Manual Vs. Electric Milk Frother: Which Is Best For You?

This article compares the manual vs. electric milk frother to help you decide which is the better option for your coffee drinking needs.

Manual vs. electric milk frother
Milk frothers can make you enjoy a low-cost homemade espresso

If you don’t have a fancy coffee machine that makes cappuccinos or espresso drinks, then fret not. You can still enjoy your favorite frothy drinks at home without the expense of a fancy machine.

I would recommend investing in a manual or electronic milk frother instead. They are a low-cost option for enjoying milky espresso drinks at home.

What Are Milk Frothers And What Do They Do?

A manual milk frother involves pumping the milk by hand until it turns into a foamy texture. It requires a bit more effort on your part versus the electronic frother. The electronic one stays running until the time you set for it to shut off or until you feel the milk is foamy enough.

What Do The Manual And Electronic Milk Frother Have In Common?

frothy dalgona
Both types of milk frothers allow you to create foamy milk for your drink

Milk frothers are used to create the foamy milk used to create cappuccinos and other milky espresso-based coffees. Both manual and electronic frothers enable you to mimic how your preferred barista makes your favorite coffee drink.

You can do this with either a manual or electronic frother without leaving the house. Drinks made with them include cappuccinos, mochas, lattes, and more. You might even try making an iced cappuccino with cold foam.

Manual Vs. Electric Milk Frother: The Differences

The primary difference involves the number of settings and the amount of work required to use either type. You can create foam at room temperature with the manual version, and it’s perfect if you want a substance that resembles whipped topping.

However, you might find the way some electronic frothers allow for different whipping speeds. It also might enable you to use different types of milk, including skim, whole, almond, or soy.

What’s Better About The Manual Milk Frother?

You can take the manual milk frother just about anywhere. It requires no battery power or electricity. It also doesn’t call for any kind of heat, yet it still whisks milk into foam. However, you can try heating the milk before using it in the manual frother.

Manual frothers generally cost less than electronic ones because they only have a few parts. You also can control how fast or slow you pump the milk to achieve desired foaming results.

What’s Better About The Electric Milk Frother?

Breville vs. Nespresso milk frother
Electric milk frothers offer you many options

You usually have more options than with a manual frother. You can even get electric milk frothers that offer you automated settings, making your milk precisely like you hoped it would turn out for your drink.

The automation process of an electronic frother puts less pressure on you to make everyone’s drink just right, especially for guests. Besides, some electric or battery-powered frothers have heating elements that warm the milk to the optimum temperature to create the foam texture you want. If you liked this post, you might be interested in learning how do you keep frothed milk frothed.

Who Should Get The Manual Frother?

If you’re not too fussy about how the foam comes out, I think the manual frother would work just fine for you. You might also consider it a privilege to have the small amount of exercise required to pump the manual frother as a part of your morning activity routine. A manual frother is also a good choice if you want to cut down on your energy costs.

Who Should Get The Electronic Frother?

I recommend the electronic frother for those who don’t want to deal with the extra work required to make the manual milk frother work. Depending on the type of frother you buy, you also might have different speed options. Electronic frothers allow for the most versatility when creating foamed milk and are great for those that are more serious about their coffee.

The different speeds offered by some electric frothing devices come in handy when creating drinks for multiple people. What’s more, an electric milk frother will help those suffering from arthritis, inflammation, carpal tunnel syndrome, or any other such ailment to enjoy a nice milky espresso drink.

Author

  • Aisling O'Connor

    Aisling is an Irish food and drinks writer and journalist fueled by coffee and herbal tea. She followed up her journalism degree with nutrition studies. Find Aisling on LinkedIn.