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

Despite steaming with the weakest possible steam (1.1 bar, 1 hole tip) in order to make things go as slowly as possible, the resulting milk is highly dependent on how much time I spend stretching the milk rather than in the "vortex" heating up phase at the end. Even 1-2s difference here seems to make the difference between runny milk that's just milk and trying to make latte art that's more like "cappuccino" art with something that's quite hard to pour.

I've read various suggestions on when to stop stretching but none of them seem that accurate. For example, when the milk jug starts gets above body temperature - but there's just no way I can detect that accurately enough. Or Artisti Coffee roasters give you a time - say 4-6s. But I use milk up over the course of about a week and I think as the milk ages it really needs different stretching time - or at least it feels that way. Finally to make me even more confused, it seems there's stretching and there's stretching - try as I might to get the same paper tearing sound while stretching this for me is not that easy and I'm sure I'm pumping air at a slightly different rate every time.

I wonder if people have some other feedback cues they use to know when enough is enough and it's time to dive in with the wand?

Stretching is more about temperature not time.
Powerful steaming gives less time for stretching than weaker but you get used to it. 140F, too hot for most people to hold, point where the tearing sound gets deeper is when I stop. For a while a thermometer is helpful.

As far as stretching it depends on whether you want to pour latte art or want a cappuccino. Keep the wand lower for latte art micro foam and higher for thick cappuccino foam. It takes practice.

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.

I used to cup the pitcher in my hand and stop when the milk was just hot enough to hold. The micro foam tended to be sluggish on the pour and the espresso got cooled.

I watched a few latte art videos, read a bit and noticed 140F tended to be recognized as the target temperature. 140F was too hot for me to hold so I changed to holding the pitcher from the handle and used the other hand guiding the wand and pitcher to feel for too hot to hold. A thermometer helped to get used to the feel of 140F.

When frothing to 140F the micro foam pour formed faster, smoother and was easier to control. The latte was also tastier at the higher temperature. To keep the milk from scalding I'm careful not to go past 140F for too long.

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.

Pretty sure this is the TLDW of Lance's video on this topic. Stretch until warm, then spin until too hot to hold. More or less.

It always sounds easy in the videos. Just do this and that, and poof, it will work. Let's not forget these guys are world champions for a reason

I wish it was this easy. At past the 6 months mark, I can reasonably steam Barista Carl's Blend drops in water, though I seem to struggle more with getting good microfoam with real milk (2%).

Your mileage may vary on this one... I am starting to listen to changing sound. As the milk stretches, the frequency becomes lower and lower as the milk gains more volume. This is an extra indicator beyond the "warm enough".

Stretch until it looks like paint and then integrate. My stretch is nearly instantaneous the integration a good 20 sec.

The difference of the wand depth is small between thick cappuccino micro foam froth and thinner latte art froth. The wand angle movements to adjust and find the vortex spin are very slight. It's like finding the hand angle and pressure to pare the skin smoothly and with the least amount of waste off an apple. You develop a feel for it and when the once very minute changes that make a difference between coarse and exact become bigger you reach the point where you start to control them. It takes some practical knowledge, practice, focus and experimentation, IMHO.

NewCoffeeGuy1 wrote:Stretch until warm, then spin until too hot to hold. More or less.

+1. The moment you can start to feel the warmth is when it has reached body temp. The moment the pitcher gets uncomfortably hot, it is just right for drinking. How much stretching occurs during that first window depends on wand depth, which is easy to say but harder to perfect (we all struggle with it).