I tried a smart milk frother with 30 drink options — my at-home oat milk lattes have never tasted so good

Café quality coffee in the comfort of your home has never been more attainable than it is right now. That's because getting hold of a quality espresso machine is also far more affordable than its been before which is good news for all coffee lovers.

But that's just one half of the equation if your coffee of choice is a latte, cappuccino or a flat white. For those drinks, mastering the art of steaming milk is also a factor in achieving a cup of coffee at home that beats any high-street coffee chain.

For a while now the way to get the best results for long coffees has been to purchase one of the best bean-to-cup coffee machines with a frother built-in and master the delicate business of latte art.

That's all changed with the dawn of smart milk frothers, which have dedicated settings to get the ideal micro-foam built-in. I tried one out which already has loyal following to see if it's the difference maker.

So what marks the difference between a standard milk frother and a smart one?

Well, before I started testing the Dreo product I used the Smeg Milk Frother (£164.40 at Amazon) for my daily coffee. It looks great, and has a very handy detachable jug that I can take over to my coffee machine on the other side of the room and two different milk foam settings.

I thought that as far as milk frothers go, that was all of the possible boxes ticked.

That's where the Dreo smart milk frother comes in. The 'smart' element is that there's a colour LCD screen on the front that allows you to customise your drink options to a high level of specificity. That's a big change from the simple dial mechanism on the Smeg.

On the screen, there are 30 different combinations to try in total, with the ability to tweak the speed and temperature of the process and to use cold settings for iced coffees.

Let me walk you through the process of using this frother. First, you select which type of milk you're using, which is a win for those who prefer oat or almond milk over anything else. There are six milk options in total (whole, half & half, almond, soy, oat and coconut).

It's one of my favourite things about this frother as it automatically tweaks the frothing process's temperature as plant milks burn at a lower temperature.

So that's all great for a choice of drinks. The results are even better - the difference that it makes in terms of the micro-foam created is pretty astounding.

My lattes are the closest that they've been to a shop-bought version in the years I've been making coffee at home.

It's a similar experience to using a bean-to-cup machine with an automatic milk frother, like the Ninja Luxé Cafe - a machine I gave 5 stars in my Ninja Luxe Cafe review.

My favourite thing about that £500+ machine was the automatic milk frother but if you already have an espresso machine you love, picking up this milk frother would give you a duo with similar results.

As far as Dreo products go, this isn't the first innovation we've tried from the brand. The Dreo ChefMaker seriously impressed our reviewer with its smart cooking system in our review, too.

What's your secret to perfectly frothed milk?