Boldjava wrote:at some point realized I wasn't interested in latte art and just dropped that segment of the cortado prep. Life became easier <grins>>

I came to the same conclusion!. My daily drink is 3 double shots with 3 Tbsp of cold half and half with a touch of simple syrup.

I can see that that would be really handy for a barista that doesn't have an espresso machine at home to practice on.

Also the coffee powder is only used as a marker. Actual coffee, espresso or not, crema or not, is totally non-necessary to create the latte art patterns.

This makes me wonder if the troubles I generally have (milk just staying there and not expanding on top of the coffee) could be due to the fact that there is too much coffee and/or crema compared to milk. Indeed it always goes much better if I almost vigorously mix milk and coffee at the halfway-point of the pour.

(Trying to make latte art in 4-5 oz cortados from doubles might be harder too)

not knowing you at all...and not having seen your milk at all...what you describe sounds to me like your balance of how thick your milk is and the force with which you pour it is off. I.e., thicker milk needs to be poured with greater force than thinner milk. It's largely a matter of buoancy - the more air in the milk, the more likely it is to stay on top during the early part of the pour and not displace crema during the design phase...and yes, learning on small scale drinks is definitely a lot harder.

emradguy wrote:not knowing you at all...and not having seen your milk at all...what you describe sounds to me like your balance of how thick your milk is and the force with which you pour it is off. I.e., thicker milk needs to be poured with greater force than thinner milk. It's largely a matter of buoancy - the more air in the milk, the more likely it is to stay on top during the early part of the pour and not displace crema during the design phase...and yes, learning on small scale drinks is definitely a lot harder.

Thanks for the tips! I'm a newbie indeed, and sometimes I manage to get something close to a heart/rosetta hybrid. But I think my troubles stem from the fact that my milk often ends up a tad too thick, and the small drinks means I don't have much time to see what's happening during the pour. I should buy a couple of 8-oz cap cups to practice, even though I much prefer the cortado milk/coffee ratio.

Though I've been doing this craft for over about 12 years, I'm still a newbie when it comes to pouring art. I took Heather Perry's one day barista class back in 2008 (or was it 2009?). Anyhow, I learned to pour a rosetta but didn't really understand the art so much. A couple of months ago, I hired a pro (John Letoto) to come to my home for 2 hours to teach me about pouring. His instruction was amazing! I learned sooooo very much about what's going on in the frothing pitcher and cup - it's basically simple physics principles related to the amount of air, relative density of steamed milk and espresso, and the shape of your vessels. Of course, milk fat and protein content also plays a role, but it's really how you control the air that is the key to excellent microfoam and pouring art. Good luck!

Thank you for posting the video!