How do I clean a steam wand?

This takes five seconds and it is the most-skipped maintenance in home coffee.

After every use, without exception

Purge the wand for a second into the drip tray. When steam stops, the pressure drop draws milk back up inside the wand as it cools. Purging pushes it out.

Wipe the outside immediately with a damp cloth kept for the purpose. Milk that has been left to bake on is far harder to remove than milk wiped off wet.

That is it. Every time.

Weekly

Remove the tip if your machine allows — most do, and it usually unscrews — and soak it in a milk-system cleaner or hot water with a little detergent. Clear the holes with a pin if any are blocked.

Blocked holes are why steam power seems to fade over months.

What happens if you skip it

Milk inside the wand sours between uses and is blown into your next jug. The taste is stale and sharp, and people usually report it as “burnt” and blame their technique.

Baked-on milk on the outside eventually requires soaking the whole wand, which on a fixed wand means a jug of cleaner held up against the machine.

Automatic milk systems

Same principle, different execution. Tube-fed carafes need a rinse cycle after every use and a full clean weekly, because tubes are exactly where milk hides.