After seeing pro's latte art it seems that with the professional machines they use a lot of milk for doing their latte. I have also heard that some only do art for large latte drinks and skip the art when it comes to cappuccino.

From my experience I noticed that small holes and lower pressure makes it easier to produce good foam as there is more time to "fix" any initial error but with a strong machine and large holes it is a hit/miss (almost always a miss). Two mistakes are to start with the steam tip too deep and the milk gets too hot before it is foamed or the tip is dipped too shallow and that produces large bubbles and there is not enough time to mix them back into the milk.


With all this I have a few question about latte art that bugs me.

What is the minimal amount of milk you would try to froth and get decent latte art?

Does the boiler pressure matter?

What boiler pressure do you use/recommend?

What steam tip do you use/recommend.

Thanks for your help,
Danny

Oh wow...a lot (and not enough) in that post.

The answer to each one of those questions depends on 'where you are' in your journey of learning Latte Art. I have to have a decent amount of whole milk (at the least, I have to be doing milk for a 5-6 oz. cappa). I have seen people do little art pours on a macchiato, and they only steamed enough milk for that (about 1.5-2 oz. of milk, I would estimate).

It depends on your machine, pitcher, what you want to pour, and (most of all) SKILL!

So, what pressure is best? Depends on the tip on your machine.

What tip is best? It depends on your pressure and boiler size.

What is the minimum amount of milk? Depends on your pitcher, boiler size, and tip.


These are all interconnected variables, a give and take. Above all, skill is the most important. If you are just starting. Use the tip you have and whatever the pressure is set at (within reason). Get a straight sided pitcher and go to town. Experience will do more for you than anything else. If you can, get an expert to guide you, if you can't - post videos.

/matt

PS - I don't know why anyone would skip art for a cappa, but do art for a 20 oz guzzler - it would be much more appreciated on the cappa.

Matt pretty well covers it. I have seen some nice little hearts on macchiato's and even a rosetta now and then. I can get decent microfoam from 2 ounces of milk but the steam valve on my machine is easy to regulate so I can cut the steam power down for a small drink, or open it up and blow milk everywhere. That is one of the stand out point in my mind when it comes to my Elektra, variable ball valves, light touch, light steam. Machines with the traditional twist knob valve are more difficult to regulate but can be done.

My latte art is not that good, but I do occasionally manage a decent rosetta in a 6oz cappa.

Sorry I didn't put things into perspective.

The questions are more general for understanding the difference between a consumer machine (i.e. Expobar at 1.3 bar with two small holes) and a pro machine (i.e. GS/3 at 1.5 - 2.0 bar with 3 big holes).
With the consumer machine a small jug and 100 CC milk there is a second chance of mixing the stray bubbles into the milk to get decent texture, but with the more powerful machine it seems that you have 10 seconds flat to make it or break it.

I am looking for opinions.

Although not recent, here is a reasonable sample of what I do (with the Expobar).

the steam tip has to be match to the capacity of the boiler. A large boiler with a large heating element can run a big 4 hole steam tip because of the capacity of the boiler and its ability to rebound. Commercial machines are designed around the constant flow of customers in a busy cafe. You may be pulling two doubles at the same time and frothing milk for two lattes at once. To do that you need massive amounts of steam. Some of the big commercial, high pressure steam boiler machines can whip up a half gallon of milk at a shot. You would never get a small 2oz of milk to steam on one of those monsters, unless you cut the boiler pressure way down and went to a two hole wand.

Home machines are made for the home user (big surprise there). They have smaller boilers and produce less steam. They are geared around making one or two drinks at a time and the boilers are sized and powered to match. If you took your average 1.5L boiler machine and put a 4 hole tip on it you would not get enough steam pressure to do anything. The small boiler and heating element just cannot keep up with the output of that large steam tip.

Most machine come from the manufacturer pretty well balanced. If you have a machine that pumps out too much steam you can drop the boiler pressure or change to a smaller hole steam tip, or even a single hole steam tip. However, if you try putting a larger tip on most machines the performance tanks and you end up with warm flat milk.

So to summaries, I guess I am saying it is easier to reduce the power of a large machine, but much harder to increase the capacity of a small machine. Personally, I go big just for that reason. I have the capacity but may not use it very often. If you go small, your options for pumping up the performance (without jacking your boiler to 2 bar) are limited.

On the giant boiler (14 litre, yes, fourteen, not one point four) two group I have two wands. One has the five hole tip for two lattes or caps that gets the eight to ten ounces for two cappas as a minimum, and the other wand has four of the five holes plugged for a two ounce to six ounce froth. Less than two is too difficult to get anything usable out of, but anything over end ounces is too slow.
OTOH, on the Silvia, I can get twelve ounces frothed on the one-hole tip, but not much more, efficiently or easily, and it will run a three-hole tip fairly easily as well. I don't like the lack of control with a three-hole, but it'll push enough steam through it.
I think that the advice that you adjust what you have with the variables that are easiest to adjust (obviously, boiler size and the amount of milk you want in your drink are going to be the hardest to adjust) and solve the problems that you are faced with as opposed to finding the perfect alignment of planets and only getting it right on that day, is invaluable.
Try what you have, and adjust as necessary. Technique is the easiest thing to change, start there.

Thanks,

It really makes sense that smaller steam output, by means of number of holes or hole size, will work fine with a big boiler. So I checked it out and bingo! First try great velvet milk and nice art (see below).

Since my drink range is from a double espresso to one latte, it seems reasonable to sacrifice the big jug opportunity of powerful steam and go with a smaller tip that will work for my drinks.