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The Best Milk Frothers of 2026
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Instant Milk Frother
The Instant Milk Frother creates billows of foam regardless of what type of milk you use or whether you want it hot or cold. Plus, it has a handle, spout, and multiple settings. Read More
Pros
- Inexpensive
- Froths all milk types well
- Includes handle and spout
Cons
- Not dishwasher safe
Breville BMF600XL Milk Café
Milk foam aficionados will love this stainless steel frother. It can turn a large volume of milk into billows of froth and can whip up several mugs of hot cocoa as well. Read More
Pros
- Well designed
- Froths all types of milk well
- Dishwasher safe pitcher
Cons
- Frothing times can be long
- Takes up countertop space
- Expensive
Nespresso Aeroccino3
Only works with milk, and only whips up to four ounces. But if you're buying a frother exclusively to make one or two lattes at a time, it's our top choice. Read More
Pros
- Compact
- Sleek-looking
- Froths quickly
Cons
- Only froths milk
- Only froths a small quantity
- Not intuitive to froth cold milk
Capresso froth PLUS
A trifecta of moderate price, excellent frothing, and versatility. While some milk stuck to the bottom, it can go in the dishwasher for easy scrubbing. Read More
Pros
- Can froth up to 1 cup
- Creates foamy clouds
- Dishwasher safe
Cons
- Long frothing times
- Not stylish
Smeg MFF01
If you’re committed to frothed milk, have lots of counter space, and really care about design, you'll love this stunning machine. As you'd expect, it’s top-notch at creating foam, but can be slow. Read More
Pros
- Stunning design
- Creates foamy clouds of milk
- Dishwasher-safe pitcher
Cons
- Expensive
- Takes up a lot of counter space
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Instant Milk Frother
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Breville the Milk Café
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Other Milk Frothers We Tested
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How We Test Milk Frothers
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A Note About Handheld and Manual Milk Frothers
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More Articles You Might Enjoy
- Best Overall Milk Frother Instant Milk Frother
- Best Upgrade Milk Frother Breville the Milk Café
- Other Milk Frothers We Tested
- How We Test Milk Frothers
- A Note About Handheld and Manual Milk Frothers
- More Articles You Might Enjoy
The Rundown
- Our favorite milk frothers are the Instant Milk Frother and the Breville the Milk Café.
- The Instant Milk Frother excels at frothing all milk types, hot or cold, and offers great value with convenient features like a handle and spout.
- The Breville Milk Café is a premium option, frothing larger volumes of milk with precise temperature control and a dishwasher-safe pitcher for easy cleaning.
If your espresso machine doesn’t include a steaming milk attachment, you can easily heat and whip your own topping for cappuccinos and lattes with an electric milk frother. In addition, one of these devices can warm milk for a bedtime treat, or froth cold milk to cap an iced brew or chocolate milk.
To find which will create a perfect foamy topping, we chose some of the most popular automatic frothers on the market and bought a whole lot of dairy, almond, soy, and oat milk. It’s a good thing I like my coffee with milk because I downed way too many cappuccinos in search of our favorite!
Our extensive testing found the Instant Milk Frother (available at Amazon) is the best at frothing and steaming milk regardless of what kind of milk we used and whether we used a hot or cold setting. Surprisingly, it was also the most reasonably priced
If you’re completely dedicated to foam on your coffee, consider our best upgrade pick, Breville the Milk Café (available at Amazon), which can whip up a larger volume of milk and has lots of bells and whistles.
The Instant Milk Frother, made by the company that made the Instant Pot famous, is our favorite milk frother.
We love the bells and whistles on the Breville the Milk Café, so we named it our Best Upgrade pick.
Other Milk Frothers We Tested
How We Test Milk Frothers
I tested 13 of the most popular electric models, evaluating each on its versatility, how easy it was to use, how quickly it took, and how well it frothed both hot and cold, whole and nonfat dairy milk. We also tried a few of our best performing frothers using alternative milks such as almond, soy, and oat milks.
If you’re a bit hesitant to purchase a frother just to treat yourself to the kind of cappuccinos you can order from your favorite coffee shops, being able to use it for other purposes like whipping up an indulgent mug of cocoa or a hot toddy may justify the splurge. That’s why we gave extra credit to ones that can be used with other beverages besides milk.
We considered the clarity and thoroughness of the manual and how easy it was to use the controls and clean the appliance.
When it came to frothing, we measured how long it took to whip whole and nonfat milk and the temperature and volume of the foamed milk. We looked for milk that was whipped to at least half its volume and mounted in peaks. On hot settings, we looked for temps that were not too low to cool off your coffee nor too high to scald the milk and ruin its flavor.
We found a few constants: All of the products left some unthickened milk in the pitcher to pour into latte or cappuccino before adding the frothy topping.
Using whole milk yielded soft clouds that we could mound on top of an espresso yet stir in smoothly. With skim milk, we got a larger volume and a stiffer foam. While soy, almond, and oat milks thickened into the consistency of very softly whipped cream rather than a foam. Plant based milks don’t always froth as well, but oat milk is popular for rendering good foam.
A Note About Handheld and Manual Milk Frothers
There are many different types of milk frothers out there. Battery-operated handheld milk frothers, like the super popular PowerLix Milk Fother (available at Amazon) or Zulay Milk Boss Milk Frother (available at Amazon), have the advantage of being inexpensive and easy to stash in a drawer. Many, but not all, work quite well at producing a large volume of frothed milk with very little left unfrothed.
In fact, when we tested the handheld model from Aerolatte (available at Amazon), it produced the largest volume of any frother we tested and left virtually nothing unfrothed. It even did a reasonably good job with almond and soy milk.
So why would you prefer one of the automated frothers instead? For one, using a handheld frother means you have to heat your own milk, being careful to just warm it without scalding it. To get beyond the softly whipped cream stage takes up to two minutes, and you must hold the gadget the entire time. Many require that you keep your finger pressed on the switch while you’re frothing, making them particularly tedious to operate.
You can also purchase manual frothers that look like French presses, like the HIC Milk Creamer Frother (available at Amazon) or the BonJour Milk Frother (available at Amazon).
They work by pumping a frothing device up and down. In general, they’re less effective than the ones with batteries. It's a great gadget to add to your arsenal of kitchen tools.
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Meet the tester
Sharon Franke
Contributor
Sharon has tested and reviewed kitchen equipment for over 30 years. Before becoming a cooking tools maven, she worked as a professional chef in New York City restaurants.
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