Just like the steaming of Pour over(V60) coffee, there is also an important preparatory action similar to steaming in the process of coffee latte art! What is it?
That's right, it's fusion. The so-called fusion means that we will use part of the milk to mix with the coffee in advance before the actual latte art drawing. The purpose is to make the milk and coffee more fully integrated to keep the taste consistent, while at the same time raising the liquid level to facilitate latte art. Although it seems simple, you must not underestimate the fusion step, because the quality of the fusion will be directly linked to the overall quality of the coffee.
High-quality fusion can make the latte art pattern neater and more beautiful, and at the same time, the taste of the coffee can be consistent. Every sip will be a balanced experience of coffee and milk complementing each other. However, if the fusion quality is low, it will cause the pattern background to be messy or the taste to be layered! As I often mentioned on the street, when you take a sip, you will first feel the bitterness of the concentrated oil, and then the taste of coffee milk.
Because of this, for various milk coffees that require latte art or milk foaming, it is crucial to control the quality of the blend. The best way to improve the quality of integration is naturally to study hard and practice hard, and achieve high-quality integration by improving skill proficiency. In addition, in different situations, we can also reduce the difficulty of achieving perfect fusion by choosing to use appropriate fusion methods.
That's right! There are also different methods of fusion, and this is also a fusion trick used by baristas: choose to use different fusion methods according to different situations. This is what Front Street wants to share today! Different fusion methods have different advantages. As long as they are used flexibly, they can maximize their value and achieve perfect integration. So first of all, what Front Street wants to introduce is the most classic fusion method-stirring fusion.
The prerequisite for making beautiful latte art is to have a perfect espresso, so the type of coffee beans you choose is very important. Front Street believes that espresso with delicate, smooth and rich oil is the best standard, and can use two popular products, Front Street Classic Blend and Front Street Commercial Blend. One of them combines the wild tones of Brazil and Mandheling, and the other is a formula rich in various nutty aromas. On this basis, a small amount of Robusta is added to increase the richness of oil and golden color.
Stir to combine
When a novice first learns latte art, the first fusion method he comes into contact with is most likely stirring fusion, because it is a very classic and very practical method. Not only can it increase the speed of production, but the liquid surface it fuses can also be used to create various complex patterns.
Stirring and blending is actually a bit like pouring water in a circle for Pour over(V60) coffee. We will use a thin stream from a high position to inject the milk foam into the coffee liquid. During this period, the coffee liquid will be stirred by continuous circles, so that the milk foam can be evenly mixed with it until the liquid level rises to the height we want.
The main purpose of stirring and injecting with small water flow from a high position is to prevent the milk foam from leaving lines on the surface. By raising the flow distance, the milk foam can have more force to rush directly into the coffee. The combination of small water flow can reduce the surface contact with the coffee liquid, and at the same time, more stirring times can be achieved to fully mix the milk and coffee.
Although it sounds very simple, after actual operation, you will find that it is actually a bit difficult, because it "takes away" the proficiency of the barista!
Because we have to keep stirring in circles while controlling the flow and distance, the left and right hands need to move around at the same time. Therefore, this results in that during fusion, either the flow distance and flow rate are not controlled, or the amplitude of the circle is not controlled. The resulting coffee liquid surface lines are "clumpy", and the resulting latte pattern background is messy and lacks beauty. The taste of coffee is also likely to vary.
Therefore, this is a difficult point in mixing and fusion, and we must overcome it through continuous practice (if there are no latte art production requirements, you can ignore it). One disadvantage of stirring and blending is that it is not suitable for use with taller cups, such as packaging cups.
Since the packaging cup will be taller, this will increase the flow distance during fusion. When the flow distance is too large, the impact force of the milk will cause it to bottom out and rebound after injection, and the coffee liquid surface will easily turn white (making the liquid surface look messier). In this case, in addition to careful mixing and fusion, we can also choose another fusion method to reduce the difficulty of fusion, that is, pre-fusion.
pre-fusion
It can be said that pre-fusion is a fusion method that has only emerged in recent years. It actually includes the steps of stirring and blending, but before stirring and blending, we need to use a little milk and concentrate to pre-fuse. The specific method is to first pour a small amount of milk into the coffee liquid (the same amount as the coffee liquid or less), then shake the entire coffee cup so that the milk foam poured into the cup can be fully mixed with the espresso, and then start the stirring and fusion step. The advantage of this is that it can reduce the impact of coffee oil and reduce the difficulty of fusion.
What effects will coffee oil have? Front Street once shared that the quality of coffee grease will affect the difficulty of latte art. Oil that is too rough and too thin will increase the difficulty of coffee latte art.
The former is because the grease is too rough and is prone to agglomeration, delamination and other phenomena. These phenomena will reduce the fluidity during drawing, making it difficult for us to draw fine and delicate lines; while the latter is because the grease is too thin, which makes the fluidity too high, making it easy for us to have pattern deviations and irregular patterns during drawing.
In addition to the latte pattern, both will have an impact on the quality of the fusion. Their appearance represents the freshness of the coffee beans used, which are too fresh and have been stored for a long time. Because Front Street is often mentioned, I won’t go into details here.
In summary, in both cases, using a pre-fusion will do a good job of eliminating the negative effects of insufficient oil quality. The addition of a small amount of milk can reduce the fluidity of the coffee. At the same time, the shaking action can effectively break up the agglomeration of coffee oil and increase the fusion of the oil and coffee liquid. In this way, we can better blend and latte art, thus improving the quality of coffee.
The same goes for using a packed cup to draw flowers. By pouring a certain amount of milk against the edge of the cup in advance, the liquid level is raised and the flow distance is reduced, making it less likely to cause whitening and messy liquid levels during fusion.
However, pre-fusion also has certain disadvantages. One is that its latte patterns will be limited, making it difficult to create overly complex combination patterns. The reason is that the pre-adding of milk foam reduces the overall fluidity. At the same time, the increase in the fusion and shaking action delays the drawing time, which increases the stratification of the milk and milk foam in the tank and further reduces the fluidity. Therefore, after using pre-fusion, some complex combination patterns are more difficult to create.
Secondly, because the milk and coffee are completely fused in advance, the color of the liquid surface will be lighter than the stirring and fusion method, and the color contrast of the final pattern will be relatively low. You will know by comparing it.
(On the left is the conventional stir-fused latte art, and on the right is the pre-fused latte art)
But no matter what the shortcomings are, they will not affect the taste of coffee, so you can choose the fusion method you like. Or as mentioned before, use it according to different situations~
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
