LittleCoffee wrote:I'm a year into learning latte art and I still find it pretty hit and miss.

You're not alone, don't worry.

How do you position the wand? I found that 1) inserting it into the milk off-centre for me made a big difference in increasing consistency. Try to get that swirling motion from the start and then feel the pitcher wall with your free hand. Ouch! = stop immediately.
2) tilt the pitcher towards you somewhat while you search for that paper-tearing sound.

Have you considered a 2-hole tip instead of a 1-hole tip? It shortens the window of opportunity and you will heat up the milk faster, but it just might help increase consistency. My machine came with a 2-hole tip and I tried plugging up one hole with a toothpick for practicing, but it didn't work for me. It felt like lack of power, same as when the joystick of my steam wand started sagging midway through the steaming cycle.

It is wildly dependent on the equipment. On my old Breville Barista Express I'd stretch for a good 10-15s. On my GS3 I barely blip a little air in and that is it. The difference with my GS3 is more about how aggressively I aerate much more so than how hot I let it get. As can be seen by my previous posts it took a lot of practice to get it right. Now it is all about the feel. I used a thermometer for a long time but now I just feel it out. Takes time.

Thanks everyone - extremely helpful comments.

I think the key thing coming out of them which was new to me is the idea that the output is far more a function of wand depth than stretch time. And the output is extremely sensitive to wand depth but actually less sensitive to stretch time than I thought. Therefore stretching until it's at body temp is measurable to a reasonable degree of accuracy. But the skill is in learning the feel of how wand depth impacts the result and getting consistent on that front is what takes the skill.

Does anyone disagree?

Yes I'd agree with your assessment... if I kept the wand depth very shallow so large amounts of air was injected and I continued to do that until the pitcher reached body temperature I would have a lot more stretch than if I had a very deep wand depth I would end up with just hot milk and no stretch. Finding the correct wand depth to create the right amount of foam for the drink you're making is the key to this milk texturing puzzle.

As a note: I believe the concept is to do whatever the amount of stretching you want BEFORE the pitcher reaches body temperature not stretch UNTIL it reaches that temp. All of this, of course, is dependent on the power of the machine's steam wand.

beans+crumble wrote: As a note: I believe the concept is to do whatever the amount of stretching you want BEFORE the pitcher reaches body temperature not stretch UNTIL it reaches that temp. All of this, of course, is dependent on the power of the machine's steam wand.

Perfect recap. Body temp is roughly the limit on stretch time. If I stretched hard until body temp on the GS3 then I'd have foam coming over the sides of the milk pitcher.

Dang it I thought I was getting somewhere and then this put me right back at the beginning:

beans+crumble wrote:do whatever the amount of stretching you want BEFORE the pitcher reaches body temperature not stretch UNTIL it reaches that temp

So how do you tell when you have DONE the amount of stretching you want? That was my original question

LittleCoffee wrote:So how do you tell when you have DONE the amount of stretching you want?

By experience. Like many things espresso related, rules are only guidelines that must be varied in practice to suit your desires, your materials (eg, milk) and your equipment.

LittleCoffee wrote:So how do you tell when you have DONE the amount of stretching you want?

The stretching phase is extremely short if you have any sort of steam power. I have a Decent and many complain it doesn't have enough power but at almost the lowest setting the stretching takes literally less than 5 seconds. I stretch until it resembles paint. At that point it is time to integrate and that portion takes another 20 seconds or so.

As an aside, normally I am working with about 100-125ml of milk.

espressoren wrote:I was taught that stretching milk is really only effective until about 100-102°F. When it starts to feel warm on the hand you should stop and just spin the milk from there. Higher power machines will get there quicker but will also stretch much faster in the process. You can obviously continue to make the tearing sounds and blow air into the milk but it won't produce the desired microfoam effectively beyond that temperature.

That might be wrong but it's the way I learned.

This really helped me get back on track, and I'm using Oatley Barista. My technique isn't great, but using this guideline worked equally well on my 1964 La Pavoni Europiccola and my Conti Prestina.