Hi, I'm new to this forum, but I'd like to ask You for an advice. I've been trying to achieve some latte art but when I froth milk, I get nice wet-paint looking microfoam but underneath there's just milk without any air in it. It's weird because before I could get some "nice" latte art - something about a few week before. I use Tchibo cafissimo express. I tried to change the angle of the frother to get better whirlpool, to clean my pitcher without any dish soap, to more stretch the milk, not to overheat milk and I used 2 types of milk. I don't know where is the problem and I don't drink more than one coffee a day so I can't check these things at one time. Maybe I'll try today with dish soap, but isn't it going harm my later milk frothing? I'll pin up my best latte I've done before, so you maybe can see what's wrong. Later I'll send you photos of my unsuccessful lattes. Thanks in advance





*Edit
I may have fount solution of the problem - I did a few tries with the dish soap and I moved tip of frother to point in half of pitcher's radius and the microfoam seemed pretty well. Tomorrow I'll try on milk.

Hi, I've made some progress with latte art. Changing tip position was good idea but there was still normal milk on bottom of the pitcher. Here are the photos

Too foamy on top is what I see in the art, and too milky at the bottom of your pitcher according to what you said. This suggests that when you add air, it may be too long, and after that, it's not getting incorporated vertically. Try stretching shorter and then shooting the steam down one side of the pitcher, across the bottom and up the other side, so you get a vertical wave. This stirs it top to bottom.

If that's the pitcher you are using to pour "latte art" then you will never get there. I'd have an impossible time trying to create anything but a blob without a modern style pitcher

These are are the pitchers I use.

https://www.espressoparts.com/frothing- ... esso-parts

It's hard to tell how well your milk is steamed in pictures. I would try a different pitcher asap.

I've found that temperature is a lot more important to latte art milk than I once thought. Too high and it tends to pop the micro bubbles.

Ellejaycafe wrote:If that's the pitcher you are using to pour "latte art" then you will never get there. I'd have an impossible time trying to create anything but a blob without a modern style pitcher

These are are the pitchers I use.

https://www.espressoparts.com/frothing- ... esso-parts

It's hard to tell how well your milk is steamed in pictures. I would try a different pitcher asap.

I used to believe that until I saw a barista pour beautiful art from a paper cup with a rim that he pinched slightly to form a little spout. I tried it myself and had no trouble at all frothing & pouring from a standard 8 oz paper "hot cup".

I then discovered, after a few years of diligent practice with different pitchers that I was certain were the reason my art wasn't better, that I can now get pretty good results from all of them. I was doing everything too fast and without precision, from steaming to pouring.

It turned out to be me!

Thanks for replies. I've tried to stretch the milk less but it caused much worse effect than before - 1 cm foam on top and milk underneath. Maybe it's problem with my steaming machine. I'm going to try making latte art like that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hywbrms5B1k and I'm going to buy a thermometer and better pitcher in near future.

Have you checked out this thread? Frothing Pitcher: The Significance of Size (on the finished product)

I would guess that it's mostly technique and partly equipment (pitcher, machine's steam capability). With the right technique you can make do with just about anything, as the guy above demonstrated.

Thanks for all the replies, I may found solution of my problem - I used smaller cup and milk was just right to pour. There was some unfrothed milk on the bottom but latte art is possible so it's ok. Now I'm going to buy better pitcher to increase the quality of latte art.