Thanks to Chris for the tips. They are helpful.

Michal - Thanks for the videos. They are very helpful too. Here is another series of videos by World of Latte I like to share. I like the look of thickness/density of the milk they frothed. There are total 10 clips on YouTube. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8...b8&feature=related

Inspiration from a master:

Perrys Karavas' photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perryskaravas/

Perrys Karavas' videos:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=perrys69

Perrys Karavas' on CoffeeGeek
http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/espresso/latteart/244971#244971


And now let's enjoy some etching from Sammy Lin:

Can any one help me with these questions?

1. what makes the "white mark" appears on the surface?
2. From many videos I saw, some people start to pour milk and the "white mark" just appears on the surface automatically, and for some people the white mark appears after they start shaking the pitcher. Can any one explain why? Is the rationale (from a science/physics perspective) behind these two ways any different?

Thanks!

Yen-Chen

Latte art champion Chris Deferio explained it to me this way: Imagine you are dropping a foam ball onto the surface of a lake. If you drop it from 10 feet, what happens? The ball momentarily plunges below the surface and pops back up. What happens if you drop it from 1/10th of an inch above the surface? The ball touches down gently and floats on the surface.

It's the same way with the white mark. If you want to start pouring the pattern, lower the tip of the pitcher until it barely touches the surface and pour gently. You may need to jostle the back of the pitcher for a moment to slosh the lighter microfoam layer to the front.

Thank you, Dan. This explanation is indeed simple and clear. It's very helpful! I guess now the question is back to what proper frothed milk is/should look like, how thick/dense it should be. Today I am going to a coffee house serving coffee with latte art (Taste Coffee House in metro west of Boston), and hope I can finally see the proper frothed milk in person.

Two more cups I made yesterday. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks!



Yen-Chen

I'm very late to this thread, but I wrote a little beginner's guide to latte art a good while back.

It can be found here: http://tx-coffee.com/2007/07/08/a...e-1-latte-art-101/

While it doesn't cover everything, it should get someone started, especially if they've seen it performed but don't have "hands" for it yet.

Yesterday I finally got a chance to see a Barista pouring latte art and ask some questions in a local coffee house (Taste Coffee House). Below are few things I learned to share with whoever is interested.

1. What is proper frothed milk? How thick/dense the milk with micro-foam should be? I have been looking for the answers to these two questions since the first day I started practice. The answer I found yesterday seems to be "as long as it's frothed with micro-foam evenly, it's good to make latte art". (feel free to correct me if I am wrong) As for how thick the frothed milk should be, it depends on what drink we want to make in the end. The frothed milk for latte looked definitely more liquid than the one for cappuccino, but both were poured to create beautiful latte art. The foam on the cappuccino is much thicker than the foam on latte, but again the rosettas were equally beautiful. (I should have taken some pictures... how come I did not think of it... )

2. The wiggle was actually much slower than I thought needs to be. The movement of the barista was quite gentle and slow without any rush. It's more like looking at slow motion compared with many clips from YouTube.

3. According to the guy there, it's important to keep the spout close enough to the coffee to create the white mark, and that's one of the reasons that it's easier to do it with large cups which have more room to operate. This suggestion matches Dan's post about dropping the foam with short distance to keep it stay on the top of coffee.

Yen-Chen

Thank you, Jasonian. I found and read your article through google when I just started in the end of 2008. It's very helpful. Thanks a lot!

I'm glad SOMEONE found it helpful.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad it helped.

My fifth attempt at latte art. Still a long road to travel. But what a thrill it will be!



2 all: thank you for all the links, videos, pictures—I have been visiting this thread quite often and learned a lot.

2 kuoyen: thank you for the additional info. I am also struggling with the proper frothed milk texture. I get it whether too thick, or too liquid.

Another one. It is getting better, but still, a long road ahead.