Extra Rich Milk - The Return of the Royale

When I was in college in the late 80's I worked part time for a small Illy Caffe and La Pavoni espresso machine distributor in Oakland. He sent me all over the East Bay and San Francisco delivering Illy and repairing machines. At the shop, the little Italian repair guy, Silvano, taught us to pull double ristretto shots of Illy and top them with a modest amount of steamed "extra rich milk". In that shabby little business my affection for Illy was galvanized. Back then many of the cafes in Berkeley and San Francisco used extra rich milk to make cappuccinos (lattes weren't really a common drink). It was a widely available product, including on the Safeway shelves under the Lucerne label. As dietary fat became progressively demonized in the 1990's forward it essentially vanished from retail and professional channels.
A couple years back I did some poking around the internets to see exactly what extra rich milk was. I thought it was just higher fat content milk so I made my own version by putting a splash of cream or half & half in my pitcher of whole milk before steaming it. It was heavier and pretty good but didn't seem the same. I found a post on some random board from a dairy person who said that extra rich milk was slightly higher in fat content but also higher in milk proteins, which gave it an especially sweet profile. This rang true to me so I contacted Clover, Straus and other dairies to see if they still made it, but they did not.

A few weeks ago I almost fell out of my chair at work when I got a blast email from Straus promoting their Barista milks, including the newest one - Extra Rich! Was I dreaming? I looked up the local Straus outlets on the Central Coast. Lassen's no longer carries Straus and The Co-Op does carry their stuff but not this product. In fact they can't even order it. I contacted Straus and heard back from a very cool employee named Nancy who let me know the barista milks are only sold through commercial distributors - (not retail ones). On the Central Coast that is Challenge Dairy out of Santa Maria. She told me all about the development of the barista milks and confirmed that the extra rich milk did indeed have more milk proteins in addition to a slighty higher fat content. She gave me Challenge's contact info and, long story short, with the help of Sweet Pea Bakery as the landing spot, I was able to buy a case.

I was so excited to use it I was trembling as I steamed my first pitcher. I was also bracing myself for disappointment. I made a cappuccino at our office with no one around. I was happy. But I needed to audit my own findings to see if this was real or purely psycosomatic. Corona lockdown was being implemented but SLODOCO was still open. Heather was working and up for the evaluation. We made cappuccinos there and confirmed that there was a whole lot of deliciousness going on. Then Heather suggested tasting the steamed milk on its own and that was another revelation. It was so naturally sweet it almost tasted like a pinch of sugar had been added.
It is an awesome product and makes a great drink. I feel like a coffee to milk ratio greater than a cappuccino would be a waste, but the milk tastes so good that maybe my personal stricture is unnecessary. The next question is how expensive is it. I had to buy a case of 9 half gallons and it's about $5/half gallon. That is quite a bit more than regular milk but if you made a "cappuccino royale" and used 4 ounces of ERM at 8 cents an ounce that's only 32 cents. Add in the espresso, cup, lid and sleeve (actually an 8 oz cup doesn't need one) and your product cost is probably a buck. Or just upcharge it like any alternative milk. To be clear, I have nothing to sell. I'm just so excited to share the return of a glorious ingredient from the salad days of my coffee youth. If you want to get it, contact Challenge in Santa Maria. If you want to see if any of this is true, come by our office and I'll make you a Royale. I can't drink 9 jugs of this stuff before it goes bad...