Pushing latte art designs

#1: Post by **fxroberge** » March 28th, 2023, 6:33 pm

My drink of choice is a cortado, I'm still what I would consider a beginner in terms of latte art. I use not neutral Vero cortado glass, so pretty decent in terms of canvas for a smaller drink.

What I'm struggling with is pushing designs in the cup to be able to stack more.

Any suggestions? Any videos you've watched that helped you improve?

Cheers and happy brewing!

#2: Post by **slybarman** » March 28th, 2023, 7:03 pm

doing it in a cortado seems extra challenging given the very small amount of milk. seems like you would do yourself a favor getting the technique down first in a longer drink like a latte then transferring the skill to a cortado. I'm sure one could learn to do it first in a cortado, but it feels like stacking the deck against you a bit.

March 28th, 2023, 8:18 pm

Could be a bit harder in a cortado, but I don't really enjoy lattes and at the end of the day, this is just an additional activity to coffee. I'd rather learn the hard way while still drinking something I like.

#4: Post by **StoicDude** » March 29th, 2023, 1:14 am

Last picture is a latte with home made cashew milk.
First two are cortado breves.

I'm a bit confused what you mean with "stacking", so I'd appreciate the explanation so that I could help

Here is some of mine in a cup that can take up to 140ml.

Usually my ratios are 40-50g of espresso and then 60-90g of half and half.

Here is some stuff I learned and that helped me.

Use a larger dose of milk than you expect to use. I hate wasting milk so I always run short on my designs.

Milk works better than half and half for latte art for me. Milk has a better "fluidity" and consistency. Half and half is a bit less "flowy" and I'm not able to be as precise with it.
Spouts and pitchers matter. I'd say more the spout than the pitcher actually.

I'll do the first pour to set up the canvas. If you go too much here, you ll run out of room when doing your art. This is a learned process and you might have to do a few pours for this.

I hold the cup qith the handle towards me, in my palm and tilt about 30 degrees towards the pitcher, after the "canvas" pour

Pitcher in opposite hand, goes to as close to the cup as I can and starts pouring. The closer, the better detail I get. While pouring starting tilting cup back so it's parallel to the ground by the time I finish my milk pour.

Not sure if that makes sense, but practice is the only way to go in my opinion.

#5: Post by **slybarman** » March 29th, 2023, 7:32 am

i thought a cortado's milk volume was 1/2 the coffee volume?

ETA: did some googling and 1:1 is apparently common, so my original premise about learning on a Cortado, probably wasn't really accurate. i thought it was a lot less milk.

#6: Post by **duganderson** » August 17th, 2023, 9:21 am

GREAT video...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwAVCpwSImo

#7: Post by **emradguy** » August 18th, 2023, 1:49 pm

Yeah, cortados are definitely harder in terms of pouring art, and it is definitely easier to learn with bigger drinks. But, yeah, you can learn this way. All of the same steaming and pouring principles apply, just on a smaller scale in all regards. I use a 150ml "DailyArt" pitcher I picked up off Amazon. I'm using the same glass as you. Here's a photo of a morning when I made myself twin cortados before work....

#8: Post by **iploya** » August 19th, 2023, 1:30 pm

duganderson wrote:GREAT video...... video

I was going to say Emilee Bryant too. I've noticed her doing this "pushing" a lot, and the above link is a good one. Lance Hedrick also has some key vids on latte art where he talks about pushing the pitcher forward.

#9: Post by **whitehawk** » August 21st, 2023, 2:36 pm

duganderson wrote:GREAT video...... video

I'll second this and highly recommend watching her vids - she goes over a little of the science and does a great job describing and demonstrating technique.