Pour or texture? Where is my latte art failing
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How about uploading a video of you steaming and pouring some art (good or bad)? A video would be worth a thousand words, and might alleviate some conjecture.
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Over stretching or too little texturizing leads to thick foam on the top of your pitcher. It's the thick foam that leads to blobs and lack of finesse. Try stretching less and texturizing more. Do it to the extreme where you can't get any design at all because you've over-compensated towards hot milk. Then start to add a second or two of more stretching. You'll start to see you're able to get more fine designs. Realize though that I'm far from an expert. I still cannot figure out how Dristan can pour such thick white foam with his degree of finesse and control. Truly an art.
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Alex
Home-Barista.com makes me want to buy expensive stuff.
Alex
Home-Barista.com makes me want to buy expensive stuff.
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You might also want to consider temperature. If you're steaming too hot, you might find that the milk separates a little too easily and creates those blobbish masses. I've heard on these forums that latte art competitors steam to really cool temperatures to keep the milk as flexible as possible.
- weebit_nutty
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Well, I'd say your texture needs work but it's certainly not bad as you clearly are able pour something.
Less stretching and more texturing should get you finer milk.
Less stretching and more texturing should get you finer milk.
You're not always right, but when you're right, you're right, right?
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Thanks. I will give the suggestions a try this evening.
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Looks a bit too aerated to me. The trick is that you don't have to aerate as much as you think you do. For my lattes and such I only do about a 2sec or less aeration and use the rest of the time to whirlpooling. You can be a nice whirlpool by tilting you pitcher back maybe 45 degrees and moving the steam wand to about 3o'clock.
Play around with what works best with the amount of holes in your steam wand up. Mine at home is a two so I have to angle it differently then I would at work.
If you want some quick inspiration check out https://www.instagram.com/ben_morrow/ and https://www.instagram.com/figtreecoffee/
Play around with what works best with the amount of holes in your steam wand up. Mine at home is a two so I have to angle it differently then I would at work.
If you want some quick inspiration check out https://www.instagram.com/ben_morrow/ and https://www.instagram.com/figtreecoffee/
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Thanks. Great Instagram suggestions, following now.
Going to practice a bunch this weekend, my results are becoming more predictable and repeatable so making some progress in that respect.
Going to practice a bunch this weekend, my results are becoming more predictable and repeatable so making some progress in that respect.
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You must get a good swirl going with the steam wand in order to incorporate all of that air evenly throughout the milk, a good steam tip helps a lot of with this.. If you've got a beefy enough machine, I recommend the LM steam tip, it has 4 relatively large holes that produce super, super, silky milk.
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Some improvement after last night and this morning, obviously this is about as easy a shape as it gets, its either a heart or garlic, you decide. Smaller tearing sounds and trying to get the tip angle just right to get a good whirlpool is what is working.
Also starting to get a better feel for pouring and just how fluid and "quick" you need to move and pour, in videos it looks so slow and easy but when pouring myself I feel like I go to slow due to lack of experience.
I tried the other steam tip that came with my Rocket r58, it is still a 2 hole but with smaller holes, I actually had worse results with it so I switched back to the original 2 hole.
Also starting to get a better feel for pouring and just how fluid and "quick" you need to move and pour, in videos it looks so slow and easy but when pouring myself I feel like I go to slow due to lack of experience.
I tried the other steam tip that came with my Rocket r58, it is still a 2 hole but with smaller holes, I actually had worse results with it so I switched back to the original 2 hole.