Omnivore Atlanta

I start every day by making a latte. Because I’m lactose-intolerant, I make the foam with Lactaid, a brand of milk in which the lactose is broken down to make it more digestible by peeps like me.

For about two months, I’ve been unable to produce the appropriately thick micro-foam with my machine, an Estro-Profi. Instead I end up with large-bubble foam that quickly dissolves into my espresso, turning my drink into a cafe au lait.

I began to think that my machine had literally run out of steam but decided to try foaming some low-fat regular milk. Hurrah! I got the perfect topping for my latte.

This almost certainly means that the Lactaid is getting frozen somewhere in the production and delivery line. I’ve run into the problem a few times in years past, but, now, every container of the milk I buy from Publix is lousy for frothing.

I’ve emailed Lactaid’s producer, but have yet to hear back. Please, I don’t want to drink soy milk.

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LAVAZZA UPDATE: Our espresso nightmare is over. Whole Foods on Ponce de Leon is stocking Lavazza’s Qualita Oro again, but you really are not going to find any of the Italian company’s blends of robusta and arabica beans. I received this e-mail of explanation from Darrah Horgan of Whole Foods’ PR team:

“Whole Foods Market has specific quality standards for everything we carry, and our coffee is no different. We will continue to carry other Lavazza coffees, just not the ones containing the robusta beans. As our coffee coordinator explains it, arabica species is widely accepted as the best bean, and yields the best fruit.

Robusta beans are seen as an inferior bean, often used to mask certain flavors in other coffees. The bean is typically more harsh and bitter, and there is little accountability for the quality and source of these beans. It is grown predominantly in Vietnam, is often used for ground cover because it grows much like a weed, and is over-harvested, which, as I’m sure you know, is terrible for the land.

The robusta does generate more of a crema, or frothiness, produced in brewing, but our brand, Allegro, blends different types of Arabica beans to achieve this same quality crema.”

OK, well, far be it from me to recommend that anyone drink coffee that is like fruit of the kudzu vine. I wonder if Mrs. Olson (pictured above) knew her robusta-tainted Folgers was contributing to erosion in Vietnam. I’m just glad I can resume buying my coffee in the same place I feel guilty when I ask for plastic bags.

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I never thought of myself as a brand loyalist, but when I stopped at Whole Foods on Ponce de Leon Avenue to buy the espresso I use every morning and found they were no longer selling it, I went nuts.

The espresso is Lavazza, which is almost half the cost of $14 Illy, but whose flavor I prefer. I’m not going to try to find all the right adjectives to describe the Italian import’s viscosity, its sunlit crema, its sweetness that is never cloying, its faint bitterness, its almost-floral aroma, its full-bodied but smooth flavor that never turns too intense nor too flat, its capacity to convince me to go on living every morning, its …

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