Latte art has attracted many friends to enter the field of coffee from other places, in order to one day be able to make delicate and exquisite latte art patterns. So, the question is: How long does it take to master latte art?
Actually, the latte art technique is not as complicated as you think. If it just refers to making a good-looking pattern, then one day is enough if you are lucky! If you are unlucky, the limit is only two or three days~
If it refers to difficult combination patterns, then we need to understand the relevant principles and practice together. I believe you will be able to create the target pattern you want soon! Next, Front Street will share the principles of latte art, as well as some details that are easily overlooked, hoping to help everyone get started with latte art! To froth milk, please go to "How to froth milk"
We have to admit that the prerequisite for making beautiful latte art is to have a perfect espresso, so the coffee beans you choose are 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.
The principle of drawing
There are two main actions for latte art: fusion and drawing! The operational difference between the two lies in the height of the position when injecting milk foam! When the mouth of the latte art jar is higher than the liquid level, the injected milk foam will be poured directly into the coffee and fused with it. This action is called "fusion".
When you inject milk foam when the mouth of the vat is almost close to the liquid surface, then different white stripes will appear on the brown coffee liquid surface according to the intensity of your injection. This action is "drawing".
Usually, we need to blend the coffee and milk to half the cup size before starting to draw. One is to allow better integration of milk and coffee, and the other reason is that after reaching half the cup size, the pattern can be better drawn.
Fusion skills
Fusion is not something that can be accomplished by just taking milk foam and dangling it from a high place! If we want the fused liquid level to not be as annoying as a stained white shirt, then we still need to pay attention to the fusion height.
(The picture shows the liquid surface of "stained white shirt")
The conventional fusion technique is: hold the cup in your left hand, hold the jar in your right hand, and then stagger the left and right hands half a circle to perform relative circular motions. What we need to pay attention to is that when blending, control the height to about 5 to 10 centimeters, and stir up and down with a slightly stronger force, so that there will be few messy stripes.
Drawing skills
The most critical link is drawing! At this point, the coffee in our cup has reached half of its capacity, so it’s drawing time! There are four main points in total~
Point 1: When drawing, in addition to letting the right hand control the output of milk foam, the left hand also needs to control the rotation of the coffee cup. Generally, this action is called "returning the cup". The action of returning the cup is more important. If it is returned too early, it will be difficult to form the pattern. If it is returned late, it will easily cause the coffee to overflow. Therefore, when drawing, the first thing we need to practice is to use both hands at the same time. When the right hand outputs the milk foam, the left hand can also perform the appropriate cup-returning action according to the output amount!
Tip 2: The harder you pour the frothed milk, the more frothed milk will be injected. Then, the latte art stripes that appear when shaking will be thicker (even if the milk foam is thickened); if the force used when pouring the milk foam is small, then the injected milk foam will easily show clear-textured stripes on the liquid surface when the milk foam is shaken (the stripes can be clearer if the milk foam is of appropriate thickness!).
Point 3: Different patterns have different footing points. Under normal circumstances, the position of the latte art pattern you can see will deviate from the footing point when drawing! For example, the final position of the heart-shaped latte art is in the middle of the cup. When we draw the drawing, the foothold needs to be moved to the right of the center (closer to the latte art tank), because the movement of the returning cup and the push of milk will change its final position!
Point 4: Finishing is very important. If you finish it well, it will be the finishing touch; if you fail to finish it, it will be superfluous. No matter how good your previous pattern is, if you do not control the height when finishing, it will cause your entire carefully laid out pattern to collapse!
(The tail is not closed, resulting in the line in the middle being too thick and making the entire pattern unbalanced)
Therefore, when finishing, we must pay attention to controlling the height of the latte art tank to prevent the milk tank from being too close to the liquid level, leaving unnecessary "strokes" ~ Another point is that the finishing action must be started when it is nine minutes full at the latest, otherwise it will be easy for the coffee to leak out due to excessive capacity!
Latte art practice suggestions
Suggestion 1: When we first come into contact with latte art, we can directly use milk and coffee to try it 1 or 2 times. First, experience what it feels like to use "real guns and live ammunition" to latte art, and then remember this resistance and feeling, which will be of great help for the subsequent practice of using dishwashing liquid and soy sauce. (Kids from rich families can also practice using real milk and real coffee)
Suggestion 2: The main purpose of practice is to train the muscle memory of both hands. We don’t think about what kind of pattern we want to make first. We first train the "cup and vat posture, fusion techniques, cup returning skills, and the details of drawing". Although it will be a bit boring, this is the most important part. After you practice for one to two days, you will be able to master the latte art skills of basic graphics!
Suggestion 3: Control the time of practice and do not practice continuously for a long time, because this will easily solidify the mind and cause fatigue, and will not achieve much effect. So every twenty minutes, take a break and adjust, and recall what details you just practiced that need to be improved, so that you can get started faster.
Suggestion 4: If you encounter a place that confuses you, you can take a photo and boldly send a private message to Front Street in the background or at the bottom of the article. Front Street can give you some suggestions~
An inconspicuous little detail~
When you learn the basic shapes (hearts, leaves, tulips) and plan to move into the field of monograms, you can observe the cups you use. Maybe many friends’ latte art skills have actually reached the pinnacle (an exaggeration). However, due to the limitations of the coffee cup, they are unable to exert their full strength.
The wider the diameter of the cup, the larger the range that can be drawn; the smaller the diameter, the smaller the range that can be drawn. The more curved the bottom of the cup is, the more thoroughly the poured milk and coffee can be blended. To put it simply, a cup with a large diameter and a curved bottom is more suitable for difficult latte art drawing~
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
