If you’re looking to get a similar texture to whole milk, your best bet is probably an alternative milk with a similar fat profile to whole milk. That’s what makes whole milk the ideal milk steam so nicely. Many alternative milk brands will have a “barista” version of their milk that is intended to steam as nicely as whole milk. In my own experience, these have had much better texture than lactose-free whole milks, but you might have to hunt for a brand with a flavor that your gf likes.

Internet Shaquille is something that hasn’t been mentioned yet that I think really resonates with what you’re looking for. All of his videos are short, focused, and aimed at helping regular people in the kitchen (with the exception of his April Fools videos, which satirize clickbait videos). There is some humor, but the information density of his videos reflects his ethos of not wanting to waste your time. To this end, sponsor reads appear at the end of the video (if they’re sponsored at all), so you can completely skip them.

If you’ve got drip coffee filters, I would just pour the final brew through a drip coffee brewer and into another vessel (provided that you have a large enough brewer). It might take a bit longer than the steel filters, but the resulting cold brew is extremely clean tasting and you won’t have to buy an additional thing to store.

With ceramic coatings, it’s not so much that they wear off, it’s that repeated thermal expansion can cause extremely small fractures in the ceramic. These fractures create a surface that food or oil in the process of polymerization will stick to. Making sure you don’t crank the heat too high is one way to keep your ceramic coating intact for longer.

There’s an option to pay for a lifetime ad-free experience or a lifetime license for Sync Ultra. I found it by clicking the profile switcher in the upper left and seeing a “Remove Ads” button. Still haven’t pulled the trigger on purchasing it yet though.