As we all know, if we want to make an exquisite latte art pattern, in addition to having superb latte art skills, a delicate milk foam is also essential!But even those who have reached the pinnacle of masters will occasionally have difficulty in foaming milk. The milk foam may become rough, too thick, or too thin due to a momentary negligence, or the milk foam may be layered due to a sudden delay in latte art... The occurrence of these situations will make the milk foam less suitable for latte art.How do you deal with milk foam that is not suitable for latte art?It will definitely not be poured out, but if you force this kind of milk foam to be used for latte art, the final pattern will most likely not look good like the picture above. So at times like this, we need to use some special means to "repair" the milk foam so that it can regain the ability to create exquisite patterns!So today Front Street will share with you what to do when we don’t froth milk well(Resulting in milk foam that is too thick, too rough, or milk and milk foam separated)When, what method should be used to improve the milk foam~Shaking and shaking are two little tricks we use every day when making latte art. They refer to shaking and knocking the latte art tank.Properly shaking the milk foam in the tank before latte art can effectively improve the fusion of milk and milk foam, making the milk foam more fluid and better making exquisite latte art patterns. After we frothed the milk, what happened that caused the gap between the milk froth and the milk?slightWhen the stratification and liquidity are not that high, it can be improved in this way.(Shake until the surface of the milk foam can reflect light~)The function of the vibrating cylinder is to eliminate large bubbles in the milk cylinder by tapping! Sometimes we may be distracted for a moment or do not operate well, so that some large bubbles are not involved in the vortex and are cut and eliminated. When the milk is whipped, there are still a small number of large bubbles on the surface. In this case, we can burst these bubbles by vibrating the cylinder, otherwise these bubbles will hinder the formation of the pattern when we draw flowers.However, it should be noted that shaking the cylinder will accelerate the stratification of milk and milk foam. The more times and the harder you tap, the faster the layering will take place! Therefore, after shaking the tank, we need to shake it again to increase their integration.2. Scoop out part of the milk foamIf the foam is too thick due to accidental foaming, we need to use other methods to remove the excess milk foam. For example - scoop it out with a spoon.Although it sounds a bit abstract, this method can indeed effectively solve the problem of too thick milk foam. By scooping out excess milk froth, we can quickly thin the milk froth and regain its high fluidity. Of course, if the milk foam is very rough, you can also use this method to remove the rough milk foam.But the same as the shaking cylinder, because it takes a certain amount of time to scoop out milk foam, which will cause the milk and milk foam to separate, so after scooping out the milk foam, we'd better shake it to re-integrate the milk and milk foam.Whether you are a newbie or a barista who has been in the industry for many years, you often use the technique of inverting the vat to improve the quality of the milk foam during latte art, making it easier to create complex patterns. The so-called pouring is to pour the milk froth from one milk vat to another milk vat.Front Street has shared before that the difficulty of making latte art patterns is actually related to the capacity of the milk tank. When the weight of the milk liquid remains unchanged, the larger the capacity of the milk tank used, the smaller the proportion of milk in the tank. This results in the milk tank needing to be tilted at more angles to pour out the milk froth when drawing flowers. The greater the angle of inclination, the sooner the mouth of the milk vat can get close to the liquid surface of the coffee. Relatively speaking, this allows us to draw more lines/lines.But a problem arises at this time, that is, when the amount of milk used in the latte art is too small in the large latte art tank, the milk froth cannot be frothed well. Because the steam wand is not long enough/the milk does not contain enough liquid, the steam wand may not be completely buried in the milk or form a vortex. So at this time, people thought of pouring the milk into a small latte art vat first and then pouring it into a large latte art vat to start making latte art.
Then I discovered that such a method would improve the fluidity of the milk foam and make it more delicate at the same time! Because there will be collision during the pouring process, this will not only make the milk foam and milk have a higher degree of integration, but also some of the milk foam, especially those with larger particles, will be broken due to the collision, making the overall fluidity of the milk foam higher.(Thickness becomes thinner)And more delicate. Combined with the advantages brought by the large pull-out flower tank mentioned earlier, we can pull up the flowers like a fish in water after inverting the tank.Therefore, we can know that if you accidentally make the milk foam thicker and rougher, or if you want to get a better latte effect, you can improve the quality of the milk foam by inverting the vat. But the latter requires the milk foam to be a little thicker than usual to offset part of the milk foam eliminated by inverting the vat.Again, there are caveats to this. In the same way as the vibrating vat, the stratification speed of milk foam and milk will be accelerated after inverting the vat, so we need to put the milk foam into the latte art production as soon as possible after pouring the vat to avoid stratification affecting the latte art production. Another is that the target milk vat of the inverted vat needs to be preheated before use. Use a steam wand to spray air for a period of time to increase the temperature of the vat, so that when the milk froth is poured in, the milk vat will not claim the temperature of the milk because the temperature is too low.Maybe many friends will ask at this time, Front Street Street, what should I do if the milk foam is thinned?Logically speaking, as long as the milk foam is not particularly thin, and it is not thinner than Australian white, it can still be used directly for latte art (if it is too thin, it is recommended not to latte art, or directly send a new one). If you are worried that the fluidity is too high and you cannot make good patterns, you can also try pre-fusion.What is pre-fusion? Just add a little milk to the coffee before the formal latte art fusion, and then shake the cup to allow the small amount of milk to blend with the coffee.The advantage of this is that it can reduce the fluidity of the liquid surface, and at the same time reduce the impact of clumping of coffee oil, so that thin milk foam can also create patterns well. But because pre-fusion is easy to introduce in a long way, if you are interested, you can click"Revealed! Fusion secrets used by baristas》Understand the articles in blue words~So, the above is all the content shared by Front Street this time. If there are any other ways to improve, you are welcome to leave a message in the comment area to share~
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
