Instant Frother Station, a.k.a. the best home hot choc (kitchen review)

The Instant Frother Station is perhaps an understatement of this device’s capabilities. It can froth milk, mix hot and cold drinks, and has nine program combinations.

The Instant Frother Station uses a removable magnetic rotating frothing whisk disk inside a stainless-steel jug that sits on a temperature-regulated induction heating base. You can select three heat levels, including off, and three whisk (frothing) levels, including off.

To segue, one of our most loved kitchen devices, which we bought probably 20 years ago, is the now $219 Breville Milk Café. It has made hundreds of excellent hot chocolate drinks and thousands of frothed milk for coffee at home. It is a larger device (500W, 740ml, temperature off-to-80°). The point is that if you don’t have a similar device, then you miss out on hot, frothed drinks on cold winter evenings and decent cappuccino or flat white from your capsule or espresso coffee maker.

The Instant is more foolproof, and at an RRP of $129 and on special at $89 (at 1/6/24), it is a no-brainer purchase.

Australian Review: Instant Frother Station Model 140-3457-01-AU price at 1/6/24

Website	Instant Pot Product Page Manual Suggested uses
Price	RRP $129 but seen at $89 at approved retailers.
Warranty	12-months ACL
Made in	China
Company	Instant Brands designs and distributes Instant, Corelle, Pyrex, CorningWare, Visions cookware, and Snapware food storage.
More	CyberShack food appliances news and reviews

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

We are also tightening up on grading. From now on, Pass, for example, means meeting expectations for the price bracket. We consider a Pass mark to be 70+/100 with extra points added for class-leading and excellence.

First Impression – neat and compact – Pass+

It is compact—a 700ml stainless steel jug sits on a base 190 x 120 x 50mm x 1.24kg, small enough to fit into any kitchen cupboard.

The jug has three recommended fill levels.

• 500ml maximum for heating milk (no froth) and will fill two coffee mugs.
• 250ml for level 1 froth (flat white)
• 190ml for level 2 froth (cappuccino 60%n froth)

Froth

• Extra froth (Cappuccino or Macchiato)
• Froth (Flat White or Matcha)
• Off (Hot chocolate, tea, or cold milk)

It has two heat levels (and off)

• High is about 65°
• Low is about 55°

Types of Milk – most – Pass+

The fat content of milk is what makes it froth better.

• Cow’s milk ranges from 2 to 3.5% fat (skim to full), and all are great for frothing and latte art.
• Oat Milk creates a rich, sweet, creamy froth
• Soy creates a froth similar to cow’s milk
• Almond produces a light froth
• Coconut – too watery to froth
• Rice, Cashew, Macadamia, Hemp – too watery to froth.

Heating time – Pass

Assuming that milk is stored at 5°, it takes about 10 minutes to reach 65°.

Coffee – Yes – Pass+

Add milk to a single or double shot from your capsule machine or coffee maker.

Reheat Milk coffee – Yes – Pass+

Cold milk coffee develops a milk scum. This reintegrates that into the coffee and adds froth or not again.

Hot chocolate – Yum – Pass+

Start the milk heating and wait about five minutes before adding two heaped teaspoons of hot chocolate powder. This way, the power dissolves more efficiently. We found that if you are not using frothing, you can ‘overfill’ past 500ml to 600ml and add more powder if you are using two larger mugs.

Tea – No

Tea needs about 90° to brew correctly. You cannot use tea bags and leaves float to the top.

Cold drinks – Pass

Mixing in flavours to milk and froth is good, but it does not cool the liquid, so throw in a scoop or two of ice cream. It will not mix hard ice cream in like a milkshake maker.

Power – Pass

It is rated at 600W maximum but uses far less depending on heat levels.

Maintenance – Pass+

Wash the stainless-steel jug in the dishwasher or by hand. Wash the whisk by hand.

Alternatives

If your needs are simple, you can get a Heater/Frother for significantly less, but you won’t have the flexibility and easy maintenance.

CyberShack’s view – Instant Frother Station is an indispensable kitchen appliance

As we indicated earlier, our 20-year-old Breville Milk Café is much loved and still works like new. We use it regularly, especially in Winter.

This is a slightly smaller, well-made appliance that does precisely what it should—froth and heat milk to your needs—and it is a great price. It gets our recommendation.

Rating – 85/100

(Note that 2024 ratings are based on 70/100 as a pass mark. Additional points are given for extra features or class-leading attributes).

• Features: 85 – Nine program combinations, stainless steel jug, extremely low maintenance.
• Value: 85 – If you get it for $89
• Performance: 85 for heat time but 90 for a finished drink.
• Ease of Use: 85 Throw in almost any milk, press a button, and it is all systems go. The audio beep tells you when it is done.
• Design: 85 Well-made, induction heating and magnetic whisking – all top-drawer stuff.