Latte Art Tips l Golden Rules & Free-pouring Leaves
Latte art: Diners treat latte art as if it were a work of art by a genuine Barista when they saw it. Baristas may effortlessly charm and wow diners with this expertise. So, let’s get down to the basics: what exactly is latte art?
Discover CentralParkWestCafe‘s enthusiastic latte art sketching method!
What is Latte Art?
Latte art is a technique for decorating coffee cups with decorative foam and toppings, such as a heart, a rosette, a fern, tulips, maple leaves, a girl, an animal, etc. The heart form is typically drawn on a Macchiato (coffee with a coating of milk on the face) and the rose is more difficult, thus it is often utilized. In order to achieve such stunning and elegant forms, the barista, or more precisely the Barista, must be very skilled and careful.
Each Latte Artwork relies on the Barista’s expertise, milk froth, coffee quality, and inventiveness. Due to the aforementioned and client coffee and milk preferences, Latte Art is tough to draw consistently.
Latte Art Origin:
Some accounts claim that Italy invented sketching with milk froth over intense coffee. This art evolves into Latte Art as coffee and milk froth become more popular worldwide.
David Schomer popularized Latte Art in the 1980s and 1990s in Seattle, USA. He pioneered microfoam, followed by Jack Kelly with the 1986 Uptown Espresso restaurant franchise. Home-drawn hearts began in 1989. Espresso Vivace, David Schomer. Schomer then drew a rose from an Italian Cafe Mateki picture in 1992.
Schomer’s “Caffe Latte Art” workshop introduced Latte art to cafés, restaurants, and hotels worldwide.
Latte Art Drawing Styles:
There are 2 main styles of Latte Art:
- Free Pouring: Drawing while pouring. For the same reason that it takes less time to prepare, free-pouring techniques have gained popularity in the United States and are increasingly being used by modern baristas.
- Engraving or Etching: Barista draws after pouring. A stirrer is used to create basic geometries for complicated designs like criss-cross grids, animals, and flowers. Because milk froth rapidly absorbs into the latte, latte engraving has a shorter lifespan than free pouring.
Why Is Latte Art Famous?
Latte art has developed with coffee awareness. Modern coffee drinkers know more. They emphasize coffee quality and enjoyment. That also pushes baristas to improve and the coffee business to grow responsibly.
Professional baristas make delicious, fast, and attractive drinks. Valued industry, raw supplies, and customers.
The rise of social media has also helped make latte art a worldwide sensation. Baristas now emphasize drink presentation. Because clients post images of pretty coffee mugs on social media. Instagram contains millions of #latteart posts. Latte art method videos on YouTube have tens of millions of views. Latte art and barista contest victors become social media stars. They inspired baristas everywhere.
Latte Art’s 5 Golden Rules:
In addition to knowing what Latte Art is, a skilled Barista should be familiar with the factors that affect the final product.
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Standard shifter pours height:
When crafting Latte art, Baristas must first consider the elevation. Milk must be poured vertically into the thick coffee stream in the cup and pushed in precise trajectories until a white background layer of milk appears and continues. interaction with coffee’s dark crema. You then carefully pour milk into the coffee cup. Note that you should pour relatively gently, moving your palm back and forth, so that the white milk layer appears as much and as clearly as possible.
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Milking:
You may not realize that the barista’s pouring position affects the form of the milk foam layer. distribute. If you pour in the middle of the cup, you will obtain symmetrical forms with the axis in the center of the circle, usually a heart shape. If you pour from the inside to the outside, you will get a range of gorgeous designs with numerous veins.
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Flow Speed:
The most challenging part of latte art, according to skilled baristas, is the flow. The completed latte, however, will be quite elegant and appealing if the Barista can manage the pace. If the milk cream layer on top is disturbed, or even poured outside, the shape that the Barista was going for will be completely undone.
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Small Flow:
The size of the coffee cup is proportional to the size of the flow, which in turn is related to the pouring position. If you pour the milk from the top of the shift, the stream will be narrow; if you pull the top of the shift closer, the stream will widen.
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Barista’s Technique:
As was indicated in the “What is latte art?” part, creating a cup of coffee relies heavily on one’s own personal methods, talents, and experience in addition to the fundamental information and techniques taught in the section. Barista, who pours latte art, has the experience, innovation, and creativity. Hearts, tulips, and rosettas are just some of the basic forms that a good barista should be able to pour with ease (simulating ferns).
Free-pouring Leaves:
Leaf pouring is a popular freestyle latte painting technique. The leaf on the coffee surface exhibits Barista’s creativity and fundamental abilities.
Espresso and regular milk foam make a leaf-shaped coffee. Leaf and heart pouring are the main methods. However, pouring leaves needs focus, observation, and barista talent. The leaf-shaped milk pour provides the foundation for more complicated forms.
- Prepare an Espresso and whipped milk foam cup to pour the leaf form.
- Next, you spin a solid cup of ground coffee to mix the crema layer into the coffee stream, preventing layer separation and giving the background coffee layer a richer, glossier hue.
- Pouring requires a layer of milk froth behind the crema. You’ll make the milk foam swim across the pool water without ripples like a diver.
- Pour a thin milk foam stream over the coffee cup rim. The milk froth will sink beneath the coffee since the crema is light and thin.
- Gently enhance milk froth volume by touching the coffee cup. Imagine the milk froth stream as a mouse tail that thickens with pouring speed. To get the required texture, pour more quicker.
- Let the milk froth get down and increase the pouring pace to achieve a dot or little layer of white foam floating on top. This is the beginning of the leaves design.
- Swing the milk frother. Hold the coffee cup firmly and move the milk froth with your wrist.
- Shake the milk foam from side to side to sharpen the leaf.
- As milk froth fills the coffee cup, slowly raise it. Reduce the milk froth and slowly pour the remaining lines.
- Pour a lengthy stream of milk foam to produce the leaf’s axis of symmetry. The leaf has emerged.
Latte Art Tips:
Shaping the coffee cup needs the barista to learn and grasp the method, as well as experience, expertise, and inventiveness, since adjusting the incorrect hand force while pouring milk or putting the cup at the wrong distance may destroy the picture. To shape Latte Art correctly, Baristas must pay attention to milk flow height, location, pace, and size.
- Right-angle the pitcher and cup: When pouring, hold the cup parallel to you along line AB and the pourer along line CD so the lines are perpendicular. This will make pouring easier. Keep the bottle and cup perpendicular while milking for a better drawing.
- Slowly raise, firmly lower: With the cup angled slightly to face your body, slowly add milk about a pencil thickness and 10-13cm from the surface espresso. Keep the milk flowing in the middle of the cup. Mixing milk into espresso is easy at this height and pace.
- When the milk and espresso combination fills nearly to the cup’s rim, carefully drop the pitcher (don’t touch the cup) and tilt the milk jug quicker. Closing the gap prevents milk from sinking to the coffee’s surface while moving swiftly lets more milk flow for uninterrupted shaping. Before accelerating the pour, tip the cup back parallel to the floor.
- Slow down: To form the coffee cup, shake or move the pot to manage the milk flow. Instead of shaking the jar, imagine you’re drawing little strokes on a sheet of paper with modest hand effort. to maintain line spacing. Milk pouring control improves sketching.
- Final Shape: Most designs need milk to “cut” through them. If done incorrectly, this simple action will undo all your work. Therefore, you must do it decisively, drawing a straight line from the milk flow’s present location to the opposite side to achieve symmetry, and raising the pitcher gently to complete but not too high to prevent damage. submerge the drawing in coffee.
Stir The Silky Milk Foam Well For Latte Art:
Latte art requires a very smooth milk froth, which is best achieved by using pasteurized milk and chilling it before whisking. Pasteurized milk is pure cow’s milk and has a high-fat content, so it can be whipped to a smooth, firm texture that Baristas can shape. Pasteurized milk releases protein molecules during milking, preventing foaming.
To whisk milk, put it in a bottle/cup and insert the steam nozzle. Note that the steam hose should only be immersed 1cm. If you observe huge bubbles while pounding, you sank them too deeply and need to rectify them. Before whisking, deflate the steam hose to steam and remove any milk residue.
Before beginning the steam nozzle, the bottle must be upright and the steam nozzle 30 degrees from the milk surface. The steam squeezed by pressure via the steam head openings will force the milk to be whipped to start flowing in a vortex pattern, making a “slick” sound. At this point, you may change the milk bottle to moderate to make additional foam. gas. Stop foaming until the milk in the bottle reaches 140F–180F, when the milk foam layer may develop.
Johnathan Hicks has a background in coffee roasting and brewing. His early years are connected to coffee.Additionally, his family owns a coffee shop. His mission is to dedicate himself to coffee due to this. He never stops learning in order to improve his understanding of coffee.He has participated in several workshops and courses to learn from professionals in the area.The began writing about coffee on his blog around five years ago.He will provide readers of Centralparkwestcafe with numerous engaging articles thanks to his extensive understanding of coffee and other beverages.
