Many people will ask Front Street, how long does it take to learn latte art? If you just pull out a good-looking pattern, it only takes one day if you are lucky. If you are learning to draw a pattern, it will take at least 4 days. Many people will ask, how did these four days come about? It is very simple. On the first day, read the article Front Street; on the second day, practice; on the third day, read this article again; on the fourth day, practice again and you will be good. (The premise is that the milk foaming is qualified)
First of all, to learn latte art, you must understand the relevant principles, techniques and consistent practice.Principle and Technique 1: Why can patterns be produced?Latte art is divided into two stages, fusion and drawing. For the same milk foam, when the cylinder spout is raised, the milk foam will be rushed into the coffee without white lines appearing. When the cylinder spout is lowered, the milk foam will float on the surface and white streaks will appear. This is easy to understand.
Therefore, in the fusion stage, in order to prevent white from appearing inside, the cylinder nozzle will be raised. When drawing out the picture, white needs to appear, so the cylinder nozzle must be lowered to draw out the picture.Principle and Technique 2: FusionIf the fusion is good, it will form a golden circle, which looks good and tastes good. If the fusion is not good, it will be like a scratched background board. No matter how perfect the main pattern is, points will be deducted from the overall look and feel.Generally, the distance between the cylinder mouth and the coffee liquid level is about 5 to 10 cm. Everyone's habits are different, so there are no completely fixed height and distance standards.
The general fusion technique is to stir in one direction. Hold the coffee cup in your left hand and the raffia vat in your right hand. The two hands are staggered half a circle and perform relative circular movements. The stirring intensity of one high and one low can easily fully mix the coffee and milk. As for the size of the circle, Front Street recommends making the largest circle without hitting the wall.Principle and Technique 3: Placement and TrajectoryDifferent patterns have different landing points. For example, when pulling a leaf, the landing point should be at the center of the liquid surface, while the heart shape should be at the 1/4 point. Still taking the heart shape as an example, if the placement point is in the center, the entire heart shape will be positioned downward.
Moreover, this situation must be analyzed based on the amount of fusion and the thickness of the milk foam. A large amount of fusion or thick milk foam will reduce the convection effect, so the drawn pattern will be smaller. If the amount of fusion is less or the milk foam is thin, then the overall convection effect will be better and the pattern will be larger.When pulling the heart shape, the landing point is at 1/4. When continuously injecting milk, the landing point will slowly move toward the center in conjunction with the cup retraction. If you fix the landing point at 1/4, the entire pattern will become longer and it will look like your landing point has moved backward.
Principle and Technique 4: Create pictures as you wishWhen you can pull out a round foam, you have taken a successful step. The next step is how to control its changes as you wish.The skill we need to master at this time is to return the cup. For latte art that wants to produce a convection pattern, the cup return is very important. If it is returned early or late, the pattern may be deformed.When drawing the pattern, the coffee cup held in the left hand should slowly return the cup to the right position. The normal convection phenomenon is that when pouring milk in the middle, you will see the milk foam "rushed" out from the middle, and there will be a backflow phenomenon on both sides, that is, the pattern will become full. The thinner the milk foam, the more obvious this phenomenon is. For example, if we want to draw a heart shape, embossed tulips require convection.
Principles and Techniques Five: ClosingWhen you pull out the picture you want, restrain your joyful mood first, because if the finishing step is not done well, the whole pattern will be ruined. There are three main problems with the closing action.
The first is that some friends like to pull it out of the cup directly, leaving a long tail, which will look unsightly. If you use a thick coffee cup, there will be milk stains on the edge of the cup.The second is that some friends do not raise the cylinder mouth when finishing, which will "forcibly" elongate the pattern.The third one is that the finishing is not clean enough, and excess milk is left behind when finishing, causing the tail to "spend".Taking the heart-shaped pattern as an example, the normal ending should be to gradually pull up and move forward when the coffee cup is 9 minutes full, and gradually reduce the amount of milk. 
Front Street’s practice suggestions for everyone1. When you first come into contact with it, Front Street still recommends that you try it 1-2 times with real milk and real coffee. The meaning of this is to feel the blend of milk and coffee before drawing out the pattern. It doesn't matter if you can't draw out the pattern at the beginning. What's important is the feeling.
2. After experiencing the real gun and live ammunition, you can practice with clean water. This is of course to save milk. This stage is more important and boring. Nowadays, the Internet is very developed, and there are all kinds of latte art videos on the Internet. Front Street recommends looking for some videos where you can clearly see the upper body, preferably with close-ups of hand gestures. Don’t look at their patterns, but look at their hand gestures, such as "cylinder holding posture, cup holding posture, fusion techniques, appearance techniques, cup returning gestures..." Observe carefully, copy and practice again, and it is best to invite a friend to see if you have posture problems from the perspective of a bystander.
3. When you have muscle memory after practicing, you can switch back to test the training results with real guns and live ammunition. If the method is correct, you will be able to draw a decent pattern this time. If you cannot draw it, you can deduce from the pattern which link is the problem, and then focus on practicing. When practicing like this, don't be obsessed with those difficult patterns. Start with the most basic heart and practice repeatedly.
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
