - 4: didn’t seem any stronger than a regular cup of joe from the office coffeemaker
   

Recommendation: if the price does indeed go up to almost $2, pass on this one. You’re better off making your own pot of iced coffee.

Freeze Milk Coffee, imported from Thailand

The Freeze brand comes from Thai company Nuboon, and is used extensively for their exports of fruit juices and coffee drinks. United Noodles is my usual source for this beverage, too.

1. 1.Creaminess - 7: definitely thicker than whole milk, not quite to half-and-half. Amazingly for a shelf-stable beverage, you can’t detect any “milk particles” at all; it’s thoroughly blended. For a 190 ml can, you feel you’ve actually consumed more than with the other two products reviewed. Because it’s so thick, you have to take sips instead of pounding the can down.
   

2. 2.Flavor - Very strong coffee and milk flavors; little if any cocoa. E = 8; C = 2; M = 6
   

3. 3.Price - 79 cents individually, although they also sell it in cases of 30 cans for about $21... which is 70 cents each. This is a very good price for America.
   

4. 4.Punch - 8: If I drink just one of these little cans in the early evening, I’m up until well after midnight. Thai coffee is (in)famous for having a kick and this product affirms that reputation.
   

Recommendation: if the taste or chemical cocktail of Red Bull isn’t your thing, but you still want the jolt, this is the beverage you’re after. Great flavor and a rich texture, too, at a very attractive price.