Oh, latte art. How we all love you. I'm pretty sure that Aaron De Lazzer said it best:

Latte art. Proper, micro-bubble sized, pourable foam will allow you to pour latte art. If you don't want to learn how to do this it's because you have never seen it. Once you've seen latte art and tasted the type of milk and coffee needed to pour it, nothing else in you life will matter. You will be on a mission and stop at nothing until you have learned to pour latte art on your drinks.

Thus, my mission begins. Having just become the proud owner of a Le'lit espresso machine, I am going to practice until I can make a gorgeous rosetta - and nothing less than that.

To fellow newbies:
If you're like me, consumed with espresso passion, then you have already read just about every article on the internet concerning milk frothing. I've sorted through countless videos, instructions, pictures, diagrams, anecdotes, examples, and advice in anticipation of the day I could start steaming myself. But there always came a common denominator: "it really just takes practice to get good." How much practice?!?, I always asked myself. Well, we are going to find out together.

To the pros:
There are already some great resources for discussing technique and offering advice. Now I'm not saying that I'm going to turn down a quick tip, but the intent of this post is to document my discovery, not to seek case-by-case analysis. Some of these pours are certainly going to be bad , but more from a lack of experience than a lack of knowledge. I'm learning how to pull good shots, froth milk into micro-foam, and actually pour the art all at once. On a single boiler machine too. Hopefully my consistency and skill at each will improve.

So here's the premise: I'm going to put up pics of every pour I've ever made. The end! In the spirit of Latte Art Challenge[d], and hopefully with some humor, I'm not going to hide any of my failures. I'll even try to post some witty remarks about the sea creatures which will undoubtedly emerge. I'm not going to churn out lattes for practice, I'm just going to take pictures as I make them. Every latte I make will be an attempted rosetta, because those are the coolest. I will try to make the pictures as consistent as possible for comparison purposes, given my medium quality snapshot camera. The cups are actually 10oz, which is a bit big, but they are pretty and I'm using exclusively double shots.

EDIT: this premise might change slightly in later posts.

Okay, full disclosure - I got my machine on Christmas, and in the thrill of shredding wrapping paper and consuming far too much caffeine, I wasn't going to bother taking pictures. I made precisely 5 lattes that day (not all for me!). These were born from the very first times I've EVER pulled a shot or frothed milk. I tried to get a feel for frothing milk, and didn't try any art. You will get to see every other pour, though. Fair enough?

It's entirely possible that this post will quickly become boring to most people. In fact, I'm kinda worried that will happen. So let me know if you enjoyed any of this. I believe that I would have been interested in this as a newbie. Or am interested in this, or, well you get the idea. Hopefully a couple of people will learn about how long it takes to go from an absolute beginner to a latte art winner.

Here we go...

Day 1


PSHYEAH! I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty impressed with myself.


A bit too thick, but better technique.


I liked the consistency of the milk in this one.


SEA MONSTER! yessss.

I feel like I stretched the foam too much on the first two. They had what I would consider a hard-foam that sat on top of the milk in the pitcher because it was too thick to incorporate evenly. This made the pours more like drawing a rosetta.

The third pour had the best consistency. The foam was evenly incorporated in the milk as it poured into the cup. I just didn't get the pouring motion right.

The fourth I didn't stretch enough. That's why the surface didn't have as much definition, and why the foam on top was thin.

Believe it or not, I actually was attempting to go through the spectrum of milk stretching, just to see what was best.

I'm looking forward to seeing the progress, one tip from another newbie latte art pourer: it's a lot easier if you announce what shape you were planning to pour after you finish - It's an onion, or a tulip, the arc de triumph, etc.

TrlstanC wrote:it's a lot easier if you announce what shape you were planning to pour after you finish

I'm a big proponent of espressionist latte art, myself... I let the viewer decide what it is.

It has been suggested to me that this post might be more interesting, and show a clearer development, if I posted pictures that were taken more on a weekly basis. I think that I agree. An average of two lattes a day might just be ridiculous. This would be a change of plans after just one day, however it might be a better idea.

BUT, I am going to post at least a weeks worth of daily lattes, since I believe the improvement curve will be be steep at first as I get my espresso legs. Then I'll explain some sort of new posting system.

Day 2


It looks like a pegasus... but you can almost see some leaves before they got swirled.
The white specks are from big bubbles, inadvertently created whilst steaming


Koala bear. Definitely.

Although the appearance of the drinks wasn't great, I'm claiming success. I was aiming to stretch the milk like my third pour yesterday, and pretty much did so. Both seemed more pourable, though the second was too thin because of a mistake.

The volume of foam (amount of stretching) is related to the rapidity and duration of the ch-ch-ch sound for me. i.e. rapid for a small amount of time can give roughly the same results as sparse for a longer time. However, the latter makes it easier to incorporate the foam evenly... I think.** I'm going to try to stay away from giving or recieving too much advice. Just know that sounds are important indicators.

**EDIT: as long as there is enough time for mixing after stretching.

Matt good luck with your latte art. I have been pouring milk drinks from a decent machine for a couple of years now and they still look like Rorschach tests. I am definitely latte art challenged.

Cheers

Ian

Matt,

If you have time, I'd also appreciate hearing a bit about what you change from pour to pour. Are you stretching more? Less? Paying more attention to sound? I think this could be very helpful to other newcomers as they see how you realize your improvement.

Good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement!

scottfranklin wrote:If you have time, I'd also appreciate hearing a bit about what you change from pour to pour. Are you stretching more? Less? Paying more attention to sound? I think this could be very helpful to other newcomers as they see how you realize your improvement.

Will do. I edited the last two days to offer some tidbits.

Hi,

how long does it take between your pour and taking the photos? It looks like there's too much foam and it's not properly mixed. You get separation while pouring and if you do it slowly you get warm milk going in first and then all the foam at the end which means it's impossible to draw anything. My suggestion would be to inject air less and mix more, or inject the air a bit more radically at the beginning for a few seconds and then mix for a long time to remove any big bubbles.

Regards,
dsc.

I would say it's about 15 seconds after my pour on average when I take the photo.

I certainly understand your point, dsc, and have been varying the stretching vs. mixing time a lot throughout this process. One problem I find is that if I don't manage the boiler cycling correctly during steaming, it changes everything. Getting the milk to separate in the cup rather than the pitcher has been my main problem thus far. Thanks for the advice.

Hi Matt,

how much milk are you steaming? perhaps it's too much for the machine to handle and that's why you can't mix it properly? I tend to steam enough milk per a single drink, which usually is 150ml, in the smallest milk jug.

Regards,
dsc.