A novice is practicing coffee latte art, how can he become a self-taught one?

For many coffee lovers who are obsessed with coffee, coffee latte art can be said to be very attractive ~ it seems to be quite simple, just pour it casually and you will see a small heart, tulips and so on...

But when you actually do it yourself, you will find out why the milk comes out in lumps? Not to mention making an embossed pattern to look like a little swan, you can’t even be careful! ! Don’t worry, Front Street is here to share with you some tips on latte art~

What coffee beans are best for latte art? Front Street believes it must be the fat-rich Italian beans. Newbies can buy the Front Street Classic Blend, which is made byFront Street Coffee designed in-houseRecipes, coveringThree origins: Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam, uses deep roasting, so the classic blending of Front Street can highlight the mellow aroma of coffee to the greatest extent, and also allows everyone to easily extract rich and dense coffee oil. It is suitable for home and store use, and is perfect for making perfect coffee.latteLatte art provides prerequisites.

Extraction parameters

 1. Liquid milk foam 

Before making latte art, we must have a tank of suitable milk foam. The milk foam we usually use to make latte art must be of moderate thickness. Otherwise, it will float directly on the coffee as soon as it is poured out. So how can you get a tank of suitable milk froth?

| Locate the position of the steam wand

Generally, the angle of the steam wand is roughly in the direction of 2-3 o'clock or 9-10 o'clock of the milk tank, taking the cylinder mouth as the 12 o'clock direction. This is because when the milk is being whipped, we use steam to rotate it as quickly as possible and form a small vortex, which can roll the thicker milk foam into the milk and make the milk dense after being whipped.

After finding the correct position, we need to find the correct depth~ It is not that the deeper the better, after all, the main purpose of whipping milk is to blow air into the milk. If the steam wand is too deep, how will it contact the air? Of course, too shallow will not work, because if it is too shallow, the milk may splash when you turn on the steam, or the steam will be too strong and the amount of foam will be too much.

Generally, we use about 1cm as the benchmark. If the steam of the coffee machine is too strong and the vortex formed is too large or turbulent, the steam wand can be placed in a deeper position (such as 1.5cm); if the steam of the coffee machine is not strong enough, the steam wand can be placed in a shallower position (such as 0.5cm or shallower). Allow the milk to form small vortices as quickly as possible without spinning too violently or creating turbulence.

| Suitable milk foam

We can hear the sound of zi zi when the milk is being whipped. If you don't hear it, it may be because the steam wand is too deep, so you can pull the milk jug down a little.If there is no sound or no sound of killing the pig, it means that it is not in the killing process.When it expands to 80% full, move the steam pipe diagonally to the right of the center point of the steel cup, close to the rim of the steel cup, so that the milk foam rolls in a vortex, mix the milk foam and milk, and collect the foam at the same time.

| Temperature

At the same time, be careful not to make the milk too hot, and of course, the temperature should not be too low. Generally we recommend that the temperature is between 55 and 65℃, if the temperature is too high, it will easily burn the milk and make the milk foam unstable. Moreover, if the temperature of the milk is too high, the protein in it will change, and it will not taste very good.

 2. Fusion 

There is another very important step before latte art: fusion. Perhaps for many people, fusion does not seem to be very important. It is just a matter of taking the milk foam and walking around it casually.

But fusion is actually the foundation for latte art, and the quality of fusion also determines the taste of this cup of coffee. Generally, fusion requires a clean liquid surface, so you can shake the concentrated oil a little first, and then inject it with a relatively fine flow rate. The fused milk coffee will have good fluidity. In addition, the amplitude of the fusion has a great relationship with the thickness of the milk foam you create. The reason is that the thicker the milk foam, the worse the fluidity. When fusing, a larger amplitude is needed to ensure that the surface of the milk coffee is fluid~

Before practicing with milk, it is best to practice with water. Try to tilt the coffee cup at 45 degrees. The water flow should be injected into the cup at a consistent size. Start at a fixed point and then try to inject at a constant speed and in circles. Finally, raise and lower and circle at the same time. Pay attention to slowly straightening the hand holding the cup. Remember that the water flow cannot be stopped before the actual drawing.

 3. The posture of holding the vat and cup 

The way you hold the cup when latte art is also particular. Are you holding it from the bottom, the sides, or by the handle? No matter what, the most important thing is that it is comfortable and flexible to hold, otherwise it will feel a little awkward when making patterns later. Generally, we hold the cup with the handle toward us, so that when we serve it to the guest, the pattern can be directly facing the guest~

When latte art, in order to make the latte art tank close to the coffee, tilt the cup appropriately. Otherwise, the cup is too straight and the distance from the latte art tank is too far, which is not easy to control.

There are two common ways to hold a latte art vat: one is to hold the handle of the latte art vat, and the other is to pinch the handle of the latte art vat. Holding the handle of the latte art vat, you can use the strength of your wrist to make grand swings to make the pattern gorgeous; pinching the handle of the latte art vat, you can rely on subtle adjustments with your fingers to achieve a delicate pattern.

Also, the mouth of the latte art vat and the cup are actually in a vertical relationship, otherwise the pattern will easily tilt to one side and not be symmetrical enough.

 4. Practice!  

No matter how many techniques you use, it’s useless without practice, right? As the saying goes, it’s all talk and no practice! The cost of milk coffee is too high, so just use dishwashing liquid! After all, practice makes perfect, and cloud practice does not exist~

Of course, it doesn’t mean that you can just practice hard. After each practice, it is best to summarize the experience of the previous cup, and then go back and start over. Only if you are good at summarizing, will you make great progress~

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