"Easy Coffee Latte Art Guide" Introduction to Latte Art Materials and Steps

The dense milk foam beaten by hot steam is injected into the espresso base. The crema on the espresso is used to support the delicate milk foam composed of tiny bubbles. Combined with the barista's latte art skills, beautiful patterns are finally drawn on the surface of the latte. This is latte art.

Material

milk

Latte art requires fresh iced milk. Most people prefer to use whole milk, but in fact, as long as the method is correct, it doesn't matter what kind of milk you use for latte art. You can choose your favorite milk according to your personal preference. The only thing to note is that the milk must be fresh milk just taken out of the refrigerator and should not be exposed to heat or light before the steam is added. In addition, do not reuse the milk that has been frothed.

Flower pot

Latte art requires a clean stainless steel cup with a narrow mouth at room temperature. Pour the milk into it. It must be enough milk so that you have enough time to form milk foam, otherwise it will heat up too quickly when frothing. It is recommended to pour a little more, and there is no need to worry about wasting too much.

thermometer

Use a thermometer with a clip so that it can be clipped onto the pitcher. The appropriate size of the surface makes it easy to monitor the temperature while frothing the milk. The thermometer needs to be calibrated before use. Usually, ice water and the screws on the back of the thermometer can be used to calibrate the thermometer pointer, but it would be better to have a digital thermometer to compare and calibrate. Do not put the thermometer in the dishwasher. Moisture may damage the thermometer. In addition, if your hand touches the thermometer, it will also affect the measured milk temperature.

Steam Wand

The steam wand should keep the steam function turned on during the milk frothing process, and clean it once before use to clear the water droplets in the tube. Note that the steam wand should be turned on after it is immersed in milk, and the steam pressure should be adjusted to 1 Bar. The pressure will affect the boiling temperature. The more holes on the outlet of the steam wand, the stronger the steam produced.

Espresso

Espresso is as important as the milk itself. Use fresh espresso with a layer of rich crema. Without this layer, it will be difficult to make latte art.

cup

Usually 1 ounce of espresso is paired with a 6-8 ounce cup, and a cup with a large mouth is easier to operate. It is easier to pull out complex latte art patterns using a wide and shallow cup.

Steps of pulling flowers

Frothing milk

Before you start, dip one end of the steam wand in the milk and open the steam valve to the maximum. Hold the latte art bowl with both hands and slowly move the pot down until the end of the steam wand breaks the surface of the milk. You should hear a hissing sound. Keep this state for a few seconds. This action will beat bubbles into the milk to form a foam structure, so it is called foaming (or stretching). Be careful to control the descent process. Ideally, you will hear the sound of bubbles forming, but you should not see bubbles. Don't beat too long to produce too much foam, and don't let the temperature exceed 40℃.

When enough foam is produced, you can immerse the steam rod back into the milk. At this time, there is no need to shake the latte art bowl up and down. At this time, a vortex will form in the cup, and the bubbles will melt into the milk during the rotation to form milk foam. When the temperature rises to 60-65℃, you can turn off the steam rod, remove it and wipe it with a cloth.

When you put down the latte art pitcher, tap it on the table. This will break the visible bubbles remaining on the surface. If there are still bubbles, you can tap it a few more times to get rid of them. However, this action will also make the milk foam thicker, so try to avoid it. If you use the correct method to make milk foam, you don't need this step.

Don't leave the whipped milk for too long, as the foam structure will dissipate quickly. Before you start pouring the coffee, shake the latte art bowl to swirl the milk foam and mix it with the milk.

Latte art practice

Once you’ve made sure that the milk foam and espresso have reached a certain quality, it’s time to practice controlling the latte art pattern!

For those who cannot grasp the degree of milk foam at the beginning, it is recommended to make the milk foam a little thicker in the middle. If it is too watery, firstly, when you practice, you will just pour it into the hot milk, which will be very annoying. Secondly, even if the foam is too thick and poured into a lump, at least you can still drink cappuccino.

There are a few key points you must know when starting to draw:

Step 1. Since the amount of concentrated extraction is about 30 ~ 45ml, tilt the coffee cup to one side at the beginning, the purpose is to let the concentrated concentrate gather in one place, so that the concentrated liquid has a basic depth. At this time, there will be no white spots when the milk foam is vertically injected, because the milk flow directly hits the bottom of the coffee and bounces up and will be covered by the coffee oil. At the beginning, we need to minimize the white reflection, because we have not yet composed the picture, so keep the concentrated background clean without messy milk foam white.

Step 2. In step 1, pour and blend evenly, and when the cup is half to two-thirds full (the filling degree is flexible and depends on the image you want to create), quickly bring the mouth of the latte art cylinder close to the liquid surface. At this time, the milk foam that was originally injected vertically will be directly floated on the surface of the espresso with the help of coffee oil, and white lines will be produced visually.

Step 3. Pour the milk foam and shake the milk stream to create gradient patterns with the fluid.

Step 4. When the milk is almost filled, raise the latte art bowl, and the milk will flow back to fall vertically, moving forward to finish (to the bottom of the pattern).

There are a few things to note when making basic patterns, which are also common mistakes that beginners make when they first start practicing latte art:

☑In Step 2 to Step 3, try to keep the mouth of the latte art cylinder close to the liquid surface. To be more precise, keep the distance between the mouth of the latte art cylinder and the liquid surface consistent so that the lines are not uneven. Often when you first start practicing, you will unconsciously (unconsciously) lift the latte art cylinder too high while shaking it, and lose its closeness to the liquid surface.

☑In Step 3, what you want to shake is the milk flow, not the latte art pitcher itself. Pay attention to the shaking frequency of the milk flow instead of simply shaking the latte art pitcher. It is important to observe whether the milk flow shakes regularly due to your shaking.

☑If you don't lift it up and finish it forward in Step 4, the strong milk flow will destroy the shape you just made, and the whole shape will be twisted in the middle.

☑The problem of flipping the cup. When pouring milk and drawing at the same time, the liquid level will continue to rise due to the increase in volume, and the tilted cup must slowly return to the right position. If the cup returns to the right position too quickly, the mouth of the latte art cylinder may be too far away from the liquid level. If the cup returns to the right position too slowly, the coffee will overflow and flow out from the tilted side. When you want to make more and more complex graphics, this technique is also what I think is more difficult to master.

Tips: When shaking the pattern, you can place the pitcher directly on the edge of the coffee cup and shake it against the edge of the cup to increase stability. (If you are a very stable expert, you can shake it in mid-air, and the force of the pattern will be different.)

Basic pattern types

Rosetta/Leaf

After shaking and pouring until the milk foam appears on the surface, continue to gently shake the latte pitcher and move it to the other end of the cup, while still shaking it, and when you reach the other end, quickly pull it back in a straight line through the pattern. When pulling the leaves, shaking quickly will pull out more thin and long leaves, and vice versa, fewer and thicker leaves.

Heart

Gently shake the latte art pitcher and keep it at one point, continue pouring milk until the coffee crema forms a circle, slightly move the injection point and continue pouring milk to form a circular milk foam until the coffee cup is almost filled, and finally use the latte art pitcher to draw a straight line forward to complete the heart shape.

practise

No one can complete each step smoothly and successfully make latte art at the beginning, but after repeated practice, anyone can master the method.

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